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Capability Maps: Value of Financial Perspective
In this modern era of business, business architecture as a discrete discipline of business management, has gained substantial traction. Business architecture approaches and methods are evolving and maturing rapidly. Capability maps, which establish a comprehensive view of “what” a business does from a consistent, non-redundant and well-defined perspective, are now a part of the foundational aspects of business architecture. Established business enterprises realize that capability maps are critical for strategic planning and business transformation. During a capability mapping exercise, business architects sometimes don’t give due importance to the significant financial aspects or considerations of an operational business model. Business architecture and capability models are not immune to financial constraints, nor should they be handcuffed by them.
Expanding active decision-making: The power of integrating business rules and events
By easing the process of integrating business events into automated decision-making, JBoss Enterprise Business Rules Management System (BRMS) is helping organizations incorporate real-time awareness into their applications and implement the high levels of automation needed for today’s fast-paced business operations. With the many benefits of a budget-friendly open source software subscription, this powerful technology is more accessible than ever before. Using JBoss Enterprise BRMS, business analysts, developers, and system integrators can create and manage rules and events in a single product using a shared set of authoring tools. The result is a more agile, transparent, and competitive business. If in the past you have not found business rules technology sufficiently compelling for your company or projects, now is the time to take another look.
Developing and Mastering BPM Skills
In December 2011, the BPMInstitute participated in a Forrester research report entitled “The Forrester Wave: BPM Training And Certification Programs, Q2 2012” (May 2012) of the training and certification programs offered in business process management. BPMInstitute.org has made the report available to our readers, for a limited time. This article provides additional comments on the topics presented in the Forrester report. The report’s research findings agree with our own research into our student’s objectives for taking BPM training.
Is an open source business process and rules management solution right for you?
The availability of highly functional, open source business process management systems (BPMS) and business rules management systems (BRMS) are bringing the benefits of process automation technology within reach of many more companies and projects. If you are considering deploying business process or rules management but have been daunted by the cost, footprint, and complexity of proprietary solutions, an open source approach may be just what you are looking for.
The Strange Case of the People vs. Business Decision Management
Essays I have authored in the past generally focused on various methodologies and technologies revolving around business decision management – business process, business rules and analytics. I’ve always been quite interested in the past, present and likely future of these capabilities and their application in various real world domains.
For the last several years I have been wholly involved with applied decision management in the financial services arena. While there has been an almost unfathomable amount of turmoil in these businesses over the past several years, I was still very surprised to recently hear a loud cry from the mortgage industry that “technology got us into the trouble that we are in today!”
Business Architecture Drives Project Portfolio Prioritization
Business architecture helps portfolio managers prioritize IT-based projects by mapping projects to a business capability model. A capability model can aggregate what’s important, urgent, and doable in an organization which can then be used to prioritize projects. Project portfolio managers may use several approaches to portfolio analysis (see Schuurman & Powell, 2008) but a capability-based portfolio analysis adds additional rigor and discipline to prioritization.
Ensure Process Adherence and Continuous Improvement
Imagine if you could capture processing activity right at the source – the employee desktop. Imagine if this activity could be translated into:
- Real-time process maps for quick identification of process variances and bottlenecks
- Personalized guidance to ensure accurate and efficient processing
- Robust reporting showing employee efficiency in application use, productivity, idle time, and process adherence.
Download the white paper from Verint® Systems, Desktop & Process Analytics: A Powerful Solution for Business Process Improvement, to find out how our solutions can help ensure adoption of process improvement changes and support a culture of continuous improvement.
An Integrated Approach to Improving Business Process Quality through Risk Modeling – Part 2
This two-part series explores methods of actively evaluating risk as part of business processes, and incorporating elements of risk deterrence into business process models. In Part 1, we explored the context and precedents for our research. As we learned, achieving a stronger integration between risk analysis and process modeling promises to improve the quality of the modeled processes and increase the percentage of positive business outcomes those processes achieve. In this final part of the series, we will describe an innovative approach to incorporating risk management directly into business process models using the standard Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN), version 2.0.
Risk Assessments 1-2-3
Risk assessments have become more common recently, and for good reason. We read headlines daily about data breaches, high-dollar investments gone wrong, and companies that took a market risk that didn’t pay off.
Risk increases as a result of change, whether internally or externally triggered. Examples of internally driven change include executing a new project, launching a new product, or changing a process. Regulatory requirements, market changes, competitive challenges, and new security threats change the risk profile even when a company is conducting business as usual. Enterprises are never done with assessing risks; there is no such thing as “steady state” when it comes to risks.
Leading Edge BPM Benefits Without Bleeding Edge Pain
Best Practices With Oracle Process Accelerators
How can organizations reach BPM “process excellence” faster, thus delivering consistent value with BPM? One of the current trends includes adopting “process templates”. Oracle Process Accelerators are pre-built business process solutions that can be deployed as-is, or extended to meet customer-specific requirements. Generic templates or frameworks are important, however not enough to really affect an organization’s productivity with BPM. This webcast presents an “under the hood” view of Process Accelerator best practices and patterns that can serve as blueprints for organizations striving to reach maturity in their process-driven solutions.
Paying Down the Architectural Debt with the Business Architecture
Some enterprises are considering or have already taken bold initiatives to better manage their architectural debt. Architectural debt is a colorful metaphor for describing when a product, process, application, or system evolves well past the capability covered by the original architectural design.[1]
Which BPM Methodology is Best for Us?
There are lots of BPM Methodologies. In fact I teach a class called BPM Methodologies 2-3 times a year for BPMInstitute.org. The next one is in San Francisco, June 25. But which BPM Methodology should you organization use?
First, let’s define a BPM Methodology.
An approach with principles and specific procedures that provides guidelines for how to approach different scenarios within the Business Process Management discipline.
Most BPM Methodologies have conceptual principles, a graphic model, and specific techniques for the elements within the model.
Some of best known BPM methodologies today are Six Sigma, Lean, BP Trends, Hammer and Rummler–Brache. Below is one of these graphical models for the Toyota Production System (Lean).
The World of Agile IT and Stakeholder Management
Agile Methodology
Why on earth would this BOK be into existence when there are loads and loads of documentation available on company archives that we can refer to during crunch times. So Am I reinventing the wheel ? No way. The below bulleted matrix would help you keep afloat in case you hit the agile monster or have butterflies in your stomach about Agile based projects and its future. So is Agile Immortal ? Humm ……….let me think. Well Almost for the current era. Agile is a way for product companies to substance their lively hood by ensuring they power pack their software products by business driven factors which we know as requirements, enhancements, UI features, and bug fixes. Agile is a way to build software using the small optimized revisions that resembles the iterative and incremental approach. This resembles as a scaled down approach of the predecessors. The key element to Agile is it ensures that the risks elements are at bay.
The “M” is Missing in BPM
Business Process Management (BPM) has made a significant contribution to improving the performance of some business processes, yet the “management” part of BPM has not lived up to its full potential. Way back in 2003, I defined BPM as the disciplined definition, improvement and management of a company’s end-to-end business processes. The key aspects of this definition relate to “end-to-end” processes and the “troika” or “triumvirate” (e.g. not just one – but all three) of definition, improvement and management. In this broader context, the M is frequently missing from BPM.
Free Chapter: The Microguide to Process Modeling in BPMN 2.0
How to Build Great Process, Rule, and Event Models
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is an increasingly successful Object Management Group (OMG) standard and whether you are in government, manufacturing, or business, you need to understand how to accurately depict your company’s processes in BPMN. The BPMN Specification, however, can be abstract, lengthy, and complicated. As a result, learning to use BPMN can be daunting and force professionals to steer clear of it without an efficient and easy way of getting acquainted with the material.
BPMInstitute.org has been at the forefront of education and thought leadership in this area and as a benefit to our members; we are providing a free sample of one of the most recent books on BPMN: The Microguide to Process Modeling in BPMN 2.0.
Change – The Aftermath
In my last article, I provided tips for successful large scale change. Most of those suggestions were to help prepare people for change, some beginning in the months or years leading up to the implementation. When large changes occur, preparation beforehand is only half the battle. The perception of success or failure depends on how well people faced with integrating these changes into their daily life are supported after the change has occurred.
This time, we’ll focus how you can integrate change into people’s routines in the weeks and months immediately following any shake-up. There are several areas you can focus on to ensure that the change is permanent and positive for all concerned.
Business Architecture & Business Model Interpretation
A new trend in business strategy development involves viewing your business from the perspective of the “business model”. The business model provides templates for business executives to think about their costs and revenues, customers, channels and partners, and various activities and resources with a focus on maximizing profits and other measures of success.
Enabling business agility through real-time process visibility
Organizations have access to more data than ever before. However, this data is of little value if one is unable to extract intelligent information from this data .Today, what everyone needs is that data converted into meaningful information— presented in customizable, role-based dashboards and with the means to act on alerts and problem areas. Without such information, how can businesses assess their performance— both now and over time? Management today lacks reliable, end-to-end information concerning business operations, transactions and situational visibility.
Highlights:
Independent Research Firm Recognizes BPMInstitute.org as a Leader in BPM Training
About the Report
As more and more organizations embrace Business Process Management (BPM) for the design of enterprise organizational and information systems, the demand for BPM training increases.
Many companies claim they’re the best at BPM training. Who should you believe?
Believe what industry expert Forrester Research is saying in the 2012 Forrester Wave report BPM Training and Certification Programs. It evaluates top BPM training and certification providers, citing BPMInstitute.org as a leader in the BPM training market – and a top scorer in 7 of the 15 BPM skills development categories.
Download your copy of the Forrester Wave report BPM Training and Certification Programs and get their objective review of the top organizations in the BPM training space.
Using a BPMS to Enable Process Transformation
This article offers advice on how to use a BPMS to support process transformation across three specific business areas. When an organisation uses a BPMS to enable empowerment, focus on quality and compliance, and remove unnecessary human touches, it will gain great rewards.
The technology available to exploit these opportunities will vary across vendor solutions, but it is valid to assume at least basic support exists in the majority of solutions on the market.
