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Case Study: Managing Business and System Requirements for BPM-Driven Projects
Larry Ward is a Quality Assurance Project Manager in the OPERS Information Systems Division for the State of Oregon. He has more than 30 years experience in systems analysis & design, Industrial Engineering, Project Management, and QA. He has more than ten years of experience with the business rules approach. Ward was instrumental in designing the OPERS business rules process.
Analyzing the “As Is” Process
The first step in the analysis of a process is to create a process map or flow chart of the current state. This “as is” map represents what happens, not what should happen, or could happen. A useful technique when creating the “as is” is to recall an actual event. In remembering the event, what actually happened? This way you map reality.
The process map is the base from which the analysis begins. Process mapping can be done at three different levels of detail. The least detailed level (5000 foot) is called the Macro. At this level, your process map contains only 2 to 7 steps.
EAI, BPM and SOA
Traditionally enterprises grew their systems and IT infrastructure out of necessity as the business grew and connected the various IT applications with minimum planning. Stove pipe applications were pretty much the norm. These applications were connected in a point to point manner with no clear indication of process flow. But as the pace of business change accelerated connecting systems became a major roadblock. Then in the late 1990’s EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) emerged as a planned way to integrate the array of IT applications.
Your BPM Implementation is Bound to Fail
Failure is the Only Option
I can outright tell you that your BPM implementation is going to fail, and I will be right 9 out of 10 times. Is this scary?
Research has shown that even amongst IT projects only 20% of them finish on time. On BPM projects, the failure rate is even higher due to the immaturity of the technology and scope of the implementation. If you are implementing a BPM project with the current tools and using the current standards that are still in flux, you are on the bleeding edge of technology. So your failure rate is even higher.
BPMS Watch: Why Buy a BPMS When You Can Get it for Nothing?
Today’s BPM Suites are delivering on customers’ capability wish lists, but vendors are having a hard time getting buyers to put their money where their mouth is. Caught in limbo between IT infrastructure and an enterprise application, BPMS doesn’t fit traditional payback models of either IT or line of business investment, so it faces a heightened “prove-it” mentality from corporate buyers. But your CFO won’t go for the upfront six-figure outlay you need to demonstrate the payback is real. It’s a classic Catch-22.
OK, suppose the BPMS software were free. Free, as in costs nothing. Zero. Nada.
Enabling Business Process Innovation
Thomas Dwyer said that most of the problems companies have are due to process problems. These include:
BPM Strategy Deployment Best Practices
As BPM technologies and solutions mature, some organizations are now beginning to develop enterprise-wide BPM strategies. The most important aspects of an effective enterprise BPM deployment strategy are unrelated to the solution or even to the application being implemented. They’re best practices that apply no matter what software you’re using and regardless of the department in which you’re deploying it. Here are three best practices that we advise our clients to keep in mind as they move forward with their BPM strategies.
1.
Optimizing the ROI from BPM
Analysts widely agree that the growth rate of Business Process Management (BPM) software will continue in the double digits for the foreseeable future. Whether BPM deployments are making a significant contribution to a more customer-focused, process-centric management...
Three Keys to Enhancing BPM Implementation
If you’re moving up the ladder of CMM or just wanting to better manage your business processes, you need to consider more than which vendor software package to implement. Successfully implementing process management requires addressing all three aspects of the virtual trinity – people, process and technology. While the technology side of the equation is fairly well understood, the people and process side continue to bring challenges. In working with organizations across the country, I’ve found the following three concepts to bring most value in addressing these challenges.
Effective SOA Deployment Using An SOA Registry Repository
Today, Service Oriented Architecture [SOA] is being adopted by many IT organizations because it promises to make them more agile and efficient. This is possible, in large part, due to the loosely coupled nature of SOA, which enables service components to evolve without needing costly rework in existing deployments. Such agility and efficiency is also possible due to increased leverage and reuse of existing service components when building new service components.
Determining the ROI of Your SOA
While everyone is bound and determined to build an SOA within their enterprise–perhaps even between enterprises–few have attempted to determine their Return on Investment (ROI) to justify this approach and technology. True to form, we are again approaching new technology with fervor and excitement, but we also need to figure out the business case for this movement.
The Top 5 SOA Adoption Pitfalls of 2005
It’s been a tumultuous year in the world of SOA and we’re just at the beginning of rollercoaster ride. As organizations continue to re-examine the ever-shifting landscape of service design, service buses, service governance, and even just services, there are often mixed emotions. Many are confused as to the maturity and overall status of SOA in the IT industry, but there is definite sense of excitement around its touted potential to unite business and technology.
Many SOA initiatives were launched this year, each with its own set of goals and expectations.
How to Select a Metric – How Are You Being Measured?
In a previous life I was in charge of management reporting for the pan-European logistics organization for Compaq. My team was responsible for monitoring and reporting the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly performance and progress of the operations. We provided reports on shipments-to-date, invoices send, estimated shipments for the remainder of the day, week or month, order cycle time and average shipment lead-times, and on and on. None of these metrics would keep me awake at night or would cause heavy discussion on accuracy and validity of the metric.
Managing Processes for Performance
Business process management (BPM) technology continues to grow and mature.
The Future Impact of BPDL on Business
Gaining visibility of a corporation’s Business Processes stands to be one of the greatest industrial and commercial breakthroughs of this century for the corporations that step up to the challenge…and the probable demise of those who don’t. Here’s why….
Increased Speed and Risk in Operations – many organizations are still in the Business Process – “horse and buggy” era…these businesses still rely on big binders full of written procedures covering how their business “does” its business and its procedures.
The Value of BPM Software: A Business and Technical Perspective
Business process management (BPM), and the information technology systems that support it, are defined in many different ways.
Process improvement: A Case Study in Revenue Generation Process Improvement
The Sales team wanted to increase revenue. Senior executives favored buying a CRM solution but IT suggested a process review first. A process difficulty assessment was completed and the problem processes identified. The team worked with business areas to implement...
BPMS Watch: Analyzing and Optimizing Process Performance
The hottest trend now in BPM suites is integrated performance management. While BPMS and its workflow ancestors have always featured basic process monitoring and work statistics, the kind of performance management now emphasized is more closely aligned with metrics strategic to the business: the percentage of orders filled immediately, or conformance with service level targets, broken down by customer type. These once were the sole province of business intelligence (BI) software, but performance management analytics and real-time business activity monitoring are now being bro
The Big Deal: Business Governance of Business Rules
The words “business governance of business rules” is an extremely important, if not explosive, topic. It alludes to turning over the keys of the business back to the business itself. Yet, doing so is an organizationally complex issue.
A reasonable goal is to provide an easy way for business (versus technical) people to write or change the rules of the business, such that doing so maximizes the understanding of the rules, while minimizing the pain (and rigor) of writing them. If writing them properly is too difficult, they won’t do it.
So, it is advantageous to start with a
Transition of a Business Analyst to a Business Rules Analyst
Who is a Business Analyst?
Business analyst studies the overall business and information needs of an organization in order to develop appropriate solution strategies. As the key liaison between business and information technology departments, the business analyst is responsible for gathering and documenting business requirements and translating them into functional system design specifications that can be successfully executed by IT development teams. A business analyst acts as the communication central between the business and the technology people.
