“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is . . . not a benefit.”– William Pollard
In a recent discussion with a colleague, the relevance and effectiveness of Business Architecture artifacts like capability maps, value streams and organizational maps were the topic of discussion. His belief was that these artifacts were just a way to do drawings that document what has been done. I might add that he is a disillusioned Enterprise Architect, as most of the projects he was assigned just needed him to document the project result in TOGAF or DoDAF.
In walking the line on Business Process Management (BPM) analysis and implementation, two valuable and non-technical skills are Experience and Judgment. Learning the latest techniques such as Agile, Lean and Six Sigma are filling the training pipelines. These skills are useful. Still, I recommend a second look at areas which are not currently in the forefront of practitioner popularity.
Decision modeling adds explicit effectiveness metrics to the more generally accepted efficiency metrics generated by business process modeling,giving the full picture to the Executive Suite. Process efficiency measures throughput, costs, error-rates and similar, while process effectiveness measures whether the process is fulfilling its purpose – picking the most profitable customers, for example. Most business process management metrics focus on efficiency measures since effectiveness measures generally depend on the decisioning logic embedded within processes. Explicit decision modeling turns a spotlight on process goals and associated effectiveness metrics. Executive leadership can now balance and trade-off efficiency measures like throughput with effectiveness measures like profitability.
Transformation roadmaps in many businesses tend to have a heavy technology focus, to the point where organizations invest millions of dollars in initiatives with no clear business value. In addition, numerous tactical projects are funded each year with little understanding of how, or even if, they align from a business perspective. Senior management often falls victim to the latest technology buzzwords, while stakeholder value, business issues and strategic considerations take a backseat. When this happens, executives who should be focused on business scenarios to improve stakeholder value fall victim to technology’s promise of the next big thing. This article discusses how executives can leverage business architecture to reclaim their ability to drive a comprehensive transformation strategy and roadmap.
BPM and Lean Six Sigma are not the same, but should they be enemies or partners?
BPM is defined by BPMInstitute.org as:
Business Process Management is the definition, improvement and management of a firm’s end-to-end enterprise business processes in order to achieve three outcomes crucial to a performance-based, customer-driven firm:
Difficult people can disrupt any meeting, and we all know their frequent styles and behaviors from face-to-face meetings. These are people such as the Heavy Talker, the Technical Expert, and the Know It All. Below are some more difficult people that apply in the virtual meeting. (Of course many of these roles apply in the face-to-face meeting as well.)
The Late Comer. You need to have the virtual tool set up at least 15 minutes ahead for a long meeting (over 2 hours) and 10 minutes before for a shorter meeting. Welcome people as they come on. Then at the start time, tell everyone you will start now or wait for 2 more minutes, and then start. When new people come in, welcome them and move along.
When BPM is pursued without pursing Business Decision Management—BDM—in parallel the direct consequence is that decisions become an afterthought in the processes that need them. In contrast, applying BDM techniques and technologies in parallel means that decisions are identified, managed and improved distinct from processes resulting in increased agility, simpler processes and improved consistency.
The risks of failing to manage processes and decisions are:
Agile. Continuous Improvement. The Virtuous Cycle. It’s true – change is necessary, and we all need to get better at adapting to change at an ever-more rapid pace. The increase in the pace of change in today’s world is exponential.
No one wants to get stuck in analysis-paralysis while the competition moves on without us, and there’s nothing wrong with experimentation and trying new things. However, it does sometime seem that changes are made for the wrong reasons, and not driven by pro-active, intentional movement towards goals. We’ve all seen decisions made without the necessary due diligence, and often those are compounded over and over as companies shoot from the hip, reactively trying to fix (or cover) their original mistake.
How many of you have heard the statement “The project failed because we didn’t have good requirements”? I’ve heard it dozens of times. It doesn’t matter whether it’s from seasoned project teams or ad hoc teams. The single biggest reason for project failure is a problem with the requirements. Even with agile processes in place, I see the same things repeated over and over. In doing post-mortems on projects that failed and projects that succeeded I have found some common traits.
Everyone starts here.
You're looking for a way to improve your process improvement skills, but you're not sure where to start.
Earning your Business Process Management Specialist (BPMS) Certificate will give you the competitive advantage you need in today's world. Our courses help you deliver faster and makes projects easier.
Your skills will include building hierarchical process models, using tools to analyze and assess process performance, defining critical process metrics, using best practice principles to redesign processes, developing process improvement project plans, building a center of excellence, and establishing process governance.
The BPMS Certificate is the perfect way to show employers that you are serious about business process management. With in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management, you'll be able to take your business career to the next level.
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