BPM Program Implementation – An Important Checklist for Success

Since the emergence of Business Process Management (BPM), organisations adopting it have had a wide variety of experiences – some successful and others less so. Some would argue that because BPM is so amorphous that any project is considered to be analogous to ‘boiling the ocean’ and therefore the outcomes may vary from exceptionally successful to, in some cases, disastrous.

Typical challenges that often cause concerns during a BPM initiative include:

• Focus on automation supersedes process excellence and continuous improvement
• Complex transformation programs end up in failures, as the business scope is not prioritised and the program roadmap not defined in advance
• Traditional Waterfall business requirements & process analysis phase takes  an average of 6 – 9 months  with no results to show in production for at least a year and as a result, business sponsors often get disillusioned with BPM
• Lack of alignment between the investments across business strategy, process improvement and automation activities

AIIM BPM Industry Watch 2009 Report – Released

AIIM have released their annual report on the state of the BPM industry which is based on the experiences of over 450 BPM users within the AIIM community, this report details how long the payback period might be and the likely return on investment (ROI) across a number of potential process types.

The study also covers the biggest project issues and critical factors for success. Users told us where they prefer to buy their BPM tools and what features and functions they have found to be most useful.

It also goes on to reiterrate the point that most practitioners of BPM and Enterprise Architecture have known for many years and I have seen with most customers I have worked with over the years.

Business Process Management (BPM) is not widely recognized as a single software product or even as a suite of related software tools. It is, more accurately, a business management practice which might utilize a number of dedicated software mechanisms.

…BPM takes on both broader and deeper aspects. Broader in the sense of integrating with other enterprise applications, taking in electronic forms and edocuments, populating transactional databases and providing a single point of interface for users. Deeper features include process modelling and simulation, reusable process modules, and process monitoring and optimization.

By its nature, BPM is an intrusive technology. It has an excellent track record of investment return largely achieved by changing and re-shaping business processes for higher performance. As an agent of such change, the implementation of BPM presents many challenges, particularly when a process crosses departmental boundaries, or when the proponents of the BPM project are not from within the Line of Business affected.

Key findings from this BPM report include: