Put the Emphasis on "P" for Process in Business Process Management
When working with BPM tools, it's essential to emphasize that the effort is about business processes (not just the tools).
One reason that IT doesn’t use this code to execute the actual processes: The applications being orchestrated and the data sources being manipulated are more complex than a model represents—requiring IT expertise to program. And IT can have the entire system picture in mind. “You need to create a BPM hierarchy that matches to that of the company; otherwise you create a spaghetti of integration from project to project,” says Soto.
This is especially true as your BPM efforts cross process domains, notes Motorola’s Morrison: “It’s across processes where you have different semantics, syntaxes and application idiosyncrasies.”
While industry analysts all recommend starting small, so IT can build the skills needed to effectively understand and develop processes as well as implement them, Morrison urges other CIOs to aim high once they’ve got their feet wet. “You could use BPM just within a specific domain, but that’s not where the challenges are.”
Galen Gruman is a frequent contributor to CIO. You can reach him at ggruman@zangogroup.com.
