“How is Business Process Management relevant?” or indeed “Is it relevant?”

I suggested in my last posting that “In essence I believe that BPM allows organisations to ensure that the right person does the right task at the right point in time with the right information”That is all well and good and some would argue that that they, their team, their department or even their entire organisation actually does already ensure that the right person does the right task...etc. etc.

These people often ask therefore;

“How is Business Process Management relevant?” or indeed “Is it relevant?”

Excellent question; because if you read the discussions groups and for instance keep track of industry blogs, it is often hard to discern the why from the how and the ...blah...blah...blah

Such questions indicate to me that many organisations or rather and the owners, managers employees etc. struggle to understand the relevance to them, of this latest industry ‘TLA’.

So Business Process Management...why is it relevant?

BPM I believe is critical in linking an organisations goals and objectives [its reason for existing] with the daily activities the organisation undertakes to achieve these goals and objectives. Sounds obvious but do ‘we’ always relate our day-to-day activities back to our organisations goals and objectives...I am not sure we really do.

All organisations of all types exist to deliver value to their particular stakeholders and this path to delivering such value is that organisations strategy.

The organisation does this via a series of [hopefully] coordinated activities across a number of different functions, teams and departments. That’s a series of processes.

Taking a coordinated view of the performance of these processes can lead to optimum performance. That’s process management.

Process management allows organisations to focus on the processes that create maximise value. That’s execution.

It makes sense to measure the performance of these processes. That’s process analytics.

In addition it also makes sense to seek to optimise these processes so that they satisfy the requirements of the stakeholders. That’s process improvement.

To put it another way...

If we for a moment equate a car to an organisation, we can see that the vehicle’s reason for existing is to take us from A to B as effectively and efficiently as possible.

The fuel system, the electrical system, the engine, the clutch, the gearbox, the steering system etc. can all be equated to business processes that when working together, ensure that the vehicle can achieve its goal of taking us from A to B.

If the motor vehicle manufacturers and the designers and engineers they employ had failed to take a coordinated view of the these different processes, measured the output of each system [process] and sought to optimise the performance of these systems [processes], then we would still be driving our Model T Fords in blissful ignorance!

What has driven motor vehicle design has been a constant striving to deliver improved performance as measured by the stakeholder; ‘us’ – whether that be vehicles that provide greater speed/acceleration, more comfort, improved safety, with lower fuel consumption etc.

To ignore the principles of Business Process Management is I believe to ignore the opportunity to improve the organisations’ ability to achieve its goals and objectives!

What is Business Process Management?

The term Business Process Management (BPM) refers to a series of activities performed by an organisation to optimise its processes i.e. a collection of activities, tasks and documents that create value to the organisation or its customers. The term Workflow, which is often confused with BPM, refers to the movement of tasks or documents through the business process. BPM is a set of tools and services that allow organisations to think and act in a process centric manner.

...blah...blah....blah

So putting aside for a moment this somewhat 'academic' description of BPM, let’s start again and simply answer the question; What is Business Process Management?

An organisation employs a series of business systems and applications to support its operations; 'Products'.

At the same time the 'People'; the organisations employees, customers, suppliers and business partners, seek to interact and utilise these products, in order to meet their personal, team, departmental or corporate objectives.

Over time and often in an unstructured and undocumented manner, a whole series of unofficial, and ad hoc 'Processes' are developed. The processes are often manual, untimely, non-compliant and rely on e-mail, spreadsheet or verbal 'hand-offs' between individuals in the process.

BPM is in short a means by which an organisation can bring order and control to a series of processes that may appear and actually be chaotic.

BPM is a set of tools and services that supports and enhances the interaction between the 'people' and the 'products'. The aim being to ensure that the organisations processes are efficient, effective and focused upon achieving the corporate goals and objectives.

In essence I believe that BPM allows organisations to ensure that the right person does the right task at the right point in time with the right information.

Simple really...