There are few business professionals today who do not know what Business Process Management is or do not have, at least a general idea of what it’s about. The number of articles and papers being written about BPM has increased at a rapid pace over the past five years to the point one cannot open a business magazine or newsletter without some reference to the tools and technologies that are available to make your organization truly process-centric.
There are few business professionals today who do not know what Business Process Management is or do not have, at least a general idea of what it’s about. The number of articles and papers being written about BPM has increased at a rapid pace over the past five years to the point one cannot open a business magazine or newsletter without some reference to the tools and technologies that are available to make your organization truly process-centric. So now that everyone is talking about it, can we assume that the practice of BPM has become a common, taken-for-granted, and fully institutionalized way of life in the workplace? Do people go to work each day excited at the prospect of finding that next redundant, duplicate or valueless task that can be refined, restructured or even eliminated thereby strengthening and enhancing the value chain and making someone’s job more meaningful? Does the prospect of being the one to find and remove those monotonous, mind-numbing tasks fill our hearts with joy? Sadly, except for those who truly live for the often elusive ‘aha’ moment in their client’s eye, transforming an organization into a process-centric entity is all too often frustrating and even heartbreaking work. Although, an organization may want to experience the benefits of BPM, the road to BPM maturity is not an easy one. Hence, the dilemma.
There have been many success stories told but often the successes are short-lived or focus on only one area of a business. Several years ago I presented a case study at the BrainStorm conference in San Francisco and told the story of an organization that had adopted BPM. This organization identified and modeled its critical business processes and documented them to the work procedure level. It formally incorporated the analysis of the as-is process and the development of the to-be process into its project life cycle as a key deliverable and used the models as a tool for developing test cases. It had even gone so far as to require that requests for new project funding identify which critical business processes would be impacted and what the expected impact would be. I was pleasantly surprised by the audience response which indicated that we had accomplished something that many at the conference were still aspiring to. Sadly, this story does not have a happy ending. While those in middle management were happy to implement the new improved processes within their areas and some were even willing to collaborate with others on some of the more common problem areas and negotiate responsibilities across the functional barriers, senior management support proved to be much more elusive. Eventually, the company merged with another that did not see value in managing business processes other than at the individual work unit level and the BPM strategy and work was abandoned. Unfortunately, from what I’ve observed over the past few years, this was not an isolated case. Introducing BPM to an organization can be difficult, but it is also true that maintaining it may be just as difficult and, possibly, even more so. However, it doesn’t always take such a significant event to undermine and derail business process management in an organization. While cost can be a significant factor, especially if the proposed BPM strategy includes automating processes using a full-function BPMS tool, cost is rarely the real reason for not implementing a successful BPM strategy.
Some of the things that can get in the way of successfully implementing BPM are a(n)
These are just a few of the possible reasons for BPM failing or not getting started in an organization. I’m sure that many of you could easily add to this list based on your own experiences. On the other hand, if you believe that none of these apply to your company, then you’re either working for an incredible organization or, like the ostrich, you aren’t being completely honest with yourself. In either case, you will run into at least one and likely more than one such problem during any effort to adopt BPM within the organization. The only difference between those who will succeed and those who will not, is the willingness to recognize these pitfalls for what they are and the strength to implement the solutions necessary to neutralize their impact on the overall objective.
Sandra Lusk has twenty-five years experience in system and process design and development working with utility, transportation, logistics, insurance and financial organizations in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Wales. She has taught business and computer classes at Algonquin College in Ontario and at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology. As a Senior Business Process Management Consultant, her responsibilities included development of a BPM Governance, training, mentoring and support of business improvement initiatives. A graduate in Computer Science from the University of Regina, she is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Currently President of the Association for Business Process Management Professionals, Portland Chapter, she is also a key contributor to and Maintenance Committee Chair for the ABPMP BPM Common Body of Knowledge.
There are no products in your shopping cart.
0 Items |