If you are not modelling data how do you know your processes work?

When people first started to seriously think about designing, modelling and analysing processes they were mostly concerned with manufacturing processes. Today, processes are much less focused on physical tasks. The impact of IT on all businesses has tended to result in more abstract or conceptual processes where people, instead of doing physical tasks, manipulate data.

The surprising thing is that very few of the process models that I come across actual mention data at all! Furthermore, rarely do people test their processes by “walking” test data through them. So my question is:

“If you are not modelling your data how do you know your processes work?”

To learn more about why you should model data and techniques for process testing using data see my column at BPTrends (www.bptrends.com) or download the full article here.

Rob