Business Process Modeling (BPM) is becoming increasingly popular. Both experts in the field of Information and Communication Technology and in the field of Business Engineering have come to the conclusion that successful re-engineering of the involved systems starts with a thorough understanding of the business processes of an organization. Conceptual modeling of business processes is deployed on a large scale to facilitate various purposes.

This journal (referenced below by Debra D’Agostino) does a good job of pointing out the need for businesses to use business process modeling techniques to gain or remain competitive in today’s business environment. The goal is to reap the benefits of IT automation while remaining open to change. With whichever modeler businesses choose, business analysts will be able to maximize business effectiveness by optimizing existing "as-is" business processes and creating new "to-be" processes that give companies a competitive advantage in today's on demand business environment.

It should be pointed out on the flip side that a business process model must be sufficiently generic to cover a major portion of the enterprises active within the industry in question, otherwise it will either be of little use or there is a need for several models covering separate segments of the industry.

Even though these business models endeavor to inform the industry about best practice, it must not represent the leading edge so far ahead of the average company that it will require much more of an enterprise development job than a process course to put it to use, for example, in terms of technology development, investments in equipment or other resources, etc
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In a nutshell, the model must strike a balance between sufficient complexity to convey the business structure in adequate detail to be useful and sufficient simplicity to be understood by the broad masses of the enterprises and thus be accepted and used. If its quite complex, it might be difficult for inexperienced users to decide which parts to focus on, especially since it rarely is feasible to include every aspect of the model. Hence, it is important to indicate which processes are more important than others.

More importantly it should be noted that it could be difficult to strike a suitable balance when designing such business process models between the desire to include a largest possible number of relevant processes and the need to keep the model relatively simple.

And its also customary for an organization to buy itself into the standard processes prescribed by the model, especially since to some extent, it represents industry best practices, and stick to them, and often stop or at least reduce their efforts to come up with new and more innovative ways of doing things

References:
D’Agostino, D. A Model Student, Modeling tools can help CIOs build in their Company’s Process, CIO insight Vol. 87

Stair R., Reynolds, G. (2006). “Principles of Information Systems, 7th Ed.” Massachusetts: Thomson Course Tech