I recently have been working on service-oriented architecture (SOA) models for various clients. Doing this, I have noticed that the models are fairly technical and mostly rudimentary.
Articles by: BPMInstitute.org
Embracing Services: SOA Governance
Organizations are often mystified at how to implement Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Leaders yearn to sprinkle magic ‘SOA pixie dust’ on their IT organization and transform design and development processes. But holistic architectures are not created by accident. Best practices are forged through the application of engineering discipline and rigor.
Many Global 2000 companies are not ready to embrace services. The design and development teams must first learn how to properly govern their IT processes.
New Directions in BPMS Technology
Dr. Bruce Silver defines Business Process Management as a better way to think about the business, seeing across functional and organizational lines. The existing structure of most businesses is a vertical stovepipe arrangement, which goes against this kind of thinking. Great benefits can be achieved from the technology through process automation when BPM is employed, particularly with the human tasks involved. This allows for integration and agility within the enterprise. Another benefit is the ability to monitor the process metrics.
Business Process Management – The Modeling Startup Kit
Ever been to the Ikea? Ikea has starter kits for those that are starting a life for themselves away from home. My cousin, an about-to-be-student, headed to the local Ikea and selected furniture, furnishings and kitchen ‘equipment’. At Ikea, as a starter he doesn’t have to figure out what he needs for his kitchen, he can just buy the starter kit and he will have everything to prepare his daily meals: pots, pans, containers, knives, spoons, and more. It is pretty much the same set I had when I started in college.
Business Process Portfolio Management
Bob Curtice, Associate Researcher for the Institute for Process Management, Babson College and Vice President for Performance with Improvement Associates LLC. Bob Curtice is the author of books and articles on database management, systems planning, and process improvement, including “Fundamentals of Process Management” and “Role of the Process Owner”.
Curtice said that cross-functional business processes yield the most important business results. The processes need to be managed end-to-end in order to achieve benefits for the entire organization.
Coupling versus Cohesion…When to Leverage Services
As I’m exposed more to integration projects I’m seeing two patterns of failure, first the ability to recognize the problem itself and thus understand the solution, and selecting the improper enabling technology and products. In other words, people are leveraging services as a point of integration where information is the proper choice, or leveraging information exchange when services interfaces are indicated.
Understanding these concepts is becoming more important as we move into more service-oriented solutions, including SOAs.
BPMS Watch: Bidirectional Interchange: The Next Step in Process Modeling
One of the fundamental promises of BPMS was supposed to be improved business-IT alignment through model-driven implementation. We’re headed in the right direction but the tools and standards don’t completely support it yet.
Managing by Exception
Everybody has a story like this. You are in the supermarket and you choose what you think is the shortest line to check out. You slowly inch forward. Finally, you are next in line. You are almost out of there.
Oops. One of the items in the basket of the person in front of you doesn’t have a price tag.
Case Study: Finding the Best Process for Documenting Business Processes: Counting Accountants at Sears
In 2004, Sears began a series of strategic projects to improve its operational effectiveness. One of the projects was to make process improvements at the Accounting Services Center. Dave Fleer, a Business Process Consultant for Sears, helped the Accounting Services Center improve its processes.
Using Interviews to Document Business Processes
There are many approaches to documenting business processes. These include group and individual interviews, white boarding, reviewing existing documentation, and job shadowing.
Interviewing the people doing the job is an effective method to understanding how a business process is currently done. Whether you are documenting the current state or future state, successful interviews require planning, communication and a high-degree of people skills and intuition. Following are some ways to ensure that your interviews achieve the desired results.
