When introducing anything new in our individual life, in an organization or society at large, we intuitively recognize that that introduction of change must be managed or we will not achieve what we have set out to do. Same applies when we introduce new technology including BPM automation. Very often we establish a change management team. We go through the mechanics of managing change. Why then the implementation of new technology such as BPM often does not deliver the expected benefits? Why the adoption and internalization of the change is sl
Business Analysis Certificate Program Features The Decision Model
REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) is a member owned co-op, selling outdoor recreation & sporting goods, and clothes via some 125 retail stores in about 30 states, catalogs, and the Internet. Charles specializes in requirements facilitation workshops, root cause analysis, detailed functional specifications, data analysis, strategic planning and business case dev
Management Structure for Process Success
One of the end goals of any process-based effort (BPM, LSS, CPI, PBM, etc) should be instilling process thinking throughout the organization – But how do you do it? A key to developing a process-based organization is identifying and implementing a management structure that promotes and supports your process efforts.
Terminology Wars: Coming to Terms with our Terms
Where Did We Go Wrong? Business Architecture initiatives can be quickly derailed by a failure to align on vocabulary. A seemingly minor verbiage problem can hinder adoption, cause confusion, and alienate your audience. Let’s examine the role of terminology, the current state of business architecture terminology, and how to prevent terminology from impeding your initiatives.
Business Use Case Model Highlights Business Architecture Value
A less known but highly essential artifact of business architecture is the business use case model.
A business use case (hereafter referred to as BUC) model is the higher abstraction of the system use case model (or simply, the UC model). In a BUC, business actors with specific business goals interact with other business actors. The BUC is primarily an external view of the business model or area of interest. A system use case diagram, on the other hand, illustrates the domain from an internal point of view.
Process Excellence Success: More Art than Science
Process excellence is becoming an umbrella phrase to describe the set of improvement methods such as Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering, and technology driven BPM with the objective of improving operational performance. There has been a great deal of attention dedicated to the science of deploying each of these various improvement methods. Indeed, these methods of improvement have become increasingly codified and even commoditized. Much less attention has been focused on the art of succeeding with process excellence.
Business Architecture and the End of Linear Thinking
One basic tenet of the Business Architecture (BA) is that it represents the enterprise wide integration of all business processes resulting in the Business Architecture model itself. Perhaps some business and IT professionals place more emphasis on the strategic BPM initiatives, but eventually; all business processes are integrated in the BA. In many cases, the strategic BPM initiatives represent key end-to-end processes or value steams; the building blocks of the enterprise. These building blocks, in a metaphorical sense, are similar to a bill of materials (BOM) fo
Lessons from the Human Brain in Decision Making
I am not a poker player. This is probably wise since my grandfather lost the family farm one night in a poker game. Sadly, as the story goes, he never won it back. This caused me to wonder how he made the decision to bet the farm on a game. Which decision-making mechanisms were at play? Which were flawed? In addition, more likely, which had shut down for the evening?
A Government Flavour to Business Architecture
Most articles written about Business Architecture reflect upon an organisations design within a private sector environment whereby the driving force in deciding the organisations direction is profit and loss. Profitability can more or less be measured by cost of company operations and optimisation of transactional and support activities against revenue generated from customer needs. Other measures such as customer satisfaction, quality, and price of competitor products and services all affect the organisations design, direction, operation and optimisation.
Process Improvement: How to start and the role of the 3-P’s
So you have been through countless meetings and discussions with your peers, managers, executives, and anyone who would be a tad interested in Business Process Management, and how a BPM platform would not only streamline line-of business processes but also improve the overall efficiency of the organization. You tried every possible way to convince people in your organization that “process” is not just about drawing rectangular blocks on a blackboard, or post-it notes on large paper boards, but about the methodology that encapsulates process improvement and the larger gain that such a methodology could provide to the organization in the long run. You discussed how process improvement and management could provide better ROI, increase efficiency and visibility, and improve collaboration; how a BPM system, model-driven framework and Service Oriented Architecture would increase the rate of deployment of business critical processes.