Both Value Network Analysis (VNA) and Business Process Management (BPM) have a similar goal – supporting consistent outcomes. BRM achieves consistent outcomes by tightly engineering and controlling tasks, processes and procedures. In BPM the mantra drummed into workers is, “follow the process.” Variation is typically viewed as “a problem.”
However, when processes are non routine or more complicated people begin to work around the process or spontaneously reconfigure their work. In a complex environment people constantly vary their actions and ways of working. It is not only a given - it is desirable! So overengineering work processes or attempting to drive out variation can actually reduce flexibility and even stifle innovation. Yet even in complex work environments we still need to achieve consistent outcomes.
With VNA variation is not a “problem,” – it is viewed as a given, as being completely natural whenever work moves beyond the strictly routine. Variation is the lifeblood of innovation, agility and responsiveness. The value network view helps people work smoothly between the predictable (engineered) world of process and BPM and the variable environments that represent the way most people experience their work. VNA focuses on working with probabilities instead of attempting complete predictability. This is much more appropriate for supporting planning in a non-linear complex adaptive system – such as an organizaiton. It fills the analytic gap between the processes and the org chart.
Where BPM focuses on events and the process, VNA puts people front and center in describing the work activity. People are defined not by their job titles or work unit, but by the roles they play in the activity itself. “Links” between roles (nodes) are transactions, (represented by a one-directional arrow) that occur between two roles. However, instead of describing these as events in a process, they are defined by their deliverables or outputs.
Some deliverables are tangible - those formal, contractual, mandated or “expected” deliverables we provide to generate revenue or funding. (This type of deliverable shows up also in most process flow charts or value stream analysis.) Equally important in VNA, however are “intangible” transactions, defined as those informal, interactions that help build relationships or make the work run smoother. These might be specific kinds of expertise, information, business connections, favors, courtesies and even intangibles such as “recognition.”
With VNA consistent outcomes are achieved by defining and supporting a responsive activity network that can handle whatever is thrown at it. Processes still can be tightly managed for good role execution and along critical flows, but the organic, dynamic interdependencies are best managed by focusing on Roles and deliverables. Value network tools provide a way of managing for consistent outcomes in truly complex activities. | 
