---
title: BPM Lifecycle
type: concept
tags: [bpm, lifecycle, methodology, hub]
sources: ["[[sources/2018-dumas-fundamentals-of-bpm]]", "[[sources/2021-vombrocke-context-aware-bpm-camas]]"]
created: 2026-04-13
updated: 2026-04-15
---

# BPM Lifecycle

The canonical six-phase model organising the discipline of BPM ([[sources/2018-dumas-fundamentals-of-bpm]], §1.4). A hub concept — nearly every BPM paper in this wiki locates its contribution relative to one or more phases.

## The six phases

1. **Process Identification** — designate which processes exist in the organisation and which deserve attention (→ process architecture + portfolio). Covered in ch. 2.
2. **Process Discovery** — elicit the current-state (as-is) process model from reality. Covered in ch. 5.
3. **Process Analysis** — identify and quantify issues with the as-is process:
   - **Qualitative** analysis (value-added, waste, stakeholder, root-cause) — ch. 6.
   - **Quantitative** analysis (flow analysis, queueing, simulation) — ch. 7.
4. **Process Redesign** — design the future-state (to-be) process. Covered in ch. 8; trade-offs per [[concepts/devils-quadrangle]].
5. **Process Implementation** — execute the redesigned process via organisational change + IT deployment (BPMS, executable models). Ch. 9–10.
6. **Process Monitoring & Controlling** — observe the deployed process and detect deviations via [[methods/process-mining-basics|process mining]]. Ch. 11.

Cycles back to identification/discovery as issues emerge.

## Cross-cutting themes
- **Strategic alignment** (ch. 12) overlays the entire cycle.
- **Governance, methods, IT, people, culture** — the other five success factors of [[concepts/bpm-maturity]].

## Relation to APM
[[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]] cites the BPM lifecycle as the context within which framing must operate — a frame's *"lifecycle management"* creates, suspends, or destroys agents as the process evolves. [[concepts/self-modification]] (adaptation + evolution) is essentially an agentic analogue to lifecycle iteration.

## Alternative formulation
Rosemann & vom Brocke (2015) recast the lifecycle in five stages: **design · implementation · monitoring · improvement & innovation · project & program management** — used as one dimension of the [[sources/2021-vombrocke-context-aware-bpm-camas|CAMAS]] Classification Framework. The mapping to Dumas's six-phase version is approximate (CAMAS folds identification into project/program management and analysis into design/improvement).

## Related
[[concepts/business-process]] · [[concepts/process-architecture]] · [[concepts/process-discovery]] · [[concepts/devils-quadrangle]] · [[concepts/process-aware-information-system]] · [[concepts/context-aware-bpm]]