Articles

BPMS Watch: Hey You! Get Outta My Pool!

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

One of BPMN’s most important elements is unfortunately also the most misunderstood. It’s called a pool, a rectangular shape that serves as a container for a process. So in that sense a pool is synonymous with a process, and that’s as basic as you can get. The confusion sets in when you understand that a business process diagram (BPD) – the top-level object in BPMN, describing a single end-to-end business process – frequently contains multiple pools.

A Formula to Measure Business Agility

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

This weekend I spent an afternoon sitting in a coffee house in my downtown Chicago neighborhood pondering what it means to be agile and how to measure it. The place was busy but I got lucky and snagged the cushy armchair next to the plate glass window in front that looks out on the sidewalk and the apartment building across the street. Watching the other patrons, looking at the people who pass by, and enjoying that burst of mental energy induced by a fine café-au-lait is often a good way to get inspired and be creative.

Using the Tools of Structure

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Problems worthy of innovation range across the map from seemingly simple ones like the design of low-function objects (think tableware) to complex systems so multifunctional it’s hard even to know where to start. For complex problems, as you might expect, we usually insist on some kind of structure to work from; but for the “simple” ones, we almost never feel the need. Somehow it seems right to innovate within structure for a big problem, but its OK to treat lesser problems as one-shot idea generation exercises.

Reasons for Six Sigma Deployment Failures

Author(s):

Marvin Wurtzel

Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and Principal Consultant, Marvin M. Wurtzel & Associates, Inc.

As a Six Sigma consultant I am often asked: “Have there been any Six Sigma deployments that have failed?” My answer is ambiguous enough to make me sound like a presidential candidate. That answer depends on your definition of the term “failure.” My definition of a failure would be a result that does not deliver the Return On Investment (ROI) anticipated by the company. Using this definition, I am not aware of any company that would admit to failed deployment.

BPM Governance

Author(s):

Andrew Spanyi

Faculty Member, DBizInstitute.org and Managing Director, Spanyi International

Let’s agree on a fundamental principle. Companies create value for customers and shareholders via the effectiveness and efficiency of activities or work which flows across traditional organization boundaries – often referred to as the firm’s cross-functional business processes. In order to optimize and sustain business process improvements it’s essential to overlay some form of governance that creates the right structures, metrics, roles and responsibilities to measure, improve and manage the performance of a firm’s end-to-end business processes.

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of the Business Process Model to Your System Replacement Project

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

The reasons to replace an existing system may be technical in nature such as upgrading the platform or notice that key software will no longer be supported by the vendor. Or, it may be due to changing business conditions and the need to respond quicker in an increasingly more dynamic market and customer demands. In these cases, the decision to replace the system is often accompanied by a mandate that there be no change to the underlying business process.

How Do We Do Requirements?

Author(s):

Larry Goldberg

Managing Partner, Knowledge Partners International LLP

Attending the recent IBM Rational Conference, I listened to some very interesting conversation around the subject of requirements – Rational now has not one, not two but three different “Requirement” tools – its ‘legacy’ product, Requisite Pro, the newly acquired Doors product from Telelogic (now an IBM company) and a newly announced “Requirements Composer”, part of its new software development portal dubbed “Jazz”.

Defining the term “Business Architecture”

Author(s):

Ralph Whittle

Enterprise Business Architect, Independent Consultant

How does one define the term “Business Architecture” (BA)? Before an enterprise undertakes a Business Architecture initiative, it must have a clear understanding of what it is and how it is defined. Perhaps by first parsing the term “Business Architecture,” and then characterizing it as a whole and complete term, one can bring clarity to its definition. And of course, the Business Architecture requires an association and some context with the enterprise as well. This article will offer one perspective on the definition of Business Architecture; hopefully, stimulating

Creating Momentum for Process Change

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

In our consulting work at the Performance Design Lab (PDL), we have frequently talked with clients who describe the following scenario: “Our improvement projects usually seem to get stuck between current and future state. We get the ‘is’ process mapped out okay, but we can’t beyond that.”

The question we always ask is, “Why did you start the project in the first place?” What we find out is that processes often get mapped without any clear purpose, other than to map them.

Improving Government Service by “Building Sidewalks Where People Like To Walk”

Author(s):

Ken Mullins

Senior Principal, MITRE Corporation

A few years ago, a private liberal arts college in Vermont decided to reinforce the image of its campus, which features lots of quads and open spaces, as one that encourages students to do more walking. Concrete walkways were built over existing dirt-paths that the shoes of students and faculty had been shaping and re-shaping for generations. When the renovations were done, the local newspaper reported that fewer students showed up in class thereafter with muddied sneakers, though more of them were walking across the campus, even on rainy days.