Articles

Business Process, Business Rules and the Agile Enterprise

Author(s):

Tom DeBevoise

Co-Author of The Microguide to Process Modeling in BPMN 2.0, www.tomdebevoise.com

Business Process Management and Business Rules Approaches (BPM/BR) are agility technologies. Yet, for most early adopters they are the last step in inoculating agility into an organization. First business, government and non-profit organizations must identify and recognize a challenge arising from changes in demand, missions and charters. Next the challenge must be incorporated into a project portfolio then lastly carried out.

The ‘A’ in SOA is for Architecture

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Are you confused about the term service-oriented architecture? Is the lack of a formal definition of SOA causing governance issues within your organization? You’re not alone.

An Innovation Discipline Model

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Chicago-based Doblin, Inc. is an internationally recognized innovation strategy firm. Doblin’s staff is composed primarily of business strategists, cultural anthropologists, contextual researchers, design planners and information designers. Doblin is well known for its proprietary innovation landscape diagnostic tool, which is used to identify patterns of innovation within an industry. This article explores Doblin’s approach to treating innovation as a repeatable business discipline.

Viewing SOA from Various Perspectives

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Often when I start discussing SOA, a story comes to my mind that I first heard from my grand father when I was kid. It is about six blind men who encounter an elephant for the first time in their life. They perceive the animal differently and start fighting amongst themselves. One who touched its tail thought it was a snake, another who got hold of his trunk thought it to be a tree branch, the third, bumping against his rigid body, thought it was a wall while the fourth, getting hold of his legs, thought it to be a log of wood and so on.

Case Study: The Value of Transforming Your Business to a Process-driven Enterprise

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Unisen is a leading provider of Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology Outsourcing to the Canadian fund industry. Unisen services about 47% of the mutual fund companies in Canada. There are over 1.3 million calls into the call center and the company administers $40 billion of AUA for institutional and offshore clients. Unisen process almost 5 million investor statements representing 15 million pages of output.

The scope of services Unisen provides for information technology includes:

Can the Business Rule?

Author(s):

Barbara von Halle

Managing Partner & Founder, Knowledge Partners International LLP

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,

but the one most responsive to change,” said Charles Darwin.

EA, BPM and SOA Convergence

Author(s):

Ralph Whittle

Enterprise Business Architect, Independent Consultant

Many strategic initiatives today are focused on Enterprise Architecture (EA) development, Business Process Management (BPM) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) development. In support of these important activities are numerous approaches, techniques, tools and experienced consultants. You can also find a wealth of information on the web and in various industry newsletters and publications. Let us take a look at what is common and shared between these essential initiatives.

Build your SOA: Maturity and Methodology, Part III

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Introduction

Typical SOA initiatives can potentially suffer from one or more of the following problems:

High complexity and short time to market, leading to an increased risk of failure

Low tolerance for failure because of high costs and difficulty quantifying return on investment (ROI) associated with the SOA project

Dynamic requirements and business needs that need proper management

You need an adaptable software methodology — a systematic approach to the way software is developed — that can provide rigid controls and processes during the initial SOA rollout b

What Makes a Process Slow?

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Every organization believes there is additional speed that can be squeezed from its core processes. Are all processes then inherently slower than they should be? If so, what slows a process down?

There are many reasons in which a process will perform slower than it could. Here are some of the key reasons I have observed over a number of years that will put the brakes on a process:

Handoffs

Handoffs between departments in an organization have a significant impact on process performance.