Articles

4 Keys to Unlocking Operational Performance

Author(s):

Claye Greene

Managing Director, Technology Blue, Inc.

Operational performance has become widely accepted as a critical success factor for companies across many industries. It is best described as the level at which all business units in an organization work together to achieve core business goals.

There are understandably many articles and texts dedicated to operational performance management. Many companies have created departments and job functions focused on translating the value of business assets into higher performance. However for those who are just beginning the journey there are undoubtedly more questions than answers.

Business Architecture: Status Quo or Game Changer?

Author(s):

William Ulrich

President, TSG, Inc.

We frequently debate the question of who owns business architecture, but this question hides a more fundamental issue that can dramatically impact the value proposition of business architecture. Motivation and intent will ultimately determine if business architecture is a “game changer” or just another management discipline delivering incremental improvements to the status quo.

Organizational Culture to BPM Automation (Pillar Three)

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

“The culture of paper in a business today is still considered important, as a means of support and evidence of any activity carried out within an established process. The change into a culture oriented to the use of information technology is mainly based on the commitment of the end user to live in an environment of automated activities and operational activities within the process where paper is used mainly in necessary control processes.

SOA and Service Management

Author(s):

John Moe

Principal Consultant, J Moe Associates

Within the world of SOA the term service management usually refers to the control and orchestration of the invoked service (web. Business, composite, etc.), usually called SOA governance.

Instituting Change

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

This article may seem at times like a rant. It’s not meant to be. It just deals with the frustration that all of us who innovate in the development of planning processes feel when the most rational, carefully-planned, sure-fire, absolutely-self-evident advanced planning methods fail to stick in an organization!

Being Intelligent with SOA: Using SOA to Lay the Foundation of your Business Intelligence (BI) Initiatives

Author(s):

Sumeet Vij

Assistant Vice President/ Chief Engineer, Alion Science and Technology

SOA purists might scoff at using SOA for integration [1], but for many enterprises, Service Oriented Integration (SOI) remains one of the prime motivations for embarking on the SOA journey. Agreed SOI by itself doesn’t achieve the avowed goals of agility or elimination of redundant IT infrastructure, but it helps the enterprise address real concerns, now. The SOA Manifesto [2] states that Business value is of higher priority over technical strategy; hence easier integration with SOA is a valid goal of a SOA initiative.

Manage the People or Manage the Process?

Author(s):

Shelley Sweet

Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and President, i4 Process

When you are trying to handle a problem, make an improvement, change the culture, or implement a key strategy where do you go first – to manage the people or manage the process?

Consider these four scenarios. Would you approach the situation by managing the people or managing the process? Rate each one against the 5 criteria and think about why you selected the rating. We will come back to these four scenarios at the end at the end of the article and consider them further.

Changing – A Core Business Competency

Author(s):

Daniel Morris

Managing Principle, Wendan Consulting

With the operational problems caused by the current economy and the uncertainty that possible new legislation is causing, the need to change quickly and effectively is greater than ever. Few companies are prepared or capable of rapid, efficient change – especially broad based change.

Putting Business Information Architecture to Work

Author(s):

Jim Rhyne

Principal Consultant, Software Renovation Consulting

In a previous article, we talked about using web semantic technologies such as OWL and SBVR to create conceptual models of a business. In this article, we explore an example of using a Business Information Architecture to solve a business/IT problem. The architecture exercise helped clarify thinking about the possible solution forms and served as a model for the corresponding IT application and data changes.

Can SharePoint 2007 be my Enterprise Business Process Management (BPM) Solution?

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

SharePoint 2007 provides a basic set of business process management (BPM) functionality. Many IT shops and business users who have SharePoint 2007 running in their environment may be wondering what BPM capabilities SharePoint 2007 does have, and how it stacks up to traditional packages that promote themselves as complete BPM solutions.

Most Enterprise BPM solutions are comprised of the following high level components: