I rang in 2016 with my Processoholic Resolutions. One of which was to bring process to the people in a consumable fashion. This is the beginning of that journey, with five follow up blogs to cover each section in detail.
Years ago, when I was just starting to sell BPM Software, I had a manager give me some advice that I still use to this day. “You will never bore someone into buying something from you.” This statement is probably doubly true when you are selling something as exciting as process and process improvement.
As a processoholic, process geek, process person, or whatever process aficionado term you identify with, your job is to sell process to your organization. But to do so, you will have to avoid a common process-person pitfall. Don’t try to sell it from the process ivory tower!
A great example is how to answer something like, “What is BPM?”.
Business Process Management is a methodology or discipline (not just technology) for managing an entire process rather than individual tasks. It is the means for improving business performance and outcomes. Processes can span across both manual and automated tasks, and bring together people, systems, data, and things.
Unfortunately, this answer sounds a bit like Charlie Brown’s teacher to non-process people.
Wah-wah-wah-wwwwahhhh.
To sell process to your organization, it has to be consumable to everyone (especially the stakeholders who control your budget.) After a few years of thinking about it, I have boiled “What is BPM?” down to 5 words: Process, People, Context, Actions, and Outcomes.
People
In the process world, it is very easy to forget that productive people are just as important as effective processes. There are just as many ways to improve and optimize how one is using their operating resources, as there are ways to improve one’s operational efficiency. Even if you have gone through several rounds of process improvement, a predictive operations dashboard can offer entirely new optimizations.
Process
Process may seem like an obvious choice for business process management, but there is one thing to keep in mind. Not all processes are created equal.
There are many process styles. Some are suited for standardizing processes; some are more geared towards innovation or handling unpredictable business situations. Be sure you are using the right ones in the right places.
Context
The full business context must be available to make the new complexity of the digital business consumable. So, what is the “full business context”? There are many types of context, and each situation will require a mixture of them.
- Situational Context
- Strategic, Operational, & Tactical Context
- Social, Organizational, & Relational Context
- Physical Context
- Visual Context
Actions
Process, people, and context come together for decisions, which determine the right course of actions. Intelligent technologies will automatically take some of these actions, and some will rely on human insight. The new challenge is to ensure the right actions are being presented out of the sea of potential possibilities the digital business brings.
Outcomes
At the heart of every process should be the desired business outcome. You can start out with just the basic three, and work your way up to some of the more fancy-schmancy outcomes.
When you are ready to expand into the fancy-schmancy area, a great resource to check out is Gartner’s Business Value Model. They provide information around several common outcomes (see table above) and provide guidance on what to measure to gauge your success in that area.
I am going to explore each of these areas in more detail in the coming months. Stay tuned and subscribe to this blog to get updates.