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Shaping Complex Ideas
Good ideas usually have system-like characteristics. That may seem strange, considering how we have been indoctrinated all our lives to believe great ideas are simple, complete and self-evident once conceived (think solutions to problems or opportunities for enrichment). Examples of these abound, many now urban legends.
The Process Practitioner: An Independent Review of Metastorm ProVision
In a continuing series evaluating the tools used by Business Process practioners, this article looks at Metastorm ProVision®. Criteria for evaluation are ease of use, a short learning curve, and good collaboration features.
What role should SaaS play in your BPM strategy?
Driven by the continued success of companies like Salesforce.com, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model has become an increasingly important element of the mix of technology sourcing options available to enterprises over the past two years. Recently, a number of vendors have introduced SaaS-based BPM technology tools and platforms, eager to “surf the wave” and ensure that they don’t miss out on any opportunities, should enterprises start to shift wholesale to using the SaaS model for their IT capabilities.
Business / IT Collaboration Model: A Practical Approach
The collaboration between the business department and IT department of an organization has been subject to research by many organizational professionals. Some companies manage things very well, others have their problems. This article will not provide you with a silver bullet for business & IT alignment, but provides some practical directions for establishing a business driven collaboration.
Enterprise Architecture Works Best as a Roadmap – Not a Blueprint
Ever heard the old saw – perhaps in a crowded sports arena or while standing in front of the TV on game day –, “You’d make a better door than a window?” The idea, of course, is that one can see through a window but not a door.
Managing the Less Visible Processes
Introduction
Many business process improvement initiatives seem to focus mainly on the very high visibility processes of the enterprise such as the supply chain, order fulfilment or customer service management, while negelecting the smaller but supporting everyday processes, including travel authorizations, expense filing and timesheets. These smaller processes, when poorly designed or designed without considerable care in the business rules and policies enforced, could mount in cost over a period of time.
Transforming an Enterprise – an Effective Approach for Implementing Change
‘The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order’
Alfred North Whitehead
(b.1861 – d.1947), British mathematician and philosopher.
SOA Repository Best Practice
For those of us who have been developing applications for many years (think COBOL & Assembler from the 70s and 80s), the idea of having a code library (programs and routines) is nothing new. However for the Web Services generation, this concept has taken a while to re-emerge, but has now been packaged in the form of a services registry and/or repository.
Unlocking the Door to Web Service Security
Many companies have embraced the concepts of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) at least to the point of creating a few Web Services that are consumed by different applications. Embracing the use of SOA often comes about when an Enterprise Architect is sitting in a kickoff meeting and the need to reuse some critical data foundation functionality, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Master Data Management (MDM)—through the use of a service interface rather than replication of a nightly batch feed—arises.
Retailers Gain Fast Payback and Long-Term Value with Business Process Management
Retailers around the world are at in important inflection point. Pressure emanating from the global economic downturn has only exacerbated an already tough, competitive environment. Retailers are making business decisions today that will have far-reaching ramifications. It is clear that those that identify how to increase information technologies’ impact on business performance, reducing costs and increasing revenue, will have a tactical and strategic advantage.
How to Combine Lean Six Sigma, SOA & BPM To Deliver Real Business Results
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) produces real results in difficult economic times by uncovering process waste, reducing non-value adding activity, and increasing productivity. Business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) combine with LSS to accelerate improvements and results. At the same time, this combination increases organizational flexibility and technology-enabled responsiveness, key to positioning the company for growth as the economy improves.
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) produces real results in difficult economic times by uncovering process waste, reducing non-value adding activity, and increasing productivity. Business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) combine with LSS to accelerate improvements and results. At the same time, this combination increases organizational flexibility and technology-enabled responsiveness, key to positioning the company for growth as the economy improves.
Converging Business Architecture (BA) Approaches
Business Architecture approaches and methods are improving, becoming more formal and standardized as evidenced by the Business Architecture Working Group (BAWG)(1) under the auspices of the Object Management Group (OMG). As with any developing approach or method, a variety of ideas, techniques, terms, expressions and definitions, some old and some new, will emerge. This is most assuredly true for the Business Architecture (BA), as well!
Research Brief: BPM and Government
This Research Brief highlights a selection of the findings from BPMInstitute.org’s State of BPMSM survey. It reviews the challenges associated with automating government processes such as correspondence tracking, case management, project management and permit applications that involve integration with a variety of information systems. Many government business transformation initiatives involve replacing a manual, paper-based process with an automated, electronic document-based one. The Research Brief reviews the best practices associated with this business transformation.
Leaning Your Organization – Does that Mean Cutting Jobs?
Lean is not about cutting jobs to the bone. Rather it is about getting your operation “svelte and fit”, doing more with less, being in the ‘flow’ zone and delivering what the customer values.
Lean is a term coined by James Womack and Daniel Jones in their book Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. Lean is the term they gave to the principles they observed at Toyota. These principles enabled employees to eliminate wastes, minimize variation through standardization, and increase value in the eyes of the customer.
Decisions and Complex Event Processing
Complex event processing (CEP) continually evolves as a technology to help organizations react to various business conditions such as threats and market opportunities. CEP technologies excel at taking raw, voluminous amounts of event data, accumulating it, correlating it and aggregating it in forms that facilitate critical decision-making.
Business Architect, Process Architect, Enterprise Technology Architect
What is going on?
The business transformation industry is growing and starting to stratify. Many corporate managers have now recognized the enormity of what must be dealt with and are starting to look at grouping practitioners by specialized skills and capabilities.
11 Habits for Highly Successful BPM Programs
The culture of an organization is a collection of habits, and habits have a powerful effect in business performance. Driving long-term business benefit and success with Business Process Management (BPM) often times requires companies to develop new and maintain existing habits.
Interactive Q&A – A Standard Approach for Process Documentation
Every year, CIO’s and COO’s rank “Improve Business Processes” as a top priority for their organizations. So why aren’t more organizations diving in, documenting their processes and driving improvement? In short, because it’s hard. Most companies don’t have a standard approach for process definition and documentation. Rachel Pace-Maron, Director of Operations Support Service at PRC, was asked to document, standardize and communicate all of her company’s processes to help improve business processes across 15 domestic and 5 international call centers.
The business value of event processing: preparing the path
Today, organizations are taking advantage of the “real time” availability of electronic events, and using event processing technology to both improve operational business efficiency, and drive business optimization – instrumenting and analyzing business activity to drive decisions radically more transparently and efficiently.
How the Texas Education Agency is Driving Process Transformation with Business Rules Management
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is responsible for providing leadership, guidance and resources to help schools meet the educational needs of all students.
Today the agency is driving process transformation by enabling business area subject matter experts to manage and maintain business rules within their processes. By enabling business users to manage rules, changes and modifications can be made rapidly whether it’s for new departmental policies or new education legislation.
