Sorry, this entry is only available in Русский.

From time to time we are approached by prospects requesting task control automation by BPM.

The idea is simple: someone assigns tasks by setting goals, responsibles and terms. It’s easy enough to develop a system automating terms control, due dates reminders, statistical analysis, etc.

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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

Sorry, this entry is only available in Русский.

BPMN became popular. Customers demand BPMN because in their view it’s modern and hence a priori more advanced process notation.

But I also understand process specialists experienced in other notations e.g. IDEF or EPC that refuse to follow the fade blindly and ask to explain why BPMN is better. I understand their skepticism - a new notation must be essentially, radically better to justify the transition, not just look nicer.

So what is BPMN -

Another Notation or The Notation?

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Русский.

Texts about BPMS tend to focus at first hand on business process notations and diagrams. User interfaces to process tasks and web portal functionality are usually next topics, followed by business rules and integration. Such topics as data modeling at the design phase and data manipulation during the process execution are often out of sight.

Yet process model and data model are the key aspects of any process application architecture. Therefore, process modeling and data modeling are equally important core competencies of a process engineer. » read the rest

Gartner, Pega and IBM are pushing new acronyms:

• IBO = Intelligent Business Operations
• iBPMS = Intelligent Business Process Management Suite

According to the experts, the concepts behind the acronyms aren’t exceptionally new - it’s evolutionary integration of related technologies: BPMS, BAM, BRE, CEP, ACM… Looks like someone decided it’s time to put new labels over the old BPM/BPMS.

I’m not personally convinced that the market will accept this labeling game. Attempts to announce the “post-BPM” solution was made in the past (Intalio) and are made today (Metasonic) without much success. This time the heavyweights are in play however.

I would like to see the breakthroughs in technology and methodology, not acronyms. From this perspective the bpmNEXT initiative looks more interesting. Quoting the memorandum by Bruce Silver and Nathaniel Palmer:

We both do not agree with the fact that BPM is dead… or that BPM is tired. In fact, innovations associated with the clouds, event-driven analytics, case management, mobile applications and social networks fed by innovations in the field of BPM with an intensity that we have not seen for years.

By contrast, 10 years ago the process management discipline has undergone radical changes both in methodology and technology:

• continuous improvement instead of one-time reengineering
• integrated BPM Suites instead of separate modeling tools and workflow engines
• agile development instead of “waterfall”

This time it’s about “in addition”, not “instead” hence the talk about “the death of BPM” is either speculation or provocation.

And this is very good actually - let’s not start it from scratch once again: TQM, reeingineering, BPM… It destroys the market as potential customers feel uncertain. What’s the point of implementing a new acronym if the previous one - pushed by the same consultants - was declared obsolete so easily?

Now when we position the post-BPM as an extension, it makes the late majority customers realize that the “basic BPM” is a task of yesterday, not tomorrow. Plus, tomorrow promises many fascinating and useful things.

A recent ebizQ question «What is the most important question to ask when starting a BPM project?» collected a record number of responses. Peter did not specify the role - which side asks the question? Since the majority of active participants (writers) are BPM vendors or consultants, they proposed the question as if they were asking a potential clients. The majority agreed that the most important questions are about the context, objectives and metrics of success of the BPM project and I totally agree with this.

But let us turned back to ourselves: what is the toughest question a potential customer can ask a BPM vendor?

For me, the most difficult question is “Where is the money?”

» read the rest