If you don’t get off to the right start with a BPM Project, there are all kinds of consequences such as:
Do you notice any built-in contradiction in the title of this article? A naïve approach to Continuous Improvement (CI) would be to attempt to benchmark Toyota, and just do what they do. That would be OK if: 1) You make automobiles, and 2) You have fifty years of Toyota management experience. Without those advantages, you would do best to consider a modified strategy.
It’s not easy to change, and usually not fruitful to change precipitously. An anecdote from an unnamed country, several wars ago, decided to mechanize the cavalry. An inspector, reviewing the prototype of the new battalion, marveled in the shiny new personnel carriers and tanks. However, he then noticed two soldiers standing off to the side, apparently doing nothing. When he inquired, he was told: “They are there to hold the horses.”
Two of my biggest passions are business architecture and participating in endurance events like an Ironman® or an ultramarathon. Having excelled in both over the years taught me a few lessons. At the end of the day, every business architect’s goal to improve decision-making and accountability for business outcomes is not much different from an endurance athlete’s goal to win. I even coined the term “endurance architect” to aptly describe what I do. In my opinion, an endurance architect is someone who can bring the lessons from the playing field to the boardroom and vice versa to achieve sustainable profitability and/or self-actualization. How do we achieve these lofty goals? Let me start with the nuances of strategy and outline the steps of achieving success through strategic co-alignment, with examples from an endurance architect’s point of view.
What is strategy?
Not quite! I can’t tell you how many companies I have worked with who announced we have modeled all the current state process or say we want to begin by modeling all their As Is processes. And they ask, can you help us with that? There is nothing wrong with modeling processes, but it takes a long time and it doesn’t produce improvements. Modeling processes is just one of the first steps. I suggest modeling the processes you want to improve and do them in groups of three or one by one. Then analyze each and improve them to see business results.
So if you’ve only done the process diagramming, what do you need to do next? Look at the roadmap below showing the phases of a BPM/ process improvement project.
By now, it is fairly well known that the root causes of excessive costs and errors, of delays and inflexibility, are related to the non value added handoffs across organizational boundaries. In most companies, work is fragmented across multiple departments, product lines and business units. No one has end-to-end ownership of the flow of work or responsibility for flawless service to the customer. In such environments, redundant activities and duplication of effort is common, errors are frequent, and overall responsiveness to customers’ needs is elusive. The key to resolving these issues is to take action on redesigning customer touching end-to-end processes and then install a governance framework which assures cross departmental collaboration, encourages different units to work together for value creation, and makes the changes stick.
This article highlights the importance that system integration capabilities should play when selecting a BPMS. Integration is often the largest challenges in transforming business processes and can often present one of the most difficult barriers to delivering rapid success.
Few business processes live out their life within a single system. Consider the example of winning a new customer, on-boarding them, delivering a service and gaining payment. It is not uncommon to find the following systems involved in supporting these processes:
How does a Business Architecture (BA) team determine the value streams for their enterprise? Is there a suitable reference available in the public domain of the Web for the team to analyze? Many are familiar with and frequently use the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) and its Process Classification Framework (PCF), but does something comparable to the APQC-PCF[1] exist which is organized around value streams by industry? Sadly, the answer is “no.” So what approach should the BA team take and how will they determine the value streams for their enterprise?
Orchestration-Driven Development (ODD) represents a direct evolution of Object-Orientation (OO), with the emergence of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) as its catalyst. The philosophy behind ODD is relatively simple: a business application should be a direct translation of the business process it supports. Build your process model first, then derive your application components from this process, re-using existing components where possible. Seems pretty straightforward, right? You would think adoption of such a philosophy would be far more widespread. And perhaps it would be, except for modern software engineering conventions getting in the way.
Figure 1 Orchestration-Driven Development (ODD)
BPMInstitute.org defines Business Process Management (BPM) as 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: 1) clarity on strategic direction, 2) alignment of the firm’s resources, and 3) increased discipline in daily operations.
Traditional methods of performance management focus on department & functional unit performance. BPM focuses on the management and continuous improvement of cross functional processes. This involves continuous monitoring, evaluation, measurement and process innovation. These cross-functional processes must be clearly defined and documented. Process performance objectives in terms of time, quality, cost and productivity must be defined. Process teams and process owners must be established.
In this modern era of business, business architecture as a discrete discipline of business management, has gained substantial traction. Business architecture approaches and methods are evolving and maturing rapidly. Capability maps, which establish a comprehensive view of “what” a business does from a consistent, non-redundant and well-defined perspective, are now a part of the foundational aspects of business architecture. Established business enterprises realize that capability maps are critical for strategic planning and business transformation. During a capability mapping exercise, business architects sometimes don’t give due importance to the significant financial aspects or considerations of an operational business model. Business architecture and capability models are not immune to financial constraints, nor should they be handcuffed by them.
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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