Contributed by:David Hamme, Managing Director,
Ephesus Consulting
Historically process improvement efforts centered on improving quality, reducing costs, or increasing throughput. The success of these efforts elevated the process discipline to become a standard approach to improve the operations of companies around the world. But there are other targets of process improvement beyond simply efficiency gains. Arguably the facet of process-based improvement that has been least utilized is its use as a tool for understanding strategy. As companies seek to implement new strategies they often struggle to align their resources to the new direction. A common complaint from leadership teams is that their organization lacks the ability to execute. Here is the next frontier of process improvement – as a tool to strategically recalibrate a company.
BPM suites add value but are often monolithic systems that take a high level of knowledge and training to implement and use, causing upfront disruption that can adversely affect the business. This also makes these systems slow to make an impact and difficult to use for one-off needs – creating challenges for companies that need quick results.
Organizations need agile platforms that are faster to market and provide deeper value. To this end, business process application suites provide flexible solutions that support your full range of BPM needs, including top-down initiatives, smart process applications, and the need for rapid app development platforms that can be used by IT and business users alike.
Contributed by:Shelley Sweet, Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and President,
i4 Process
Do you know how each process is performing right now in your organization? And if you’ve improved a particular process do you know if you achieved the level of improvement you wanted? It’s necessary to quantify data to be able to answer these two questions and provide objective ways to measure process and level of change.
So if you’re working on a single business process improvement project or many processes across the enterprise, you need a measurement system. But how do you build one that is comprehensive, efficient and effective?
Where do you start? You have to start from where you are, so the Process Maturity Framework can help identify where on the continuum your organization is. The first graphic below shows the five levels of the CMMI Process Maturity Framework, with descriptors at each level.
The Four Agreements You Need to Have a Successful Process Mapping Session
Process mapping is a group exercise in which teams of subject matter experts (SMEs) gather to determine how work gets done. Step-by-step diagrams are drawn to document the who, what, when and how a business task is performed. Teams utilize process mapping as a way of finding opportunities for improvement, increasing transparency between groups, and understanding the roles of systems in processes.
This workshop will give participants hands-on exposure to Business Process Management with the Oracle BPM Suite and will show how Oracle BPM Suite can be used across each phase of the BPM lifecycle to achieve continuous process improvement.
This workshop will demonstrate process modeling, process improvement, process implementation, process interaction and process monitoring using a government specific use-case of construction/building permit processing across various roles and systems.
Presenter Bios
Quality processes are central to the success of any large organization, and all business units should play by the same rules. While this is certainly true, each department is bound to have unique requirements which is why a one-size-fits-all approach to business processes doesn't work. This white paper uses the example of one department that typically considers itself the exception to business process standardization, the legal department. Readers will learn how solid business processes enabled this department to improve its work involving customer transactions and its effort to make business units more successful.
Contributed by:Shelley Sweet, Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and President,
i4 Process
Project Manager is a common term in business these days. On the simplest level, a Project Manager can be an individual in charge of a plan that was developed on a ‘cocktail napkin’ or simple spreadsheet. For a more complex project, the Project Manager can be an employee in the Project (or Program) Management Office, be certified in Project Management by passing the rigorous PMI test, create sophisticated work breakdown schedules using software and manage enterprise projects from beginning to end for the organization. The kind of Project Manager I am talking about has responsibilities like the second type above, but may not always work on enterprise projects; instead he might work on medium or large projects as well.
Contributed by:Gagan Saxena, VP Consulting & Principal Consultant,
Decisions Management Solutions
Even though Decision Management technologies are built upon agile development principles, implementation projects frequently get bogged down in traditional approaches. Let us embark on a journey in the hopes of Finding Agile in those murky waters.
Decision Management Technologies are Center Stage
Most of the new advances in technology are aimed at making the systems more intelligent by having them do more knowledge work. These collection of technologies are the Decision Management technologies - that includes business rules, analytics and optimization. Since decision-making is amongst the most fluid aspects of an organization and the logical place to plug knowledge in, all related technologies are experiencing a surge in demand.
Contributed by:Andrew Spanyi, Faculty Member, DBizInstitute.org and Managing Director,
Spanyi International
The proliferation of process improvement methods over the past decade has become problematic. The range of process improvement methods now includes BPM, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Operational Excellence (OpX), Process Excellence (PEX), Reengineering (BPR) and several older techniques such as the theory of constraints (TOC) which are still in use in some organizations.
As process improvement professionals develop increasing skill in a selected improvement method, they are inclined to think and communicate that their method is better than alternative approaches to process improvement. Executives seeking to improve operational performance are sometimes confused about the similarities and differences between various methods and feel that they “have to choose a side.”
At a recent client meeting, the Chief Architect arrived a few minutes late, clearly upset. When asked what was bothering him, he muttered “Governance is a four letter word”. I am sure that many readers have shared that sentiment at some time, but it needn’t be that way.
Organizations who have adopted BPM as their platform for IT development have an opportunity to both simplify and improve their IT Governance and Compliance processes. All of the advantages which BPM brings to your core business processes are just as applicable to IT Governance.
