Business processes exist for only one reason – to conduct business. As enterprises grow, business processes, consisting of a combination of automated and manual steps, become very difficult to repeat consistently and scale rapidly. It is therefore no surprise that so much of today’s Business Process Management consideration and effort is centered on automation and technology.
While technology today is indeed ubiquitous, most business processes continue to be driven and executed by human beings. It is therefore critical to consider human factors and include a change management component (including communications, training, etc.) as a part of an effective approach to BPM.
To be successful, BPM should be implemented incrementally in phases. The five phases of BPM include:
- Process modeling and analysis
- Process optimization
- Process implementation and/or update
- Process deployment (that may include change management)
- Process tracking and management.
In many organizations, BPM is started out on a grand scale, including attempts to document all the processes in the organization before proceeding to the next phase. Such approaches typically result in frustration and failure. As BPM efforts inevitably become huge (given the large number of processes in an organization), an “analysis-paralysis” syndrome often sets in, resulting in a lack of immediate business benefits and organization-wide frustration with the whole exercise. A better approach that may demonstrate quicker business benefits would be to consider one simple process and “BPM-ize” it through all five phases.
Finally, it is also important to remember that BPM itself is a means to an end, used in organizations to achieve a variety of business goals, including cost savings, improved customer service, better governance, etc. Whatever the goals may be, the role of BPM needs to be framed in the context of a bigger picture. That bigger picture is the discipline of Business Transformation. Business Transformation is how a business actively adapts to meet the needs of its customers and an ever-changing business climate.
When one looks at Business Transformation as a discipline, there are three primary aspects:
- Analysis
- Design and Operations
- Governance
“Analysis,” involves the modeling and understanding of how the business is currently operating.
The “Design and Operations” aspect involves the managing the operational aspects of running the business and making the business more effective and efficient.
The “Governance” aspect involves the measures and metrics to monitor the organization’s performance.
Within the larger context of Business Transformation, BPM can be considered as a tool that helps primarily in the “Design and Operations” phase, with some overlap in the “Analysis,” and “Governance” aspects.
