Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About BPM (But Were Afraid To Ask)

Sandy Kemsley l www.column2.com l @skemsley

BPM 101

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About BPM*

*But Were Afraid To Ask

My History in BPM Mid-late 80’s: from satellite imaging to

document imaging to workflow Early 90’s: built desktop imaging/workflow

product Mid-late 90’s: integrate custom imaging,

workflow, EAI and e-commerce systems 2000-1: FileNet BPM evangelist 2002-now: BPM and Enterprise 2.0

consulting and industry analyst

2Copyright Kemsley Design Ltd., 2011

My BPM Calling Card Column2.com: “a blog about BPM,

Enterprise 2.0 and technology trends in business”

Community of up to 3,000/day Best known for:

Conference blogging Product reviews Independent opinions


Agenda Defining BPM

The methodology and the technology The value of BPM

Evolution of the BPMS Trends in BPM and BPMS Fit-to-purpose BPM

Use cases in BPM Getting started and growing a BPM initiative


Defining BPMPart 1


Methodology AND Technology

Copyright Kemsley Design Ltd., 2011 6

What Is AnEnterprise Business Process?

Chain of activities producing a business result

Usually spans functional silos Requirement to “manage the white space”

between functional groups

Target of high-value BPM efforts


What is BPM?

BPM is a management practice that provides for governance of a business’ process environment toward the goal of improving agility and operational performance.

BPM is a structured approach employing methods, policies, metrics, management practices and software tools to manage and continuously optimize an organization’s activities and processes.

Gartner


BPM Defined A management discipline for improving

cross-functional business processes The methods and technology tools used to

manage and optimize business processes


Business Process Maturity Model


Source: OMG BPMM specification

How BPMM Works


Source: OMG BPMM specification

The Value of BPM



BPM Goals Efficiency

Automating steps and handoffs Integrating systems and data sources

Compliance Achieving and proving standardization

Agility Changing processes quickly and easily

Visibility See what’s happening in a process


Benefits of BPM Process improvement

Cost savings Increased revenue Improved time-to-market Additional business opportunities

Business agility through process agility Self-documenting processes

The Evolution of BPMSPart 2


History of BPM to mid-2000’s


BPM Suite

“Integration-focused” BPM“Pure-play” BPM

Administrative BPM Collaborative BPM Embedded BPM

exte

ndex

tendextend

Simple workflow (build)

Lightweight EAI (OEM)

exte

nd

Workflow(person-to-person)

EAI/IBS(system-to-system)

Business activity monitoring

Process governance

Process simulation

Business rules

Process modeling

B2Bi

From 2005 To Now Model-driven development Emergence of standards Integration of key related technologies Social software impacts Composite development environment Market convergence and consolidation


What’s In Today’s BPMS? Process definition/

modeling tool Execution engine User interfaces Integration

capabilities incl. web services

Business rules

Monitoring and governance

Dashboards, reporting and analysis

Simulation and optimization

Application templates


Importance of Model-Driven BPM Reduces need for custom development

Graphical model auto-translates to executing process: “zero code” BPM

IT resistance to ceding control

Enables business-IT collaboration Business people can create and view process

models Business resistance to participation


BPM Standards


Source: http://bpmb.de/poster


BPM and SOA


BPM and SOA


Service A Service B Service C

Service D Service E

LegacySystem

DatabaseERPSystem

ProcessStep 1

ProcessStep 2

ProcessStep 3

ProcessStep 4

BPM and SOA Together BPM is the “killer app” for SOA; SOA is the

enabling infrastructure for BPM SOA alone only allows you to design and build a

set of services BPM alone would require custom coding for

each system integration

BPM + SOA orchestrates people and services into a business process


SOA and Process Modeling Discovering services

What services already exist Whether existing services meet the needs

Specifying services What new services need to be created What legacy functions need to be wrapped in

services


Implementing BPM and SOA Two basic approaches

Bottom-up — SOA then BPM Generate services from existing apps Consume services in processes

Top-down — BPM drives SOA Model processes Identify and build services required

In practice, a combination of both approaches


Issues and Challenges Different vendors and products SOA and BPM seen as competitive Competing standards Separate initiatives within end-user

organizations Developed independently in different

departments Different sponsors and champions


Trends in BPM and BPMSPart 3


Business-Driven Trends in BPM

Business Driver Resulting Change in BPM

Knowledge work is replacing routine work

More agile to allow flexible business processes

The value of collaboration in business is recognized

More social to allow collaboration within BPM

Need to respond quickly to changing events

Event-driven intelligent processes

Business demands greater control over processes

End-user tools for business-led design


The Impact of Social Software


What Is Enterprise 2.0? Enterprise-facing social software Business purpose, not purely social:

Social interaction to strengthen weak ties Social production to collaboratively produce

content

SaaS or on-premise


Drivers For BPM + Enterprise 2.0 Changing user expectations Trends towards greater collaboration Lack of agility in many current BPMS

implementations


Social Software Impacts:The Four C’s

Collaboration Configurability Cloud Community


Design-Time Collaboration Multiple people participate in process

discovery Internal and external Technical and business

Captures “tribal knowledge”


Runtime Collaboration User adds new participants to leverage

knowledge and relationship User discussions linked to process

instance Threaded discussions Wiki pages Instant messaging Tags and categories


BPM Configurability Composite development environments now

included with many BPMS UI forms development Container-based portal environment Ready-made BPM widgets Wiring interfaces between widgets


BPM in the Cloud Reduce capital costs Full capabilities of on-premise version Design and run from anywhere Key targets:

Business process outsourcers Small and medium business Business-to-business processes


Process Event Streams Publish and subscribe model for process

events Changes to models Runtime process instances

Increases visibility Increases participation Supports wider variety of devices, including

mobile


Online BPM Communities External communities of practice

Provide idea exchange, tools Augment or replace internal BPM center of

excellence May be vendor specific/sponsored

Internal center of excellence Discussion forums Collaboration linked to process models Collaboration linked to process instances


Agile/Dynamic BPM


Work: Taylor vs. Drucker

Scientific management

Standardize processes to increase efficiency

Management by objectives

Participants choose actions to meet goals


Routine Work

Routine work can be analyzed and a common pattern derived...it can be automated by traditional process automation means.

Mastering The Unpredictable


Knowledge Work

Knowledge work...does not have the level of repeatability found in routine work. When it comes to work automation, any advantage gained from similarities is overwhelmed by the additional costs of having to accommodate the differences.

Mastering The Unpredictable


What’s Required For Agile BPM? Modify structured process models during

runtime Manage unstructured/unpredictable and

semi-structured work Provide real-time process intelligence to

identify future problems and inform decision-making


From Structured BPM to ACM

Structured BPM Adaptive Case Management

Repeatability of process instances

Highly repeatable Unpredictable

Focus of process Transactions Knowledge

Goal of system Efficiency and automation

Problem resolution

Example Data processing of financial transactions

Patient chronic care management


ACM and BPM Together Process spawns

exception case

Case invokes process fragments


Event-Driven BPM


What Are Events? Events are how the “real world” interacts

with processes and systems An action outside a process that impacts

that process Real-time information Instructions

Originating with people, sensors or other systems


Why Do Events Matter? Events make processes more responsive

to internal and external situations Allow processes to respond to changing

conditions Asynchronous information or control

provided to process


Combining Events and Processes Event triggers a process

System or sensor User action

Process creates an event Process log Explicit message or signal

Event interrupts or diverts process External error or cancellation


Event-Driven Financial Process Scenario: loan origination documents Customer documents created or gathered

in front office Transactions created by front office Back office verifies documents against

transactions


Events and Process

Inbound Events Process initiation from

LOB system Document received from

ECM system Manual override of

documentation requirements

Outbound Events Fraud detection Feedback and requests

to front office Exceptions and

escalations to tracking systems


Event-Driven Process


Business-Led Design


How Business Leads BPM Efforts Process discovery/modeling

Analysts capturing process models Users reviewing and modifying models

Customization of composite applications Users optimizing their own work environment Analysts creating shared views without IT

Dynamic BPM Users changing processes on the fly


Fit-To-Purpose BPMPart 4


Types of BPMS


Gartner’s BPM Use Cases Implementation of company-specific

process application Support for continuous process

improvement Business transformation initiative Redesign for process-based SOA

Gartner MQ for BPMS, 2009


Gartner Use Case Characteristics(a.k.a. “Functions”)


Business perspective on models Orchestration of end-to-end processes Rules engine Pre-built industry-specific content Management visibility and control Model-driven development …and more

Forrester Market Divisions Dynamic case management

= document-centric BPM Comprehensive integration solutions

= integration-centric BPM BPMS

= human-centric BPM

Forrester Wave for BPMS, 2010


Characteristics of Dynamic Case Management

Strong enterprise content management (ECM) requirements Records management Search Content analytics

Human-centric BPM capabilities Document approval workflow Ad hoc BPM centered on case file


Characteristics of Comprehensive Integration Solutions

Heavy integration requirements ESB Service registry, repository and governance SOA development environments

Human-centric BPM capabilities Exception handling and escalation


Characteristics of BPMS Web service and other lighter-weight

integration Lighter-weight content management Focus on process application development

Process modeling and design collaboration Process development and composition Collaborative work environment


Evaluation Criteria for BPM


BPM Evaluation Criteria BPM “style”: integration, human-centric,

document-centric Collaborative modeling Process design Application composition/development Business rules ESB/SOA


BPM Evaluation Criteria Collaborative/dynamic execution User-configurable user interface Analytics and reporting Simulation Process optimization


Starting and Growing a BPM Initiative


Getting Started With BPM Picking the right first process

Small enough to be manageable Big enough to be relevant Expected return on investment (ROI)

Gaining business buy-in Collaborative process discovery and design Ongoing involvement during prototyping and

implementation Control over production runtime environment


Making It Work Ensuring user adoption

Building a user-centric, user-configurable solution

Providing benefits to individual users

Measuring success Before and after comparisons Post-implementation reviews Hard and soft ROI Understanding disruptive benefits


Expanding the Initiative Deeper integration

Increase benefits through integration and automation

Wider adoption across the organization Generalizing the benefits Finding points of integration with initial

processes

BPM Center of Excellence Skills and resources Shared artifacts


Summary


Summary The history and evolution of BPM Current trends in BPM Types of processes and BPMS Starting and growing a BPM initiative


Questions?

Sandy Kemsley

Kemsley Design Ltd.

email: [email protected]

blog: www.column2.com

twitter: @skemsley
