Process automation tends to only focus on managing responsibilities that are involved in the completion of activity.
As a result many business process modelling and execution systems offer very limited support for other kinds of responsibilities that are required and documented in responsibilities assignment matrices (RAM) within existing policies and procedures.
Example Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) using modified RACI model:
This often leads to significant gaps in compliance as only a fraction of the required responsibilities are implemented in the automation systems used to support compliance.
To improve the effectiveness of critical processes that support safety, security, quality, and environmental programs it is necessary to model and automate the entire responsibility assignment matrix.
This may require updating or replacing tools and platforms to those that fully support the management of responsibilities. The requirements for these tools may include:
Representing the entire RACI model along with its variations
Automated mapping to BPMN models to support execution platforms
Implementation mapping for each type of responsibility and their interactions (i.e. RACI)
Support for early and late binding of responsibilities during execution
Audit of design, model, and automation rules to verify compliance
Process automation to be effective needs to consider not only getting the work done but also how the work gets done in compliance with corporate policies and procedures.
