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Welcome to BPMInstitute.org, the leading authority in Business Process Management (BPM) training and certification. For the past two decades, we have been at the forefront of BPM education, providing invaluable resources to professionals like you. Our extensive collection features thousands of articles, white papers, and webcasts, covering every aspect of BPM you can imagine. Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or new to the field, our resources will empower you with the knowledge and insights needed to excel in the world of BPM. Explore our comprehensive library today and unlock the secrets to optimizing processes, driving innovation, and achieving operational excellence.
Continuous Improvement – Now!

Continuous Improvement – Now!

Author(s):

Principal, LH Cooke & Associates

Do you notice any built-in contradiction in the title of this article? A naïve approach to Continuous Improvement (CI) would be to attempt to benchmark Toyota, and just do what they do. That would be OK if: 1) You make automobiles, and 2) You have fifty years of Toyota management experience. Without those advantages, you would do best to consider a modified strategy.

It’s not easy to change, and usually not fruitful to change precipitously.  An anecdote from an unnamed country, several wars ago, decided to mechanize the cavalry. An inspector, reviewing the prototype of the new battalion, marveled in the shiny new personnel carriers and tanks.  However, he then noticed two soldiers standing off to the side, apparently doing nothing.  When he inquired, he was told: “They are there to hold the horses.”

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Building Business Architecture That Endures

Building Business Architecture That Endures

Author(s):

Enterprise Business Architect, Wells Fargo & Company

Two of my biggest passions are business architecture and participating in endurance events like an Ironman® or an ultramarathon.  Having excelled in both over the years taught me a few lessons.  At the end of the day, every business architect’s goal to improve decision-making and accountability for business outcomes is not much different from an endurance athlete’s goal to win.  I even coined the term “endurance architect” to aptly describe what I do.  In my opinion, an endurance architect is someone who can bring the lessons from the playing field to the boardroom and vice versa to achieve sustainable profitability and/or self-actualization.  How do we achieve these lofty goals?  Let me start with the nuances of strategy and outline the steps of achieving success through strategic co-alignment, with examples from an endurance architect’s point of view.

What is strategy?

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A blueprint for the intelligent, integrated enterprise

A blueprint for the intelligent, integrated enterprise

Contributed by:

BPMInstitute.org
Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

For IT to support an organization’s business challenges today, it must provide the infrastructure, applications, and data services needed to make intelligent business decisions quickly. This whitepaper discusses the comprehensive integration required—across an organization’s entire value chain—that drives transformation to the intelligent, integrated enterprise.

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Rapid, cost-effective deployment of data services in a service-oriented architecture

Rapid, cost-effective deployment of data services in a service-oriented architecture

Contributed by:

BPMInstitute.org
Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

Service-oriented architecture (SOA), and particularly its most common implementation as web services, represents the latest stage of evolution in application architecture for the enterprise. Service-oriented architectures are enabling organizations to increase their agility in the face of change, improve operating efficiency, and reduce the cost of doing business—often significantly. In spite of these advances, many organizations with significant investments in data collection and storage technologies still struggle with how best to embrace and deploy the new architecture in a way that leverages data assets. This whitepaper discusses the numerous challenges faced by both large companies and federal agencies seeking to embrace SOA, and details a metadata-driven, model-based approach to addressing them.

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We Modeled the Processes – Are We Finished Yet?

We Modeled the Processes – Are We Finished Yet?

Author(s):

Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org and President, i4 Process

Not quite!  I can’t tell you how many companies I have worked with who announced we have modeled all the current state process or say we want to begin by modeling all their As Is processes.  And they ask, can you help us with that?  There is nothing wrong with modeling processes, but it takes a long time and it doesn’t produce improvements.  Modeling processes is just one of the first steps.  I suggest modeling the processes you want to improve and do them in groups of three or one by one. Then analyze each and improve them to see business results.

So if you’ve only done the process diagramming, what do you need to do next? Look at the roadmap below showing the phases of a BPM/ process improvement project.

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Process Based Governance and the Role of SLAs

Process Based Governance and the Role of SLAs

Author(s):

Faculty Member, DBizInstitute.org and Managing Director, Spanyi International

By now, it is fairly well known that the root causes of excessive costs and errors, of delays and inflexibility, are related to the non value added handoffs across organizational boundaries. In most companies, work is fragmented across multiple departments, product lines and business units. No one has end-to-end ownership of the flow of work or responsibility for flawless service to the customer. In such environments, redundant activities and duplication of effort is common, errors are frequent, and overall responsiveness to customers’ needs is elusive. The key to resolving these issues is to take action on redesigning customer touching end-to-end processes and then install a governance framework which assures cross departmental collaboration, encourages different units to work together for value creation, and makes the changes stick.

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The Importance of Integration Capability when Selecting a BPMS

The Importance of Integration Capability when Selecting a BPMS

Author(s):

Director / owner, Lithe IT Ltd

This article highlights the importance that system integration capabilities should play when selecting a BPMS. Integration is often the largest challenges in transforming business processes and can often present one of the most difficult barriers to delivering rapid success.

Few business processes live out their life within a single system. Consider the example of winning a new customer, on-boarding them, delivering a service and gaining payment. It is not uncommon to find the following systems involved in supporting these processes:

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Discovering the Value Streams for an Enterprise

Discovering the Value Streams for an Enterprise

Author(s):

Enterprise Business Architect, Independent Consultant

How does a Business Architecture (BA) team determine the value streams for their enterprise?  Is there a suitable reference available in the public domain of the Web for the team to analyze?  Many are familiar with and frequently use the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) and its Process Classification Framework (PCF), but does something comparable to the APQC-PCF[1] exist which is organized around value streams by industry? Sadly, the answer is “no.”  So what approach should the BA team take and how will they determine the value streams for their enterprise?

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Orchestration-Driven Development (ODD) – Nothing Odd About it!

Orchestration-Driven Development (ODD) – Nothing Odd About it!

Author(s):

Sr. Architect, INTEGRITYOne Partners, Inc.

Orchestration-Driven Development (ODD) represents a direct evolution of Object-Orientation (OO), with the emergence of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) as its catalyst.  The philosophy behind ODD is relatively simple: a business application should be a direct translation of the business process it supports.  Build your process model first, then derive your application components from this process, re-using existing components where possible.  Seems pretty straightforward, right?  You would think adoption of such a philosophy would be far more widespread.  And perhaps it would be, except for modern software engineering conventions getting in the way.

Figure 1

Figure 1  Orchestration-Driven Development (ODD)

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Strategic Adoption of BPM as a Management Discipline

Strategic Adoption of BPM as a Management Discipline

Author(s):

Editorial Director and current Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org

BPMInstitute.org defines Business Process Management (BPM) as the definition, improvement and management of a firm’s end-to-end enterprise business processes in order to achieve three outcomes crucial to a performance-based, customer-driven firm: 1) clarity on strategic direction, 2) alignment of the firm’s resources, and 3) increased discipline in daily operations.

Traditional methods of performance management focus on department & functional unit performance.  BPM focuses on the management and continuous improvement of cross functional processes.  This involves continuous monitoring, evaluation, measurement and process innovation.  These cross-functional processes must be clearly defined and documented.  Process performance objectives in terms of time, quality, cost and productivity must be defined.  Process teams and process owners must be established.

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Capability Maps: Value of Financial Perspective

Capability Maps: Value of Financial Perspective

Author(s):

Director - Business Architecture, OptumHealth

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. 

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Expanding active decision-making: The power of integrating business rules and events

Expanding active decision-making: The power of integrating business rules and events

Contributed by:

BPMInstitute.org
Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

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.

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Developing and Mastering BPM Skills

Developing and Mastering BPM Skills

Author(s):

Editorial Director and current Faculty Member, BPMInstitute.org

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.

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Is an open source business process and rules management solution right for you?

Is an open source business process and rules management solution right for you?

Contributed by:

BPMInstitute.org
Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

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.

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The Strange Case of the People vs. Business Decision Management

The Strange Case of the People vs. Business Decision Management

Author(s):

Managing Director, Business Decision Management, Allegiance Advisory Group

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!” 

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Business Architecture Drives Project Portfolio Prioritization

Business Architecture Drives Project Portfolio Prioritization

Author(s):

Enterprise Business Architect, Wells Fargo & Company

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.

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Ensure Process Adherence and Continuous Improvement

Ensure Process Adherence and Continuous Improvement

Contributed by:

BPMInstitute.org
Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

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.

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An Integrated Approach to Improving Business Process Quality through Risk Modeling – Part 2

An Integrated Approach to Improving Business Process Quality through Risk Modeling – Part 2

Author(s):

Sr. Architect, INTEGRITYOne Partners, Inc.

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.

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Risk Assessments  1-2-3

Risk Assessments 1-2-3

Author(s):

Consultant, The Process Geek

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.

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Leading Edge BPM Benefits  Without Bleeding Edge Pain

Leading Edge BPM Benefits Without Bleeding Edge Pain

Speaker(s):

BPMInstitute.org
Business Relationship Manager - Product Lifecycle Management, Chevron Corporation

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.

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Featured Certificate: BPM Specialist

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.

Learn more about the BPM Specialist Certificate

Courses

  •  

 

Certificates

  • Business Process Management Specialist
  • Earning your Business Process Management Specialist (BPMS) Certificate will provide you with a distinct competitive advantage in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. With in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management, you’ll be able to take your business career to the next level.
  • BPM Professional Certificate
    Business Process Management Professional
  • Earning your Business Process Management Professional (BPMP) Certificate will elevate your expertise and professional standing in the field of business process management. Our BPMP Certificate is a tangible symbol of your achievement, demonstrating your in-depth knowledge of process improvement and management.

Certification

BPM Certification

  • Make the most of your hard-earned skills. Earn the respect of your peers and superiors with Business Process Management Certification from the industry's top BPM educational organization.

Courses

 

Certificates

  • Operational Excellence Specialist
  • Earning your Operational Excellence Specialist Certificate will provide you with a distinct advantage in driving organizational excellence and achieving sustainable improvements in performance.
 

 

OpEx Professional Certificate

  • Operational Excellence Professional
  • Earn your Operational Excellence Professional Certificate and gain a competitive edge in driving organizational excellence and achieving sustainable improvements in performance.

Courses

Certificate
  •  

  • Agile BPM Specialist
  • Earn your Agile BPM Specialist Certificate and gain a competitive edge in driving business process management (BPM) with agile methodologies. You’ll gain a strong understanding of how to apply agile principles and concepts to business process management initiatives.  
 

Business Architecture

 

Certificates

  • Business Architecture Specialist
  • The Business Architecture Specialist (BAIS) Certificate is proof that you’ve begun your business architecture journey by committing to the industry’s most meaningful and credible business architecture training program.

  • Business Architecture Professional
  • When you earn your Business Architecture Professional (BAIP) Certificate, you will be able to design and implement a governance structure for your organization, develop and optimize business processes, and manage business information effectively.

BA CertificationCertification

  • Make the most of your hard-earned skills. Earn the respect of your peers and superiors with Business Architecture Certification from the industry's top BPM educational organization.

Courses

 

Certificates

  • Digital Transformation Specialist
  • Earning your Digital Transformation Specialist Certificate will provide you with a distinct advantage in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. 
 

 

  • Digital Transformation Professional
  • The Digital Transformation Professional Certificate is the first program in the industry to cover all the key pillars of Digital Transformation holistically with practical recommendations and exercises.

Courses

Certificate

  • Agile Business Analysis Specialist
  • Earning your Agile Business Analysis Specialist Certificate will provide you with a distinct advantage in the world of agile software development.

Courses

Certificate
  • DAS Certificate
  • Decision Automation Specialist
  • Earning your Decision Automation Certificate will empower you to excel in the dynamic field of automated decision-making, where data-driven insights are pivotal to driving business innovation and efficiency.