Articles

BPMS Watch: Teaching Elephants to Dance

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

In these tough times, even the most change-resistant organizations are re-examining whether past practice should continue to govern standard operating procedures. Government and airlines, for example, spring to mind. Last week, I saw further evidence of this in delivering a BPMN training class to one of the many Federal agencies involved in financial regulation. I was surprised to find that most in the class were experienced process modelers already. Many had prior BPMN experience, for some including BPMN-based BPM Suites. The processes of greatest interest concerned

What is Scope?

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

“Scope” is an “everybody knows.” And that may be the biggest problem. Consider this example: After reviewing a presentation on a major initiative (tens to hundreds of millions of dollars), one senior executive proclaimed that with scope now established the need was to work specific areas. Another executive, reviewing the very same material, pointed out that it was, of course, clear that scope was still not understood!

BPM, Six Sigma and Simulation for Today’s Tough Business Environment

Author(s):

Marvin Wurtzel

Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and Principal Consultant, Marvin M. Wurtzel & Associates, Inc.

During the 1980s and 1990’s the use of flowcharts began to evolve. Next Business Process Management (BPM) came along to more formalize their use and combine their use with computer systems technology. Also in this timeframe, Six Sigma came into play as a means to improve processes by minimizing variability. Next, Lean six sigma evolved as a further means of reducing waste in processes.

What is the business of Business Architecture?

Author(s):

Drew Guitarte

Enterprise Business Architect, Wells Fargo & Company

Business architecture is about enhancing accountability. A business architect’s job can be compared to what an accountant does for an organization. A management accountant tracks an organization’s performance against a set budget and gleans insights in the process. The accountant shares these insights for management to take action. In the same way, a business architect highlights the traceability of business and IT initiatives against a set of performance targets. The organization’s strategic goals define these success metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Modernizing Legacy Applications for SOA

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

In my last article titled “Strategies for developing a roadmap for your SOA initiative”¹ I discussed laying out a roadmap that shows how to get from the current state to the envisioned future state. One method many companies use when planning their SOA journey is to create a new presentation layer while leaving the legacy backend systems in place. This practice can be called modernizing or rejuvenating legacy systems.

Before we get too far into the discussion, let me state that the end game for SOA should not be to modernize old systems.

BPM: Selecting the Right Tool

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

In my last article I talked about BPM and Software as a Service. As organizations look at SaaS capabilities of a BPM tool, there are many other features and capabilities that must also be taken into account and evaluated prior to making the final selection. Myriad of features available to be evaluated against current investments can make the BPM tool selection a bit challenging.

Business Architecture (BA) and IT Architecture Integration

Author(s):

Ralph Whittle

Enterprise Business Architect, Independent Consultant

The Business Architecture is an integrated component of any Enterprise Architecture (EA) framework. For example, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) has defined a Business Architecture component¹. As an architecture representing some key elements of the enterprise, it has to fit into the overall design of that enterprise. The Business Architecture is not a stand alone nor isolated component, but a fully integrated one in the context of EA.

Utilizing Metrics for Enhanced Execution

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Execution, simply put, is the efficient and timely delivery of planned results. It is always vital in business but never more than in this current economic environment.

Many an organization will “talk” the execution game but they fall far short on the “walk” side of the equation. It’s almost as if it’s an alien concept. I believe the primary reason is that the execution is based upon pure energy – action that is deliberate, focused and consistent. And, unlike planning, execution does not occur in a controlled environment but instead in the real world where events are c

Formal Definition of the Process to be Automated (Second Pillar)

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

“If we want to enter into a scheme of automated process implementation, it is necessary to consider at least the formal definition of the activities, actors, the output and input documents for each activity, the integration levels, the routing rules, etc. of the process to be automated. Formal definition refers to the elaboration of basic documentation for the initial phase of process automation according to the chosen methodology.

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