What every Enterprise Architect should know about BPM and Workflow
Posted by: Michael zur Muehlen in BPM, PresentationBusiness Process Management has the potential to transform organizations into more nimble, agile entities, that leverage both human and technology capital effectively. But very often BPM efforts are marred by an emphasis on technology, drawing diagrams, or creating the 57th architectural framework within the enterprise. I was given the opportunity to talk about some issues that Enterprise Architects should keep in mind when approaching the topic of Business Process Management.
Some of the key points are:
- BPM is not primarily about technology, modeling, or architecture, its purpose is to improve business. If you cannot demonstrate the business value of a BPM effort, go back to the drawing board.
- Processes are a perspective on organizations, but by virtue of representing a particular view of organizations they abstract from reality and do not cover all aspects of a complex socio-technical system. Don’t confuse the map with the territory.
- BPM efforts need structure and methodology. You need a structure to guide efforts at different levels of abstraction (separating the what from the how), i.e. a level framework. You need a structure to navigate among the processes of your organization, i.e. a process architecture. And you need a methodology to retain and leverage what you have learned about managing and conducting BPM projects (which is different from just saying “we use BPMN”).
- To mature BPM efforts you can focus on Governance structure, Culture, or Tools & Methodology. Don’t try to improve everything at once, but review the most important aspect for your organization before you branch out.
I have given several variations of this talk in the past, and it has evolved into a fairly comprehensive overview of the organizational, technical, and governance issues surrounding BPM. The presentation below was given at the Forum des Acteurs du Numérique in Paris, France. I’d love to hear your feedback.
Tags: enterprise architecture, frameworks, Maturity, process architecture
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October 10th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Very insightful. cannot stress enough… this definitely is something “what every Enterprise Architect should know about BPM and Workflow”. Wonder if you have some slide notes that you could share. Thanks
December 29th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
OK, I agree in the main with Sabarish, except for the discovery bit - not because you are wrong, but because it is actually badly performed. This is the bit where 41% is the largest, but is almost static in its size of the project.
If you had a manufacturing processes and 41% was in one area, you would have your team all over it to try and improve on it. If you are just going to leave it to the analysts to do - if you want to take this down to sub 10% THEN get the business users properly involved.
And what I mean is get them using a proper business user BPMN tool like BluePrint or Process Master
You can not do BPM be having the project energy coming from IT or just Analysts - if you want a project that will win, then you have to have users involved. And by equal measure, if you want Enterprise Architects to play a part, then either of the two products above will allow them to be a proper part of and influence on any BPM project
April 21st, 2008 at 1:41 am
Loved the presentation!
Mind if we use it on our website? With all credits to you, of course!