In short, we want to make a profession out of BPM.

The current issue of BPM market in Russia and worldwide is the lack of a common ground - a core set of concepts, techniques and technologies that would be accepted by all stakeholders.

Process management is a discipline with a long history: TQM in the 70’s, re-engineering in the 90s, BPM in the 2000s. Lean and Six Sigma also have process aspects. Apart from this mainstream, there is a number of esoteric doctrines shared only by the author or a small group of followers.

How does it look from a potential customer perspective? He/she sees a number of gurus, each evangelizing his own way. They cannot agree with each other. They aren’t helpful beyond the relatively narrow scope. The natural question “where can I read about it?” doesn’t meet a clear answer. Besides, BPM is not widely presented in universities and MBA courses. Sub-disciplines (e.g. modeling or automation of processes) are available but BPM as a holistic discipline is not offered in a significant scale.

Not surprisingly, only the most self-confident customers get into it - those who have intellectual resources to pave their own route in a rough sea of BPM. Hence the predictable result: today, 10 years after the birth, BPM is still at the Early Adopters stage of the Technology Lifecycle.

BPM is a fun for practitioners yet that’s what scares off potential customers - they’d prefer something more simple, common, boring if you like.

Can this situation be changed? We believe it’s not only possible - the time for the change is now.

Thanks to the efforts of BPM pioneers we now have practical experience in methodology, technology and implementation. A number of organizations have achieved spectacular success in BPM. The community of BPM enthusiasts in Russia develops a common view of process management issues for more than 5 years. We have matured to develop a consensus on BPM basics. (Just basics - it’s not about eliminating diversity and creativity in the whole BPM domain.)

And it’s easy to do because there is no need to invent the basic platform. For 10 years there is an organization called ABPMP (www.abpmp.org) - The Association of BPM Professionals - comprising more than 6,000 members around the world. And it isn’t just a club: ABPMP published and further develops (the third edition to be released soon) the BPM CBOK (Common Body of Knowledge) and certification system called CBPP (Certified Business Process Professional) based on BPM CBOK.

By creating the ABPMP Russian Chapter we want to assist the transformation of BPM into acknowledged discipline and eventually to add dynamics to the BPM market.

Is it real? Looking at the project management state of the art, there is every reason to say yes. PMBOK there vs. BPM CBOK here. A system of certification here and there. Yet unlike BPM, there is no need to explain what a project management is. The reason is obvious: BPM is younger. But it will pass with age.

Another encouraging example is ABPMP Brazil Chapter. I was surprising to hear from American colleagues that ​​BPM ideas in Brazil are more widespread than in the US. No doubt there is a contribution of the local ABPMP Chapter and its president Gart Capote who advised me on establishing the chapter in Russia (thanks, Gart!) Why not achieving a similar success here? Russia has endless opportunities for process management and BPM.

So far, the initiative group has created a Russian Chapter (www.abpmp.org.ru) and registered it with ABPMP International. The next important milestone is the kick-start meeting - the registration is opened.

Planned Chapter activities are: Russian BPM glossary, BPM CBOK translation into Russian, CBPP certification, seminars, workshops etc.

Get involved now!

There is a Russian idiom “The Hamburg Score”. It comes from a legend saying that professional wrestlers of the world gathered in Hamburg once per year at the beginning of XX century to find out who is the best. The point is that they did it for themselves, not for public.

This story came into my mind at bpmNEXT conference because of its unique atmosphere: no marketing stuff, no lead generation, no speculations about what BPM is – nothing of what one may expect at a typical BPM event. Just a professional showcase of tomorrow’s BPM. » read the rest

Question #1 of BPMN-based process analysis: what are we going to do - Command or Respond?

• Command means using orchestration only, i.e. model within a single BPMN pool.
• Respond means providing handlers for events raised by external entities (clients, partners, government agencies), internal services and/or enterprise software systems.

» read the rest

A process A sends BPMN message to a process B. What if A sent the message before B has become ready to receive it, i.e. before a token arrived to B2?

» read the rest

My grandfather Ivan Orlenko was a military pilot during WW II. He flied on torpedo bombers over the Baltic Sea in 1944-1945 and ended the war at the rank of regiment commander. (On this occasion I recommend to those interested in military history the site of my brother Oleg Belaychuk.)

Grandfather is at the center of the photo. The writing on the plane says it’s an American Boston A-20G, which were supplied to the USSR under Lend-Lease.

Among many stories that grandfather has left here is the one about planes that are best for war and for peace. Retelling in my own words:

When we got Bostons we were surprised with unprecedented level of comfort - they were warm! We could fly without fur shoes and fur coats which we all used to. But when we got involved into actions we’ve found that Bostons are too ready to burn. Technicians investigated why and found that heating was provided by a gasoline stove fed by a pipe running through the entire machine. A bullet or a shell fragment and the machine is down. So we dismounted the whole heating system and got our fur boots with sheepskin coats back.

It should be noted that when the bomber steers the target at the final approach it’s under the fire of all ship weaponry from the main battery to the officer on the bridge with a handgun. And being shot down over the Baltic… Grandfather’s engine has caught fire after attack once but he was able to knock down the flames and get back on one engine. Meanwhile he was “buried” at the base because the fuel calculation didn’t give a chance to stay in the air at the time. » read the rest

It’s common to see BPMN diagrams using send tasks to illustrate that we send documents to external entity and receive tasks to model obtaining an answer. Or (which is practically the same) using send message and receive message events for these purposes. » read the rest

Basic BPMN Assumptions:

1. All information is stored
2. Organization has a mechanism of tasks assignation and transfer
3. Every task is accompanied by appropriate instruction
4. Every task has standard duration and there is a way to control it

4. Every task has standard duration and there is a way to control it

Question: how do we show at the diagram that task should be accomplished in 2 hours?

Answer: normally we don’t need to model it. Just let’s agree once and forever that:

» read the rest

Basic BPMN Assumptions:

1. All information is stored
2. Organization has a mechanism of tasks assignation and transfer
3. Every task is accompanied by appropriate instruction
4. Every task has standard duration and there is a way to control it

3. Every task is accompanied by appropriate instruction

Another way to simplify the diagram: keep in mind that a text description and/or instruction can be attached to a task. » read the rest

Basic BPMN Assumptions:

1. All information is stored
2. Organization has a mechanism of tasks assignation and transfer
3. Every task is accompanied by appropriate instruction
4. Every task has standard duration and there is a way to control it

2. Organization Has a Mechanism of Tasks Assignation And Transfer

Time after time students bring diagrams like this to my BPMN training:

» read the rest

You’d simplify BPMN work and at the same time make resulting diagrams simpler and clearer by accepting the following assumptions:

1. All information is stored
2. Organization has a mechanism of tasks assignation and transfer
3. Every task is accompanied by appropriate instruction
4. Every task has standard duration and there is a way to control it

1. All information is stored

Don’t ask how and where process data (attributes) are stored. Just take for granted that there is some dedicated storage and you are able to handle it. » read the rest