Business Process Considerations

Organizations desirous of achieving high-level operational success must come to grips with their operational realities. In developing managerial costing systems, it is important to understand that effective cost management entails much more than cost allocations and that the organization’s internal and external operational realities have a profound impact on resource consumption and thus on its ability to create economic value. As the final literary pillar, the business process analysis aspect complements the systems thinking pillar in that it encourages an integrated view of the organizational activities and complements the cost accounting pillar in that it enables the optimum realization of the true objective of cost management. In consideration of the business operations, initial reflection on defining business processes and the management aspect thereof provides the foundation for the realities of business process modeling. Resultant hereof, it is suggested that a value chain approach may serve as an effective foundation for ensuring key realities, including stakeholders, operations, and resources, are considered in developing the managerial costing system. Some thoughts on the process modeling techniques and approaches conclude the chapter.