ISDS 2001 – STUDY GUIDE for Final Exam – Chapters 3 and 6
Objectives: After completing Chapter 3, you should know:
1. that BPM encompasses a core set of processes, including financial and operational planning, consolidation and reporting, modeling, analysis, and monitoring of KPIs, linked to organizational strategy
2. that BPM helps organizations translate a unified set of objectives into plans, monitor execution, and deliver critical insight to improve financial and operational performance
3. that BPM refers to the business processes, methodologies, metrics, and technologies used by enterprises to measure, monitor, and manage business performance
4. that BPM is an enterprise wide strategy that seeks to prevent organizations from optimizing local business at the expense of overall corporate performance; concentrates on enterprise-wide view.
5. that BPM = BI (monitor and analyze) + Planning (a unified solution)
6. understand that the closed-loop process (the BPM cycle) links strategy to execution in order to optimize business performance
Using a closed-loop process to optimize business performance implies that four process steps are implemented: * Strategize - setting goals and objectives. Where do we want to go? * Plan - establishing initiatives and plans to achieve those goals. How do we get there? * Monitor – overseeing actual performance and comparing that to the goals and objectives. How are we doing? * Act and Adjust – taking corrective action. What do we need to do differently?

7. that the four steps of the closed-looped process are: (1) Strategize, (2) Plan, (3) Monitor, (4) Act and Adjust
8. that Strategize asks the question, Where Do We Want to Go? It requires setting goals and objectives
9. that Plan asks the question, How Do We Get There? It requires establishing initiatives and plans to achieve those