Most entrepreneurs understand the meaning of a “Pivot”. A Pivot is a change of direction for the entire organization in order to take advantage (or find) an opportunity that expands the company’s business. A pivot can create an atmosphere of what appears to be total chaos and without proper management, can leave a business slogging along instead of soaring higher. However, by understanding the capabilities of your company, capability maps can make pivots more manageable. A pivot is one of the few times where capabilities may become fluid in order to adapt to the new direction. Business architecture usually assumes that capabilities are relatively stable – not so with a pivot.
The Virtual BPM Facilitator – Part 1
A Facilitator helps participants in a group work together toward the meeting objective by providing a meeting structure, engaging the participants, keeping them focused on the content, and remaining neutral himself. A BPM Facilitator is a person who guides a business process improvement (BPI) project, using the same group process skills and behaviors of a generic facilitator but in the context of BPM. So the BPM facilitator needs to know the BPM Methodology, have a structured method of working with BPI teams, be able to coach a Process Owner, and be able to work with the BPI Project Leader toward the improvement targets of the Process Owner. And the Virtual BPM Facilitator needs to do it virtually – not face to face but using telecommunications by phone, by video conference, by Web Ex, or similar tools. That makes the medium a bit more challenging but it’s the reality of today’s global world.
Smarter Systems: Applying Decision Management
All systems are active participants in business decision making to some degree.
The logic coded into business systems allows a level of ‘smartness’, and this is then amplified by the decision logic used by users – resulting in smart business operations. So, if we want to make the entire business operations smarter, we need to focus on decision making across systems and their users. Business Decision Management seeks to explicitly define and improve operational decisions; and to automate them through targeted deployment of sophisticated decision management technologies like Business Rules Management, Advanced Analytics and Optimization.
Business Architect, Enterprise Architect and Business Transformation
Businesses are under constant challenge to deliver growth and profitability. Business process improvements and other enterprise quality initiatives are vital for the enterprise to do more with less, but they are not sufficient. When businesses feel there is opportunity for transformation, they may engage a business architect. Many organizations do not have the benefit of established architecture processes and architecture governance for the enterprise, which makes the task of the business architect even more difficult. It becomes incumbent on the business architect to educate and navigate stakeholders through architectural aspects of business transformation.
Building a Process Catalog: Final Steps
This is the final article in my series on building a process catalog for the organization in which I work. For reference and context, you can find the first three articles at these links: Building a Process Catalog: The Journey Begins; Building a Process Catalog, The Ongoing Journey; and Building a Process Catalog: Moving Ahead.
As we have wrapped up the calendar year, the Process Catalog that we began last October finally can be completed. Below is a brief recap of the stages we’ve gone through to get the catalog to the current state.
The Role of Decision Modeling in Business Decision Management
Decision Management, Business Decision Management as we call it here at the BPMInstitute.org, is both an approach and a technology stack for automating and improving business decisions.
Critical Success Strategies for New Change Management Leaders
You have been promoted to a new change management position. You’re not sure of how you are going to meet the challenges ahead. All you know is that all eyes are on you and you only have a short time to get your strategies in place and operational. The actions you take will largely determine whether you succeed or fail. You will either move Change Management support forward or lose this opportunity to show its longer term value and yours.
Understanding Business Vocabulary: A Business Architect’s Perspective
During the recent assessment of an organization, the topic of CM popped up as a reoccurring theme when it came to problems being experienced throughout the organization. The one thing that became exceedingly clear was that everyone’s definition for CM was very different. One of the prime roles for any business architect is to make sure they are looking holistically across the organization and that everyone is working from the same vocabulary. This is not the first time I am running into the topic of “CM” as a source of chaos.
Government Transformation Depends On Dynamic Portfolio Management
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
In the 21st century, government transformation initiatives have become increasingly more common, rather than exceptional. Some ambitious public sector initiatives turn out to be at least partially successful, though many others do not. Even when transformation success is declared, the outcome is often plagued by significant limitations that must be dealt with for many years.
Business Architecture: The Real Tie that Binds
By William Ulrich & Jim Rhyne
A recently published article entitled “Business Capability Architecture Is the Tie that Binds All” discussed how to use business capabilities to tie business strategy, enterprise change, and project portfolio prioritization.[i] We concur that strategy, enterprise change, and portfolio management are managed more effectively using business architecture, and agree that capabilities are a component of business architecture However we view the article’s notion of “business capability architecture” as being incomplete. We will discuss why this concept is incomplete and how it can be extended through value mapping.