PERSPECTIVE...

A Terrace?

A Patio?

Your perspective...your point of view?

I have been following, and at times contributing to a number of discussion groups which have in one way or another been focusing upon the reason for BPM project failure.

In these discussions, I have made the point that each person’s perspective on the project; in terms of its importance, relevance, scope, objectives etc. would have a significant impact on the potential success of that project. “So what!” I hear you say, isn’t that the same for all solution based projects, and to some extent I would agree. I would suggest however that business processes go to the heart of how a business operates, the activities individuals undertake on a daily basis, and ultimately have a major impact on how successful a business or organisation is, in achieving its goals and objectives. Process based projects therefore require executives, management, employees and project/solution partners to understand, that not everyone sees things the same way! Effective change management and hence the success of the project, comes down to understanding and acknowledging the different perspectives people have, and accommodating these differences in the project.

Thank you to David Macdonald for this image.

A portion of Humble Pie for the gentleman in the corner...

I recently commented on an Adam Deane Blog Post focused upon  the topic: BPM Centre of Excellence.

I have subsequently pondered the topic further, discussed it with colleagues and in hindsight I have come to the conclusion that my response was flippant and definitely ill-informed; hence the portion of humble pie I am now consuming.

I carried out an in-depth analysis of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) created by one of my organisations large multi-national clients. The conclusion I have come to is that for this client at least, the CoE gave all stakeholders a platform for discussion and information sharing, which in turn allowed for a greater degree of project ‘buy-in’ from the different groups involved in the project and the CofE. The client is convinced, and having listened to their experiences I too am convinced, that the CoE played a major part in the success of the original project. The CofE continues to deliver value as the client rolls out subsequent project phases.

How may you ask did this CofE contribute so successfully to the project; the internal project manager at the client explained that the CofE acted as the focal point for collaboration of people, teams and technologies, which were therefore focused upon the critical business and project objectives. In addition the client felt that education and training was also enhanced.

I will now put down my knife and fork and move on...

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

Apparently these were the words written on a sign that had hung on Albert Einstein's office wall. Now I am no Albert Einstein and that is self evident from reading my blog posts, but it occurred to me that Albert was on to something.

 Put another way [and I do not know who said this];

 You cannot manage what you cannot Measure!

Five to ten years ago all one could hear and read about was Business Intelligence, Analytics etc. and for some reason that I have been unable to fathom, ‘it’ seemed to have fallen off most people’s radar.

A number of surveys over the last few months however have highlighted the fact that the single highest priority item for senior executives is ANALYTICS; in all its forms and in all areas of the ‘business’.

In an earlier post I made the case for BPM providing the critical link between an organisations goals and objectives [its reason for existing] with the daily activities the organisation undertakes to achieve their specific goals and objectives.

In addition many organisations invest significant effort in measuring the transactions flowing through those processes; spend on X, costs of Y, profit on Z etc. It amazes me however that so many organisations [the largest majority] continue to look in the wrong place for the answers about Analytics.

So where am I going with this? Excellent question!

In numerous conversations with executives and senior management it occurs to me that they significantly under-estimate the importance of process and the view seems to be, that Analytics and Process exist in totally separate worlds; whereas I would argue they are intimately connected.

How can one ever know if a process is working without smart metrics? Or put another way, how can one know if the mechanisms one has put in place to achieve the business goals and objectives are moving us in the right direction, as effectively and efficiently as possible?

I would also ask what the point of a metric is if it does not measure the performance of some aspect of a process, and provide me with intelligence about how to improve it?

I would strongly suggest that an organisation would be well advised to start with a view of the ‘end-to-end’ operational business process and then define the right metrics by asking the right questions. These ‘right’ questions I would suggest would include: 'How would we know if we were being successful? What would be the critical indicator that warns us if we are going off track?’

So simply put I strongly believe and hence advise clients to always connect Analytics to Business Processes; failure to do so I would suggest leaves organisations ‘blind’ when they go ‘off-track’.


AND REMEMBER: Always keep count and always make sure you count what is worth counting!

FDBPM (Faith Driven BPM)

Faith Driven BPM...yet another very entertaining and satirical post from Adam Deane.  His theory on FDBPM is simply brilliant.  It has all the ingredients a of solid theory; it explains the past and present as well as providing all the possible excuses you could possibly want should the BPM initiative fail.  Briefly put Adam's FDBPM  post is based on three highly perceptive observations of human behaviour:
1. I believe it will work.
2. I hope it will work
3. If it didn’t work – it wasn’t me, it was just fate.

I am not sure my colleagues in our BPM/I professional services team here at Professional Advantage would embrace this approach... but having said that, I highly recommend you read this for yourself;  FDBPM – new Standard Business Process Management Methodology

Mobile BPM - so what is the big deal?

I recently presented a seminar series in which I made the point that; if Business Process Management is going to do for PROCESS what Goggle did for information, BPM must be MOBILE and ALWAYS ON.

This point is ably taken-up by my Mr Pieter van Schalkwyk the CEO at eXomin in his XMPro Process Blog. Pieter makes the point that Mobile BPM is fast becoming a necessary component of the BPM tools that end users expect. The continuum of user interfaces extends past the conventional desktop applications that Business Process Management Suites used to deliver. With Gartner predicting that there will be more smartphone users in 2013 that PC users, the expectation to have processes “on demand, anywhere, anyplace” will grow.

May I recommend you review this post and others at the XMPro Process Blog.

NOTE: The BPM team at Professional Advantage can today deliver Mobile BPM solutions to organisations by utilising the XMPro Mobile element of the XMPro BPM suite.

BPM and Workflow; they are one and the same thing, aren't they?

I am often faced with the question from customers and partners alike; “What is the difference Business Process Management and workflow?”
The confusion often arises because misleadingly, these two terms are used interchangeably by individuals in the BPM space that should know better.

In short Business Process Management (BPM) is about managing a business problem whereas workflow is simple a subset of BPM it is an enabler, a technology. BPM uses workflow as one of its key dimensions in order to manage business processes.

These six BPM dimensions include:
• BPM has a human workflow (WF) dimension;
• BPM has a rules engine (RE) dimension;
• BPM has an enterprise application integration (EAI) dimension;
• BPM has a service oriented architecture (SOA) dimension;
• BPM has a content management (CM) dimension; and
• BPM has a business intelligence (BI) dimension.

Additionally a BPM Solution/Suite (BPMS) should allow for the configuration of all of the dimensions from one interface or product suite. A true BPMS such as XMPro provides the ability to create Composite Process Solutions (CPS) with all of these elements from a single toolset.

What are the potential costs of ignoring BPM?

I frequently read blog posts, articles and comments expounding the virtues and benefits of adopting BPM principles and solutions.

I thought that it may be interesting to consider the cost of the status quo or put another way doing nothing!

Pieter van Schalkwyk the CEO of our author partner - eXomin - has published a white paper 6 Hidden Truths to Lost Profit, in which he makes the case that:

• Businesses lose hard-earned profits in high volume transactions through inefficiency, inaccuracy and the costs of rework.

• Businesses lose profit in the supporting processes through poor customer service and quality issues.

• Low frequency processes lose profit through non-compliance, penalties and a lack of transparency.

In short the whitepaper explains six process characteristics that result in profit leakage that in Pieter's opinion need to be considered and addressed.

I do not intent to make this case here, but I strongly recommend that you download and review this document.