presentation management bpa

Educational Partners: BPA + MBA Research

BPA is a sponsor of MBA Research National Business Administration Standards , available free of charge to all local and state programs.

MBA Research instructional tools, particularly lesson modules (LAPs) and the Learning Center , provide strong support for students preparing to compete in BPA competitive events, with the exception of those focused solely on technology.

NOTE: All BPA Advisors in member states are eligible for member pricing on all products and services. MBA Research representatives are frequent exhibitors at the national BPA conference.

Business Professionals of America is the premier CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) for students pursuing careers in business management, information technology, finance, office administration, health administration and other related career fields.

The  Mission  of Business Professionals of America is to develop and empower student leaders to discover their passion and change the world by creating unmatched opportunities in learning, professional growth and service.

The  Vision Statement of Business Professionals of America is: To be an innovator in Career and Technical Education, providing our members with opportunities for growth through education, competition, community service and personal development.

Use MBA Research Resources for BPA Success

Not sure where to start? We can help.

1. Lesson modules for in-depth learning

Help students master each competency in their chosen event with lesson modules (LAPs) . Each includes engaging readings, activities, test items, ethical dilemmas, discussion guides, and much more. Teacher tip: Use the LAP glossary to help students with business terminology.

Get access to over 300 lesson modules in the Learning Center or purchase modules individually via direct download on our web store .

2. Resource suggestions from BPA Advisors

Teachers tell us that using MBA Research resources has helped their students succeed at BPA competitions.

3. Practice quizzes for each event

Use the test item bank in the Learning Center to quiz students on the competencies covered in an event. Learn how to create quizzes .

4. Think fast!

Thinking on your feet is critical in competition. Help students get comfortable with quickly analyzing a situation and voicing an educated conclusion using our Gray Zone ethical dilemma scenarios. These are available on the State’s Connection portal at no cost to educators who teach in member states. Don’t teach in a member state? We often include Gray Zone scenarios in our weekly newsletter .

5. Teamwork, communications, and collaboration

Help students develop professional skills using free lesson modules available courtesy of the Daniels Fund . Each one builds skills students need to excel in college, career, and competition.

Suggested Resources for BPA Events

For teachers of our High School of Business™ program, these events and supporting resources are suggested.

100 Fundamental Accounting – ​ Accounting LAPs 145 Banking & Finance – Financial Analysis/Management LAPs 165 Personal Financial Management – Personal Finance course guide and LAPs 190 Financial Math & Analysis Concepts – Financial Analysis/Management LAPs 220 Basic Office Systems and Procedures – Communication Skills , Employability Skills , Interpersonal Skills , Leadership , Professional Development , Workplace Ready 225 Advanced Office Systems and Procedures – Communication Skills , Employability Skills , Interpersonal Skills , Leadership , Professional Development , Workplace Ready 265 Business Law & Ethics – Ethics LAPs 290 Admin Support Concepts – Communication Skills , Employability Skills , Interpersonal Skills , Leadership , Professional Development , Workplace Ready 591 Management, Marketing, & Human Resource Concepts – Management , Marketing , and Human Resources 593 Project Management Concepts – Project Management LAPs

Presentation Events for HSB Students

V01 Virtual Multimedia & Promotion Individual/V02 Team – Depending on the topic, this can correlate well with the entire HSB curriculum V08 Start-Up Enterprise Team – Correlates well with HSB Business Strategies course 50 Financial Analyst Team – Correlates well with HSB Principles of Finance course. Note that timing is an issue if you teach this course second semester because BPA Regional Competition is December and January. 155 Economic Research Individual/160 Economic Research Team – Correlates well with HSB Principles of Business and Economics courses 165 Personal Financial Management – Correlates well with HSB Wealth Management and Finance courses and LAP modules 500 Global Marketing Team – Correlates well with HSB Marketing course 505 Entrepreneurship – Correlates well with the entire HSB curriculum 510 Small Business Management Team – Correlates well with the entire HSB curriculum 535 Human Resource Management – Correlates well with HSB Management course 555 Presentation Management Individual – Depending on the topic, this can correlate well with the entire HSB curriculum 560 Presentation Management Team – Depending on the topic, this can correlate well with the entire HSB curriculum

BPA Competitive Event Crosswalks

Each of the following crosswalks was created by MBA Research to support you and your students in preparing for BPA competition. The crosswalks list the competencies addressed in the BPA high school and middle school competitive events, along with performance indicators from the National Standards for Business Administration that align with each competency. The crosswalks also identify any Learning Activity Packages (LAPs) that are available to assist your students in preparing for competition. All LAPs can be accessed online through the Learning Center . To purchase individual titles, please visit our online store .

• Virtual Competitive Events
• Finance (100’s)
• Business Administration (200’s)
• Management Information Systems (300’s)
• Digital Communication and Design (400’s)
• Management, Marketing, and Communication (500’s)
• Middle Level Events

For further information on our BPA resources, contact MBA Research today.

Business process analysis (BPA) is an approach to analyzing business operation processes. It is a detailed, multi-step examination of each part of a process to identify what is working well in your current process, what needs to be improved and how any necessary improvements can best be made. There are different business process analysis methods, but all apply the underlying principle that optimized systems generate better overall business results. 

Common desired outcomes of BPA are greater cost savings, increased revenue and better business engagement. For instance, you might use BPA to analyze customer engagement and where there are downturns, blocks or unexpectedly low conversions. Business process analysis can also reveal what in your business operations or policies creates low employee engagement.

There might be a little confusion about the difference between business process analysis (BPA) and business analysis (BA). These are related areas of business process management but are not the same. BPA focuses on specific process analysis and business process modeling. BA, on the other hand, is applied to the greater business operation landscape. BA focuses on the analysis of other areas, such as financial forecasting, cost analysis, budgets, hiring and cuts. 

The overarching benefit of business process analysis (BPA) is optimized, daily functionality across your business operations that strategically aligns with your business goals and decision making. 

For SME businesses, BPA can create the following improvements:

• Increase efficiency in existing processes:  BPA increases time-to-value for product applications. It also lowers time in operational cycles for workflows, such as employee onboarding and customer or patient in-take processes.
• Reveal capacity issues:  In any process, resources can be limited. BPA identifies where the capacity limit lies, how it affects the process and how to improve it. This is a strong consideration for scaling. For instance, digital tools and platforms you currently use may limit current organizational needs and  workflows . BPA can help you identify changes you need to make that are specifically aligned to your organization’s growth.
• Clarify policies and rules:  As organizations move to  more remote work and greater adoption of digital devices  (link resides outside ibm.com), a common misalignment exists in security and device usage. The analysis can identify a path for faster IT approval processes and uniformity in security policy enforcement.
• Create better governance practices:   Risk management is increasing as a priority for businesses  (link resides outside ibm.com). Compliance is a costly endeavor for organizations to maintain, and it is even more costly to address when issues arise. Business process analysis can reveal where compliance measures have faltered. For example, your organization may be out of compliance in the frequency you audit application security measures. BPA can set an improvement plan in place that considers resources and compliance needs to ensure a process can be executed — and sustained. 
• Identify cost savings:  BPA reveals redundancies in tasks and labor. Organizations that have moved to digital document workflows are a good example how reduced human error and time in searching for documents creates cost savings.
• Solve for bottlenecks:  Bottlenecks occur when channels for communication, development and execution are siloed. A business process analysis can expose communication gaps and resolve approval process obstructions.
• Optimize deployment and release processes:  Efficient processes create smoother releases and deployments.
• Improve integration and adoption processes:  Similarly, adopting new technology across an enterprise or department is a monumental process. BPA sets processes in place that can include useful training programs and workflow visuals that support higher adoption rates.
• Strengthen company culture:  A better process in any area is a housecleaning of sorts. The improvements breathe new life into employee experience on a daily basis. The result is better morale and better engagement for internal processes. For customers, optimized processes — such as a better website or customer service experience — increases engagement and positive perception of your business. 

There are two predominant philosophies that guide business process analysis (BPA) methodology: 

• Six Sigma approach
• Lean Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a five- to seven-step methodology that most businesses today use to analyze efficiencies and restraints. Lean Six Sigma differs slightly in that it is a combination of the Six Sigma approach and Lean philosophy. It’s a collaborative approach that focuses on eliminating tasks and resources that don’t provide defined value.

You’ll gain a sense of how a business process analysis is executed when you consider the detailed-nature intrinsic to every step.

In general, BPA follows this structure:

• Define:  Start by identifying the processes you want to analyze. Typically, these are where you see problems first. Process analysis can start with (and also include) process diagrams for each step. Analysts begin with as-is processes and look at formal and informal processes, such as documented processes and processes specific to an organization’s culture.
• Measure:  Next, review how the process functions against defined metrics. This step is also at the root of helping to create improved KPI metrics. If those are well-defined first, a business will measure processes against the KPIs. KPIs include efficiency versus effectiveness indicators, quality, productivity, profitability and value indicators. They also include competitive and capacity indicators. For instance, customer engagement workflows might be measured by quality and effectiveness versus efficiency metrics.
• Analyze:  There are several types of analysis techniques, and each one serves a different purpose. Business process analysts might run a value analysis, a gap analysis or root cause analysis (RCA). These are extensive analytical methods that each include their own set of steps. A gap analysis reveals what’s missing in the process. A value analysis conveys what is of value within the process — and what is waste, as a result. A root cause analysis applies certain “why” questions and methods that help you to work backward to the root cause of the problem in a process. 
• Improve:  Business process managers collaborate with analysts to create and execute plans that improve problem areas. Improvements may mean re-mapping a process, increasing resources or shifting communication approaches and channels. Again, this can be a detailed step that can apply a variety of improvement methods.
• Control:  After such a significant analysis, controlling the new standards and processes is the final step. Decision-makers can use the analysis to then manage resources, responsibilities, hiring processes, IT, administrative and executive processes. Stakeholders also monitor these changes and set time markers for future analysis.

If you’ve recently adopted new technology that’s being underutilized, or if you have recurring turnover in one area of your business, business process analysis (BPA) is a useful tool to uncover the reasons for these outcomes and then to set process improvements in place. 

Your business goals determine where and how you implement business process analysis. Organizations that value employee and company-wide problem-solving and process improvement as a core part of their culture set a foundation for better morale, lower turnover and better customer experience. So, whether you apply business process analysis tools informally, or you formally audit processes quarterly or annually, it should be a fundamental part of your business function.

Business process analysis begins with analyzing as-is processes. Business process mapping is a common tool used in BPA. It is an important visual resource and document to draw upon for your analysis. Using the documentation and insights gained from the analysis, your organization can then create a business process improvement plan. Business improvement plans will typically generate new business process models, using flowcharts, with improved process flows.

Keep in mind, business process analysis relates solely to your business operation processes. It is not the method of analyzing areas of business that aren’t specifically process-related. Process analysis in business is its own defined discipline. It is a guide for optimizing every operational area of your business.

Examples of BPA include the following:

• Reviewing employee on-boarding to align with business culture and better engagement.
• Analyzing marketing processes to reconcile whether metrics and paths align with key performance indicators (KPI), such as how well customers are converting or how many qualified leads are engaging with your business.
• Uncovering where inefficiencies exist in technology adoption processes.

In process analysis, analysts use diagrams to define input and output points, tasks sequences and what processes are sub-processes nested under main processes.

Analysts also use software to map and create workflows. This includes software that automates business process analysis (BPA) and enables organizations to apply end-to-end process modeling to map when a process starts and determine when it ends.

Process modeling and process mapping tools are integral to BPA. Organizations use  business process model notation  (BPMN) diagramming and supplier, input, process, output, customer (SIPOC) model diagramming as two workflow solutions for better operations. These visual tools are an excellent way to show changes in a process. They can be used as a “before and after” visual guide to train employees, for instance, or to map every process improvement back to your key business goals. 

You might be wondering at this point, who in an organization is responsible for BPA, given roles, resources and skill sets?

Certainly, resources can be limited for SMEs. Working with an outside business analyst consultant might be the most viable route.

At the enterprise level, businesses employ business process analysts and process architects to perform business process analysis. These are different terms for similar roles. Both of these roles might work with business architects or work with executives and division leads. 

In addition, business process analysis relies on the expertise of subject matter experts. These might include a number of employees, stakeholders and consultants, such as analysts, data scientists, quants, IT, administrators and employees who are closely aligned to a process. 

Currently,  hyperautomation  is considered one of the highest priorities across enterprise businesses. Gartner has forecasted that  the industry will reach USD 600 billion by 2022  (link resides outside ibm.com). Hyperautomation steadily decreases the amount of human intervention for a fully automated, responsive process — or a smart process.

Your organization may want to consider specific questions to move toward automated processes: 

• What key areas do you seek to automate and why?
• Are there more common manual errors or misapplied policies? 
• Where are there costly and high-volume processes? 
• Has the organization determined obvious process problems? 
• What creates customer dissatisfaction?

Business process analysis (BPA) can help your organization create a documented, mapped path to integrating automated processes and moving toward a goal of hyperautomation. As an example, moving from a hybrid to fully automated customer chatbot support is one way service centers lower costs and optimize customer support with hyperautomation.

How do SMEs best apply business process analysis (BPA) to start?

First, target mission-critical processes with the highest business impact. Then, consider mapping a process for automation. 

Next, standardize automation documentation — as well as process documentation — across departments and your organization.

For instance, IT can use BPA to map the process for software security protocols for various roles, which enables your organization to better manage onboarding and scaling as a result.

IBM provides process templates for project-based process analysis that are based on BPMN diagramming. Process mapping is integral to an optimal automation strategy.

Learn how  IBM Business Automation workflows  enable your business to mine process data to gain critical insights and automate digital workflows on-premises or in the cloud.

Download IBM Process Management for Dummies as a resource to learn the basics of process management to drive competitive practices and processes.