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Planning Process Change Effort for a Technology-driven Project
Whether developing and updating processes as an improvement initiative, in support of a software upgrade, as part of an automation effort or introduction of a new line business, it is important to identify the required work and to estimate the time, cost and resources required to achieve the desired goals. When the purpose of the project is to develop or improve a process, it is easy to see why a project plan to identify the tasks, milestones, resources and timelines is required.
Business Process, Business Rules and the Agile Enterprise
Business Process Management and Business Rules Approaches (BPM/BR) are agility technologies. Yet, for most early adopters they are the last step in inoculating agility into an organization. First business, government and non-profit organizations must identify and recognize a challenge arising from changes in demand, missions and charters. Next the challenge must be incorporated into a project portfolio then lastly carried out.
The ‘A’ in SOA is for Architecture
Are you confused about the term service-oriented architecture? Is the lack of a formal definition of SOA causing governance issues within your organization? You’re not alone.
An Innovation Discipline Model
Chicago-based Doblin, Inc. is an internationally recognized innovation strategy firm. Doblin’s staff is composed primarily of business strategists, cultural anthropologists, contextual researchers, design planners and information designers. Doblin is well known for its proprietary innovation landscape diagnostic tool, which is used to identify patterns of innovation within an industry. This article explores Doblin’s approach to treating innovation as a repeatable business discipline.
Viewing SOA from Various Perspectives
Often when I start discussing SOA, a story comes to my mind that I first heard from my grand father when I was kid. It is about six blind men who encounter an elephant for the first time in their life. They perceive the animal differently and start fighting amongst themselves. One who touched its tail thought it was a snake, another who got hold of his trunk thought it to be a tree branch, the third, bumping against his rigid body, thought it was a wall while the fourth, getting hold of his legs, thought it to be a log of wood and so on.
The Power of BPM Solution Frameworks: Achieving Revolutionary Objectives through Evolutionary Change
More Value, Less Risk. Solution frameworks are customizable solutions that provide the building blocks for organization-specific applications. This approach enables organizations to reach the point of value more quickly, with lower risk. Solution frameworks, combined with an iterative improvement methodology, allow organizations to embrace change. In order to reduce the time-to-value, many vendors supply process “templates” that show how their product can support a given business or industry problem.
Case Study: The Value of Transforming Your Business to a Process-driven Enterprise
Unisen is a leading provider of Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology Outsourcing to the Canadian fund industry. Unisen services about 47% of the mutual fund companies in Canada. There are over 1.3 million calls into the call center and the company administers $40 billion of AUA for institutional and offshore clients. Unisen process almost 5 million investor statements representing 15 million pages of output.
Unisen is a leading provider of Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology Outsourcing to the Canadian fund industry. Unisen services about 47% of the mutual fund companies in Canada. There are over 1.3 million calls into the call center and the company administers $40 billion of AUA for institutional and offshore clients. Unisen process almost 5 million investor statements representing 15 million pages of output.
The scope of services Unisen provides for information technology includes:
The Innovation Imperative Part 2 of 3
In Part 1 of this three-part introduction to business innovation, we explored the innovation imperative and concluded by identifying six facets of business innovation:
- Operational innovation
- Organizational innovation
- Supply-side innovation
- Core-competency innovation
- Sell-side innovation
- Product and Service innovation.
Now, let’s take a quick look at each of these categories of business innovation.
Can the Business Rule?
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change,” said Charles Darwin.
EA, BPM and SOA Convergence
Many strategic initiatives today are focused on Enterprise Architecture (EA) development, Business Process Management (BPM) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) development. In support of these important activities are numerous approaches, techniques, tools and experienced consultants. You can also find a wealth of information on the web and in various industry newsletters and publications. Let us take a look at what is common and shared between these essential initiatives.
Build your SOA: Maturity and Methodology, Part III
Introduction
Typical SOA initiatives can potentially suffer from one or more of the following problems:
You need an adaptable software methodology — a systematic approach to the way software is developed — that can provide rigid controls and processes during the initial SOA rollout b
What Makes a Process Slow?
Every organization believes there is additional speed that can be squeezed from its core processes. Are all processes then inherently slower than they should be? If so, what slows a process down?
There are many reasons in which a process will perform slower than it could. Here are some of the key reasons I have observed over a number of years that will put the brakes on a process:
Handoffs
Handoffs between departments in an organization have a significant impact on process performance.
Making the Transition to Services Engineering – Part I
“The productivity of knowledge and knowledge workers will not be the only competitive factor in the world economy.
BPMS on SOA: Still the Exception
You can’t attend a BPM conference or webcast nowadays without hearing how SOA provides the critical technology underpinnings of BPM software. And there is even a grain of truth in that statement. For example, most BPM Suites provide integration adapters that can introspect backend systems and turn them into process components that are, in an important sense, service-oriented.
Case Study: BPM – From Ideas to Action
The overall challenge for BPM is, how does a company manage these efforts into an action plan that supports company strategy and contributes to the bottom line? People in different parts of the organization see BPM projects from different perspectives, which can mean different goals and procedures and divergent outcomes. Coordinating the efforts requires management to see each project from an overall perspective, including the individual efforts on each process that is being improved.
The overall challenge for BPM is, how does a company manage these efforts into an action plan that supports company strategy and contributes to the bottom line? People in different parts of the organization see BPM projects from different perspectives, which can mean different goals and procedures and divergent outcomes. Coordinating the efforts requires management to see each project from an overall perspective, including the individual efforts on each process that is being improved.
Barriers to Process Redesign
Changing a process and the relevant jobs, structure, and controls presents unique challenges, so a process redesign project will almost always encounter obstacles, barriers, and pitfalls.
Changing a process and the relevant jobs, structure, and controls presents unique challenges, so a process redesign project will almost always encounter obstacles, barriers, and pitfalls. Research conducted on reengineering projects has uncovered the barriers listed in Table 1.
Table 1: Barriers to Process Redesign
Putting the Business Back in ‘Business Rules’ (and keeping it there) Part 2
This is Part 2 of a 2-part KPI webinar series. Part 1 introduced the Rule Maturity Model and focused on the requirements and benefits of Rule Maturity Model Level 2. That’s because Level 2 is the most common target level among organizations today. It is also the level at which today’s standards, methods, and technology come together. Part 1 also provided insight into the kind of software functionality needed for an organization or project to explore all aspects of Rule Maturity Model Level 2.
Build your SOA: Maturity and Methodology, Part II
SOA maturity model is a term that I coined in an attempt to help organizations define architectural guidelines and a process for achieving a greater level of maturity and predictability in their overall information technology (IT) architecture initiatives. The model described in this article is designed to enable your organization to identify itself on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being the most advanced, or mature, level) in terms of architecture maturity.
Determining Your BPM Software Requirements
“A software package implemented using phantom business requirements, or those born of the IT developers’ imagination, will most likely generate discord, inefficiencies, and occasional outright resentment of the tool.”
-unknown author
BPM ROI For IT, Business, and User Communities
It is always exciting to see successful BPM deployments. Recently, I heard of a substantive BPM project that went live within five weeks, with tangible ROIs! That is unheard of when compared to traditional “Java” or “.NET” based development approaches. One of the main reasons BPM is fast becoming mainstream is precisely because of the tangible ROI one can achieve through a well designed and thought through BPM solution. BPM is known to yield considerable ROI in the majority of projects. Where do the benefits and the returns on investment stem from?
