Articles

Business Process Management – The Design Phase

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Recently somebody asked me what some of the key reasons of failure are for new teams adopting Business Process Management or SCOR. The number one risk is obvious: lack of sponsorship. A close second however is the inability to prove the value (of the team). One of the biggest start-up problems is the focus on getting a project started – get busy. That’s really when the clock starts ticking for proving your value (Now the company is actually spending money on your great idea). Many (start-up) teams have problems getting beyond the analysis phase of a project.

SOA Governance

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

SOA needs to be grounded in reality of making money, reducing costs and managing change. These are business imperatives. Left unchecked, SOA can become an exercise in doing very clever technical stuff for no business gain. SOA governance helps to guide IT resources to where they can be best applied. It can also help to identify areas of utility where costs can be minimised.

Ideally, it should be planned for and baked into SOA from the start.

A SOA-based Business Rules Approach: Decision Services

Author(s):

Larry Goldberg

Managing Partner, Knowledge Partners International LLP

We have spoken often of the necessity of separating business rules from business process. For those new to business rules, consider two points:

Aligning Organizational Performance

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Alan Ramias is a Partner of the Performance Design Lab (PDL). He has had 25 years of experience in performance improvement and organization effectiveness.

Alan Ramias is a Partner of the Performance Design Lab (PDL). He has had 25 years of experience in performance improvement and organization effectiveness. Alan joined The Rummler-Brache Group in 1991 and led major successful performance improvement engagements within Fortune 500 companies. Upon leaving RBG, Alan founded his own consulting company, where he continues to practice in the field of performance consulting. He is also involved in several organizational restructuring initiatives in the U.S. and Asia.

Ramias maintains that achieving organizational results depends on two things: measuring the right processes for performance feedback, and managers knowing what to do with the feedback they receive.

BPMS Watch: Learning to “Do” BPM

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Recent research by Professor Yvonne Antonucci of Widener University turned up an amazing finding. Her survey of 146 companies involved in BPM attempted to answer the question, “Is there a gap between current and needed process skills in organizations today?” What she found was a whopping 54% of companies said they wanted to send employees to external BPM training but were “unable to find appropriate training mainly because they did not know what training was needed.”

BPA Can Reduce Cost and Complexity

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Though related, business process automation is not business process management, which is designed to coordinate workflow among IT systems and humans.

Business-Driven SOA

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

We hear about “Business Driven SOA” so much that it’s almost a cliché. And, like most clichés, we don’t really know what it means. If SOA is not that well understood, making it business driven is even more elusive. In this article, I’ll describe what business driven SOA is, and illustrate this with an example.

First, let’s start with what it’s not. It’s not web services. From the business perspective, we don’t care what technology is used to implement SOA. We can expand on this principle and say it’s not an SOA platform or product suite (sorry vendors).

Best Practices in Business Process Management

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Watson says the most important thing in running a BPM pilot is to find and develop measurable results and benefits you can use. The pilot needs to directly address cycle times, unit costs, or some other meaningful information that justifies running the pilot program.

There are a number of elements to the application strategy for BPM projects. The most critical element is the current state assessment. This should not include staff functions, which have little customer impact. Large impact opportunities should be targeted, along with opportunities that are easy to prove.

Can Six Sigma and Business Process Management Co-Exist?

Author(s):

Marvin Wurtzel

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

One of the most powerful ways to improve business performance is combining business process management (BPM) strategies with Six Sigma strategies. BPM strategies emphasize process improvements and automation to drive performance, while Six Sigma uses statistical analysis to drive quality improvements. The two strategies are not mutually exclusive, however, and some savvy companies have discovered that combining BPM and Six Sigma can create dramatic results.

After Requirements: Is the BA Done?

Author(s):

BPMInstitute.org

Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

What is the role, if any, of the Business Analyst (BA), once the requirements are done? What happens after weeks or months have been spent eliciting and analyzing requirements for the project? Documents are finished; reviews are completed; approvals are recorded; the requirements are “done”. But, is the BA done? Not if you want high quality, cost-effective solutions.