A central promise of BPMS is that process improvement can be projected and optimized in advance of implementation, using process modeling’s simulation capability. By including simulation analysis, process modeling tools can not only define the structure of the proposed to-be process but project its expected ROI. For that reason, nearly all BPMS offerings today include some form of simulation tool. But are these tools really fulfilling the promise? Not yet, in my view. Let’s look at what they do, and what’s still missing.
First, let’s deconstruct the promise.