Articles

What is a Process?

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

For years my partners and I at the Performance Design Lab have defined a business process as “a sequence of steps or tasks that produce a valued output”, or words to that effect. Every definition of process I have seen in the books and articles written by others use pretty much the same verbiage. Nothing wrong with the definition – it does describe what a process consists of – but it does nothing to indicate some of the key principles of process design, nor does it do more than hint at why processes are so important (i.e., “valued output”).

So we have come to modify our definition

Questioning Innovation

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

A dictionary definition of innovation is “introducing something new.” But these days, with the rise of the buzzword “innovation” in the business literature, you’d be led to think that innovation itself is something new. Let’s see if we can net out what’s new about innovation by asking a few questions about this hot business topic.

What’s New About New?

Here we go again with yet another hype curve, the Innovation Hype Curve. Why all the newfound interest in innovation? In short, globalization.

Getting Started is Hard to Do

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

At this point, the business benefits of business process management seem clear. Virtually every sector of society, including areas that seem relatively impervious to dramatic change, such as higher education and government, are becoming much more outcome-oriented....

Governance is Key to BPM Success

Author(s):

Andrew Spanyi

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

If all you want to do is execute a one-time improvement to a small business process then governance issues may not be high on your agenda. But if you wish to fully leverage the power of BPM and apply the key principles and practices to your company’s large business processes, you will soon discover that governance is the cornerstone to sustainable BPM success.

Seven Deadly Sins of Business Rules

Author(s):

Larry Goldberg

Managing Partner, Knowledge Partners International LLP

“According to CIO magazine, up to 71 percent of IT project failures are caused by an ineffective requirements process.”

Business Rules are the orphan child of the requirements process, and our failure to address this issue continues to contribute significantly to IT failure.

What follows are seven deadly sins that continue to relegate rules to a second class status. We discuss the root cause of the problem, and postulate on potential solutions.

#1: Business rules are captured during design, if at all.

Business Architecture: Driving the Services Portfolio

Author(s):

Geoffrey Balmes

Business Architect Executive, Independent Consultant

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) looks and sounds very technical. “Architecture” most certainly sounds very specialized. Anything “-Oriented” ranks right up there with “framework” as being steeped in mystery. And what’s a “Service?” It took the business community long enough to figure out what a process was. Now we’re supposed to know what a service is! No wonder SOA has been and still is an IT-driven initiative.

But should it be? IT is certainly involved; someone has to establish the infrastructure. However, should IT decide what services to develop and when?

Expanding SOA Throughout the Enterprise

Author(s):

Tom Dwyer

Editorial Director and current Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org

How are the business and IT environments changing to meet the challenges of today’s fast-paced global business landscape? They are both striving to become more agile. IT is being focused more on increasing profits, revenues and efficiency than just reducing costs. The business is examining ways to improve customer satisfaction and competitive advantage by collaborating throughout the value chain to deliver more innovative and competitive products and services.

BPMS Watch: Step Up Your Modeling Game With Subprocesses

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

One of the most powerful features of BPMN is the least appreciated… by modelers and tool vendors alike. I’m talking about subprocesses. Most of the process models I have seen would be much improved if they were used more liberally, and more effectively.

In BPMN, a process is viewed as a flow of activities, and an activity – a rectangle in the diagram – can signify only one of two things: a task, meaning it has no subparts of interest to the model, or a subprocess, meaning the activity has subparts of significance to the model.

Defining the Nature and Role of the BPM Professional

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

As I attend and present at industry BPM conferences, I often survey the participants, asking them to raise their hands if they are from IT departments. Generally, about 30 to 45 percent of the hands go up. I then ask people to raise their hands if they are from the...

Business Process Management – If You Have a Hammer

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

As a trainer and advocate of standard process languages and standards for metrics I frequently talk to companies that don’t do classic manufacturing; services providers like banks, insurance companies, software companies, etc. Their observation is that they like the value of the standard reference models (SCOR¹, CCOR and DCOR) but they are too manufacturing oriented: “We buy and sell DIY hardware and tools, we don’t make them” and “we provide banking services, we don’t make or ship money”.