In our consulting work at the Performance Design Lab (PDL), we have frequently talked with clients who describe the following scenario: “Our improvement projects usually seem to get stuck between current and future state. We get the ‘is’ process mapped out okay, but we can’t beyond that.”
The question we always ask is, “Why did you start the project in the first place?” What we find out is that processes often get mapped without any clear purpose, other than to map them.
A few years ago, a private liberal arts college in Vermont decided to reinforce the image of its campus, which features lots of quads and open spaces, as one that encourages students to do more walking. Concrete walkways were built over existing dirt-paths that the shoes of students and faculty had been shaping and re-shaping for generations. When the renovations were done, the local newspaper reported that fewer students showed up in class thereafter with muddied sneakers, though more of them were walking across the campus, even on rainy days.
As important as information security is, it seems to be one aspect of SOA that is too often overlooked. Without a well-thought out security plan, a SOA project will introduce critical vulnerabilities to the enterprise, it may require a large amount of time and resources in order to “retrofit” security later, and it may never be deployed at all due to accreditation failure when there are unmet needs related to mandatory security rules and privacy laws.
To the surprise of nearly everyone, OMG’s Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) has emerged as far and away the most important standard in BPM, driven in large part by the BPM Suite vendors who recognize its value as a bridge between business-oriented process modeling and implementation design. Today, for example, BPMSs ranging from Appian, Savvion, and Lombardi to BEA, Oracle, SAP, SoftwareAG, TIBCO, and Vitria layer rely on BPMN-based modeling as the underpinning of their process implementation design.
How do you manage the risk and uncertainty concerning a new process design? Below are five options ranging from low-risk suggestions to ones that imply higher risks.
The least risky option is to role-play, practice, or simulate the new design. To use a military metaphor, you wouldn’t be using live ammunition in this option. A professional football team employs this option (and calls it practice) Monday through Saturday. There’s no risk in role-playing, practice, or simulation.
Are your software implementation efforts woefully behind? Are your development schedules constantly being compromised by increased demands from other business units?
In theory, computing capacity should be like water, if you need more just leave the tap running a little longer. All manner of virtualization, grid and attached processing technologies are being developed and deployed in an effort the make this theory a reality. Therefore it would be easy to assume that capacity management would not be an issue for SOA. Just deploy the services and SOA infrastructure on your tap water computing power with a few automation policies and capacity management ceases to be an issue.
What a lovely fantasy.
The real world, unfortunately, does not work that way.
In Part 1 we discussed using business rules and analytics in the context of Business Decision Management to automate and improve operational business decisions. There are many ways to bring business rules and analytics to play in information systems and they can be used to improve business processes, Business Decision Management is emerging an extremely productive and effective method.
The Federal Enterprise Architecture provides a platform for cross-agency collaboration and a discipline to guide IT investments, helping the federal government achieve its goals. BPMInstitute.org talked to Richard Burk, chief architect in the Office of Management and Budget, about the initiative.
In March, Michael zur Muehlen of Stevens Institute of Technology and Jan Recker of Queensland University published an article based on their analysis of BPMN diagrams collected in the wild, as it were, from consultants and practitioners.
Everyone starts here.
You're looking for a way to improve your process improvement skills, but you're not sure where to start.
Earning your Business Process Management Specialist (BPMS) Certificate will give you the competitive advantage you need in today's world. Our courses help you deliver faster and makes projects easier.
Your skills will include building hierarchical process models, using tools to analyze and assess process performance, defining critical process metrics, using best practice principles to redesign processes, developing process improvement project plans, building a center of excellence, and establishing process governance.
The BPMS Certificate is the perfect way to show employers that you are serious about business process management. With in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management, you'll be able to take your business career to the next level.
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