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| Capabilities Focus - Key |
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Business Processes |
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People & Change Management |
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Customer Service |
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Continuous Improvement |
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Innovation & Technology |
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Articles
Here you will find my articles and detailed commentary that explore various aspects of process and change management. They represent significant intellectual property and as such may be 'members only' resources. Article previews and the main areas of focus of each article (represented by the capabilities icons) guide you as to their content. Subscribers are informed of new articles through our BPM Professional e-zine.
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| BPM: Aligning Business and IT |
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| BPM: Context-setting Models |
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| BPM: Key Elements |
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| BPM & Culture |
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| Customer Value: The Business Discipline of BPM |
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| Innovation and BPM |
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| BPM & PI: Business Performance Partners (part 3) |
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| BPM & PI: Business Performance Partners (part 2) |
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| BPM & PI: Business Performance Partners (part 1) |
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| BPM: Aligning Business and IT |
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For BPM to be successful, the various enterprise elements that contribute to it must be synchronised. Enterprise elements such as Strategy, Process, Technology, Structures, Values and Culture. The best BPM plans will be constrained if these elements are not effectively managed as part of the deployment. One of the most discussed break-points between elements is of the lack of Business and IT alignment.
This presentation includes the:
• Enterprise as a Dynamic System model
• Alignment through process-oriented program management
• Need for a common process language – BPMN?
• BPM Capability Gap – understanding the difference between Process and Enterprise Maturity
• Role of IT in alignment
Processes should be the common language between the business and the IT department and yet the traditional functional paradigm restricts communication and costs the whole enterprise through rework and duplication. Having a process-orientation facilitates effective business and IT communications resulting in significant benefits for both.
| BPM: Context-setting Models |
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There are literally hundreds of process improvement tools, techniques, and methods available to process and change management professionals in their quest to map, model, design, analyse, manage and improve business processes. Yet, one of the greatest challenges we face is the ability to make lasting business process changes valued by both the business and customers. This presentation provides some over-arching ‘meta-models' for reference before applying any specific operational process methods. Under the three broad headings of CONTEXT, VALUE, and SUSTAINABILITY – the presentation overviews the:
• use of business models and their relationship to strategy, customers and process
• concepts of value-add and non-value-add
• maturity analysis and the “BPM Capability Gap”
• the relationship between the various business components in a closed loop system
Not all businesses are the same and so it applies to the processes that enable them. To ensure that BPM is transformational, we should view our organisations as systems and focus our attention on strategic context-setting models before applying any combination of readily available process techniques.
The vast majority of process-based activity in organisations today is enacted as process improvement (PI) projects or as technological innovation. While these are both necessary components of BPM; sustained transformation through BPM is as much about strategy, governance and people. This presentation takes a more strategic and change management approach to BPM. Included is a:
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comparison between process improvement (ie. Six Sigma) and BPM, |
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recommendation and benefits of a phased deployment of BPM by building on PI, |
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process governance model aligning functions, processes, outcomes and people |
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BPM operations model illustrating the components and prompting questions for systemic change |
Sustained Business Transformation through BPM is achievable through an understanding of how it relates to your existing process improvement initiatives and a planned business strategy. It is built on the premise that the sustainability of any process improvement (project) is dependant on the capability of the business to manage its key business processes on an on-going basis.
The “Key Elements of BPM” is a companion presentation of the popular “BPM and PI: Performance Partners” series of articles.
The purpose of BPM should always be at least about two things:
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Transformation: in how the business operates from a functional perspective to a predominantly process-driven operational model. |
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Sustainability: of the transformation in all the dimensions of the business. |
To achieve sustained transformation through business process management, companies must ensure that they take a holistic-perspective on their business; to understand the inter-relationships between the various business components and strive for alignment between them. Too often, BPM is too much about the “P” and the relevance (and value) to the business suffer as a result (see: Customer Value: The Business Discipline of BPM for more on this). A key component, arguably the key component, is that of the people – achieving a culture of process-based management is the ultimate transformation and the sustaining legacy we strive for.
| Customer Value: The Business Discipline of BPM |
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It might seem obvious to say that “if BPM is not relevant to the business then it is not really Business Process Management”. Reality is that many BPM deployments do not focus on the business enough. Worse still, many companies do not focus on their customers enough. The relevance and value of your business strategy to your customers is the higher order issue. Often our best efforts in the process space are hampered by the lack of clarity and discipline of the business with regard to value they seek to add to their customers.
This article references a key (and still very relevant) model of the mid 1990's as a basis for aligning and evaluating your BPM deployment to your business goals. In line with some more recent developments being led by the BPM Group, it concludes that business relevance actually starts, ends, and is determined by…the customer.
I was fortunate enough to recently have attended a breakfast briefing on the “Fujitsu Innovation Index 2006” and listen to the results of the first ever analysis of innovation in Australasian businesses. Tom Dissing (Principal – Fujitsu Australia) was the project leader and gave succinct and salient insight into how Australian and New Zealand organisations approach innovation as an enabler for business performance.
This article does not require an account to view.
| BPM & PI: Business Performance Partners (part 3) |
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In Part 1 we compared and contrasted BPM and Process Improvement (PI) and concluded that both BPM and PI were necessary for business performance excellence. Part 2 introduced a third ‘cycle' – that of Process Management; where processes were being managed (not just improved) but not on an enterprise-wide scale. A model and accompanying series of practical questions described the interplay between these cycles of management and improvement – prompts for what your organisation might need to focus on next in its continuous improvement journey. In this third and final of this series of articles, we conclude with an exploration of how you might go about deploying both BPM and PI as complementary strategies toward company transformation. After all, the degree to which your organisation has the capability to both improve and manage its processes should be a deliberate exercise – the planning and management of which we will now discuss.
| BPM & PI: Business Performance Partners (part 2) |
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In Part 1 we compared and contrasted BPM and Process Improvement (PI) and concluded that both BPM and PI were necessary for business performance excellence. Managed together, improvement and management cycles should become part of how your organisation operates – part of the rhythm of the business. The key question is the degree to which your organisation has the capability to both improve and manage its processes. The interplay between these two capabilities will determine the continuity of your organisations continuous improvement endeavours.
In this article we will further explore this relationship and consider how your organisation might sustain (indeed focus and grow) its existing process management and/or improvement cycles.
| BPM & PI: Business Performance Partners (part 1) |
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While many organisations have successfully introduced Process Improvement (PI) methodologies, a number of those very same organisations struggle to integrate enterprise-wide Business Process Management (BPM) as they continue to focus on initiatives for the current and coming financial years. These organisations often find that after some period of time they are having difficulty even sustaining their improvement programmes – most of the “low hanging fruit” has been picked and the current ways of doing business have still not markedly changed.
Alternatively, it can take significant time and effort to integrate BPM as the ‘way we do business' in an organisation. To maintain focus and momentum, it often requires the ability to implement some ‘quick wins' to maintain interest in the longer-term BPM investment.
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