Don't children ask the best questions...? AND Push you for a real answer!

In my last post I recalled a conversation with my wife about what I do for a living, and specifically what does all the jargon we use, actually mean.

Now it has come down to me being interrogated by my ever inquisitive children; "What do you actually do dad?"

This got me thinking about summing up what I do, comprehensively but succinctly, and I turned first to the summary I have on my LinkedIn page which of course will give my children the answer they seek...won't it?

"I work with organisations to help them define business requirements, simplify the complexities and deliver end-to-end process solutions with measurable business returns and critically build long-lasting relationships based upon tangible benefits derived by all parties in the relationship." 

...I guess not, after reading this I am not sure I understand what I actually do.

One of the distinct advantages of working for an Australian company is that my antependium colleagues often have a very useful knack of cutting through all the ‘BS’ and get to the point very quickly.

Upon speaking to my colleagues we came up with the following summary:

I [we] deliver innovation solutions to very painful [process] problems.

Is it that simple? I guess so…

I am off to re-write my LinkedIn page and update our website.

PEOPLE, processes and products...

When it comes to BPM I hear a lot about SOA, XML, Web 2.0, EAI, BPMN, ECM...and after a while I am sure all one hears is blah, blah, blah, because this is only technology [apologies to the technologists amongst you]. 

Process may be well conceived, designed and built and the technology may well be great, but the one factor I hear very little mention of in all the BPM ‘chatter’, is the word PEOPLE. I would strongly suggest that the absolute key to a BPM project's success is understanding, appreciating and considering the very people involved in the process.  

It is all well and good to say consider the people...but how?

I would suggest there are a number of practical ways to achieve this:

• Understand how each person in the process operates e.g. how does he or she measure their own success as a part of the process and measure the success of the entire process if that is appropriate to them.

• Involve each a person with a direct [and indirect?] interest, involvement, or investment in the process that will therefore be affected by the process change.

• Ensure that the interface for each user or group of users, is appropriate to their circumstances and requirements; MS Outlook, browser, mobile etc. as well as how the process success is to be measured for or by them; reporting and analytics.

As a vendor of BPM and P2P solutions, we have had an application in our portfolio [for many years now] called 3P, which delivers additional workflow capabilities beyond standard industry P2P requirements. 

Why 3P I hear you ask...? 3P stands for People, Processes, Products.

The reason PEOPLE comes first in the list, is that it is people beyond everything else that we consider as being critical to any and all BPM projects. In addition when we say PEOPLE, we not only include employees, management, directors and shareholders; but also suppliers, partners, advisors and clients.

We [the team at Professional Advantage] believe that a lot of BPM projects fall short of delivering on their promises, because the implementation project fails to correctly predict the impact of PEOPLE issues...and this is not a mistake we make.