The role of decisions in intelligent processes

Wrapping up, the key to intelligent processes is treating decisions as peers. Decisions may require a human but an intelligent process will automate those that can be automated. Even when a decision cannot be completely automated an intelligent process will load share between automated components and users. Even when a case exceeds the ability of the system to make decisions automatically, an intelligent process continues to make any decisions it can make.

• By identifying and managing decisions explicitly, an intelligent process increases flexibility and becomes more dynamic because it is often decisions that must change.
• Explicitly managing and improving decisions allows for new ways to assemble and use standard process components, making for more adaptive processes.
• Separate decisions, managed using business rules, are an essential component in transparency.
• Making micro decisions, decisions about a single transaction, earlier in processes makes processes more citizen- or consumer-centric.

Only by treating decisions and processes as peers can truly intelligent processes be delivered, so:

1. Discover and model decisions, not just processes, so you understand what decision-making you need
2. Use business rules to build independent, agile decision services that make decisions for your processes
3. Invest in ongoing analysis of results, continuously improving the decisions you make

For too long organizations have made a false choice between highly scalable, automated processes that don’t handle complexity or variability and flexible but manual processes that are over-reliant on human intervention. A focus on decisions and processes resolves this dilemma, allowing organizations to focus on their customers, or their citizens, and deliver a new generation of intelligent processes.

You can get more on this topic at our webinar on Decision-Centric, Intelligent Processes with Mark Mastop of Blueriq on September 18th at 10am Eastern/16:00 CET. I also wrote a white paper that is available on the Blueriq resources page.