Business 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