Whether you have a current state process and you want to understand how it differs from a best practice process definition. Or you have similar but different business processes from parts of your organization that need merging to standardize then Combine is the place to start.

Combine will

• Show a process diagram preview of the association between the steps in each process map

• Allow you to change the association between steps

• Associate multiple maps in your process models

• Allow you to create a new process model or add as current/future state transformations

Starting Combine for process models

Combine is available on the File menu in Author. Open your current state process model in Author, and then select File...Combine

When you have selected Combine you are then asked to confirm the second process model you wish to Combine, and this will become your future state process model.

Combine Process Maps

The first screen of Combine will display the details of all of the process maps in your two process models. The individual map names are used to associate the current and future state. If you need to change the association you can by selecting either of the current or future state lists. 

There doesn't need to be the same number of business process maps in the two models. In the example screenshot you can see that in the Future State there are six process maps, but in the current state two process maps did not exist. The model with less process map(s) could be on either the current or future state side. It is also allowed for your two process models to have the same number of process maps, but that not all of the process maps are associated with another one.

Associating Process Steps in Combine

Once you have confirmed the association of the individual process maps you can View the association between process steps for each process map. In the same way that you can change the association between process maps, you can also change the association between process steps. 

1. If you need to review all of the process maps, then click on the All Maps button;

2. If you want to see what the combined process map will look like, click on Diagram Overview;

3. Cancel will end the Combine feature;

4. Once you are happy with the association then you can either Combine the future process maps into the original current state process maps or you can create a new combined process model.

Changing the step association

For each of the steps in the two process maps you are combining we propose the type of association through change and also indicate the confidence in that association. To find out more details about the confidence just hover over the information icon and we'll detail what matches and what doesn't.

From a process modelling perspective the change is the same as used in BusinessOptix's process transformation. If you want to change an association then you can select from Keep, Modify, Drop or Add. 

• Keep - indicates that the step is the same in both current and future state. If you select Keep you will need a process step in both the current and future state.
• Modify - indicates the step exists in both the current and future state, however something about  it differs in the future state. The future state information is assumed to be correct for the future state.
• Drop - means that the step is only found in the current state. If a step from the future state map was associated then the association will be removed and the removed step will be shown as an Add.
• Add - indicates that the step is only found in the future state. In the same way that un-associating a matched step with a Drop, then changing a step to Add will be remove any previously associated current step.

You can switch between the table and diagram view as many times as you require in order to preview your current associations.