Nuparc Learning

This clearly is an extremely high ratio that is creating significant risk to organizations embarking on BPM-based solutions. That risk is not only in sunk costs but also visible in lost market opportunities, decrease in revenue and erosion of competitive positioning. While some percentage of failure can be attributed to “normal” project challenges, the majority of failure is due to organizations failing to adapt old methods of application development to the paradigm that BPM solutions require.

Traditional application development methodologies have included waterfall approaches with heavy front-end emphasis on requirements documentation and solution design. It emphasizes control gates at each stage of the waterfall which allows management to measure progress and make decisions about future phases while delivering the desired functionality. While this approach has been and continues to be successful in many areas, it creates several challenges when applied to BPM initiatives.

BPM projects are focused on changing an organization’s processes to achieve benefit. This is a subtle but core difference. Among the key benefits BPM projects typically strive to achieve are agility, flexibility, quality improvement, cost reduction and performance improvement.   

Central to BPM is the concept of continuous process improvement, which can only be done by understanding processes from end to end, being able to monitor and measure them, implementing improvements, and starting the cycle over again. A BPM methodology needs to include process analysis, process modeling, and process design and implementation to allow an organization to achieve continuous optimization. It is this focus on process change that stands in contrast with traditional application development methodologies which focus on functionality from the outset. Most organizations are not equipped to handle the governance, process focus and subsequent change management required to succeed in BPM projects.

Certainly most organizations begin with the best intentions by starting with procuring a BPM vendor solution (BPMS), which typically provide an array of tools to allow users to define, model, implement, monitor and change processes. They also generally invest in prerequisite training on these BPMS and yet, as the data from Gartner shows, they still struggle to successfully deliver. One key reason is that they do not fully adapt their traditional application development methodology to the requirements of BPM projects. They assume that because they are using a BPMS tool, they must therefore be following best practices for BPM implementations. Upon further analysis, however, you find that most organizations have struggled to separate the act of using a vendor’s tool from an organization’s execution approach to such projects.

To be successful in BPM implementations, organizations must not only pick the right BPMS tool for their specific needs (this is topic for another day), but also adopt a methodology that is customized to BPM projects. This starts with restructuring the way projects are conceived and scoped, budgeted and governed, to the ways in which users are engaged and finally the execution of the design and builds process. Key elements that should exist include:

1. Heavy user involvement through visualization techniques to model processes and outcomes.
2. An iterative approach that engages users each step of the way to ensure a constant cycle of inspection and modification. This constant analysis of features and benefits delivered helps the team keep pace with the changing needs of the business, resulting in an application that accurately supports the needs of the business, increasing success and ultimately ROI.
3. Short time boxed sprints that yield production ready code in 90 days or less, keeping momentum going, end users engaged and mitigating risk by managing scope. This will also accelerate overall goal attainment.
4. Employ a business process competency center that drives the use of best practices and knowledge management, and promotes asset reuse.

In conclusion, BPM programs done correctly can drive phenomenal benefits by allowing an organization to achieve dramatic gains in core process improvement, while at the same time accelerating IT’s ability to deliver capabilities. Having the right implementation approach is a large key to success.

To hear more about Process Exellence and other Business Process Frameworks and how to successfully update your Operational Process strategies, join our Master Class

MASTERING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
with Richard Barr

January 28th & 29th, 2010
London

Learn more here
http://nuparc.com/divlearn/executive%2Dtraining%2Dprocess%2Dimprovement/

Article seen:
http://www.ctoedge.com/content/reducing-risks-bpm-projects

So many people are stagnantly hung up on making the mystical transition from one unmeasurable to another (ie. Good to Great – what’s great?!). But the truth is, it (great) can be measured and it (the transition) can happen with building Process Improvement initiatives into the foundations of your organization.

Some factors that can create, manage, and implement effective Process Improvement initiatives:

Leadership Commitment

Improving a process, changing things, is essentially about achieving some form of business transformation and it requires specific leadership qualities to make it happen; in my opinion, when I have seen this work there have been committed leaders with the clarity of purpose and drive to achieve breakthroughs in performance.

If you are a leader, and need support during time of change Tre has access to accomplished coaches and leadership development professionals that can help.

Strategy and Strategic Alignment

Defining then publicizing the goals of an organization is a critical component of any growth plan. Once organizational goals are set we can understand the Business Processes that are required to achieve them.

Six Sigma, is one methodology that supports this basic philosophy being used in all areas of the business to align resources to solve critical business problems and deliver the strategic objectives. Six Sigma is not an Engineering specific methodology to develop better processes, products, and performance; and is used in many industries including: F & A, Computing, and HR.

Organizations that have successfully embraced and are dedicated to an Quality Assurance approach to ensure that the goals and key performance measures are constantly in mind.

Change Leaders

These are the people ready to make things better. They have to be trained, mobile, and dedicated to the vision and strategy of the organization. Training provides the necessary knowledge and capability to lead the attack on delivering breakthroughs in performance.

Change Leaders help to identify opportunities, transfer knowledge on improvement methodologies, act as mentors and coaches and champion the methodology, and its tools.

Customer Service & Tracking

A well thought out and repeatable approach to gathering customer and market intelligence is essential if Process Improvement efforts are to be viable. Contact with existing customers is essential, tracking their satisfaction rating and changing needs, as well as keeping an eye on competition and other external factors builds up vital intelligence to making improvements that will last the long haul.

Bottom-line Benefits

Quick financial wins ensure an initial swell of support when an initiative begins. Such support will soon fade if that is not backed up with a more continuous flow of savings and monetary results (i.e. real savings and/or considerable revenue gains).

This focus is used to ensure that projects are selected on a balanced basis of maximizing return on investment and customer satisfaction.

Approach

A process by its very nature will reduce variability. Process understanding requires processes to be articulated, their mechanism fully understood and their ability to deliver on customer requirements fully defined.

Closing the capability gap between what the customers require and what the organization processes produce is at the heart of every Process Improvement methodology._{Bruce Duncan}

(An Obsession with) Measurements

Aside from waist size, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Management and measurement must be integrated into your programs – in other words – collect data from every single business processes.

Analyze the data to drive improvement throughout the organization. Decisions made in improving organizations are based on facts – not guesses or hunches.

The consultants at Tre have over twenty years data analysis, system analysis and market analysis experience between them. Putting data into a spread sheet is not analysis. Understanding data, turning results and observations into information that can assist the leadership to make decisions is one of the core principals of Process Improvement, and is equally important in evaluations, strategic planning and fiscal planning.

Continuous Innovation

OK, so that sounds hokey, but initiatives don’t ever really end; great gradually becomes considered good and organizations have to seek further improvement to remain eligible for a great title.

Learning

Employees need access to knowledge, information to encourage organizational learning. Personal development and learning is also a key feature, there can be no concept of only training the management, the executives, the sales folk. There has to be a huge investment in training and awareness to ensure commonality of understanding.

Get outside perspective – a lot can be learned from a new source. Even if you just want to talk over coffee, talking out loud never sounds like a bad idea.

Continuous Reinforcement

This is something we talk about a lot, especially when it comes to the kind of change associated with Process Improvement. The reason for change must be communicated and encouraged, employees must understand the added value. I was recently told that it takes 9 observations of a change in behavior for a peer to change. Equally, it would take the average American 21 days to look at the ‘right’ wrist if he swapped which wrist he wore his watch.

There is no quick fix, to make something that is OK, amazing. It takes time, careful assessment, and sometimes dedication to ride out the storms sometimes attributed to change.

When weak managers think about avoiding improvement goals, or employees challenge the need to introduce a new initiative such as Process Improvement – it will tend to be the case that change is required even more.

There is no argument that it is a challenge, especially to do it greatly. But in the words of a true master of growing businesses: Business excellence and Process Improvement are not in competition, they are in complement.