Introduction to BPM

Introduction To BPM

Sandy Kemsley l www.column2.com l @skemsley

Copyright Kemsley Design Ltd., 2011 1

My History in BPM
l Mid-late 80’s: from satellite imaging to
document imaging to workflow
l Early 90’s: built desktop imaging/workflow
product
l Mid-late 90’s: integrate custom imaging,
workflow, EAI and e-commerce systems
l 2000-1: FileNet BPM evangelist
l 2002-now: BPM and Enterprise 2.0
consulting, blogger and industry analyst

Agenda
l Defining BPM
l The methodology and the technology
l The value of BPM

l Evolution of the BPMS
l Trends in BPM and BPMS
l Implementing a BPMS
l Use cases and BPMS characteristics
l Started and growing a BPM initiative


Part 1

Defining BPM


Methodology AND Technology


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
l A management discipline for improving
cross-functional business processes
l The methods and technology tools used to
manage and optimize business processes


The Value of BPM


BPM Goals
l Efficiency
l Automating steps and handoffs
l Integrating systems and data sources
l Compliance
l Achieving and proving standardization
l Agility
l Changing processes quickly and easily
l Visibility
l See what’s happening in a process


Benefits of BPM
l Process improvement
l Cost savings
l Increased revenue
l Improved time-to-market
l Additional business opportunities

l Business agility through process agility
l Self-documenting processes


Part 2

The Evolution of BPMS


History of BPM to mid-2000’s
BPM Suite

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

Workflow Lightweight EAI Simple workflow EAI/IBS
(OEM) (build)
(person-to-person) (system-to-system)

extend
extend

Business activity
monitoring Business rules
B2Bi
Process governance
Process modeling
Process simulation

Administrative BPM Collaborative BPM
Copyright Kemsley Design Ltd., 2011 Embedded BPM
12

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


What’s In Today’s BPMS?
l Process modeling l Monitoring and
l Execution engine governance
l User interfaces, l Dashboards,
including social reporting and
and collaborative analysis
l Integration l Simulation and
optimization
l Business rules
l Application
templates


The BPM Cycle
Discover

Optimize Design

Analyze Build

Execute


Importance of Model-Driven BPM
l Reduces need for custom development
l Graphical model auto-translates to executing
process: “zero code” BPM
l IT resistance to ceding control

l Enables business-IT collaboration
l Business people can create and view process
models
l Business resistance to participation


BPM Standards


Why BPMN?
l OMG-supported standard
l Support by many tool vendors
l Training and certification programs
l Ongoing enhancements in BPMN 2.0:
l Advanced event modelling
l Serialization for model interchange
l Execution semantics


BPMN: The Rosetta Stone of
Process
l Enables
communication
between different
audiences:
l Business users
l Business analysts
l Technical
implementers


BPMN Is Simple...
l Activity

l Gateway

l Event

l Data

lSource: http://bpmb.de/poster

The BPMN 2.0 Problem
l More than 100 elements
l Unlikely to be fully understood by most
experts, much less users
l Unlikely to be fully supported by most
vendors
l Has led to rejection of BPMN in favor of
“simpler” modeling paradigms

lSource:M. zur Muehlen,
lStevens Institute of

lTechnology


The BPMN 2.0 Solution
l Not everyone needs to learn everything
l Group BPMN elements into sets used by
different personas
l Business user
l Business analyst
l Architect/developer

l Each level adds more detail to model

BPMN 2.0 Subclasses
l Simple: start, end,
Executable task, sequence flow,
AND, OR, subprocess
Analytic l Descriptive: add task
types, event types,
swimlanes, message
Descriptive
flows, data objects
l Analytic: full enterprise
architecture modelling
Simple l Executable: complete
set for executable
models

BPM and SOA


BPM And SOA

Process Process Process Process
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

Service A Service B Service C Service D Service E

• Call • Call • Call ERP • External • Internal
legacy database system web web
system service service


BPM And SOA Together
l BPM is the “killer app” for SOA; SOA is the
enabling infrastructure for BPM
l SOA alone only allows you to design and build
a set of services
l BPM alone would require custom coding for
each system integration

l BPM + SOA orchestrates people and
services into a business process


SOA And Process Modeling
l Discovering services
l What services already exist
l Whether existing services meet the needs

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


Implementing BPM And SOA
l Two basic approaches
l Bottom-up — SOA then BPM
l Generate services from existing apps
l Consume services in processes
l Top-down — BPM drives SOA
l Model processes
l Identify and build services required

l In practice, a combination of both
approaches


Issues And Challenges
l Different vendors and products
l SOA and BPM seen as competitive
l Competing standards
l Separate initiatives within end-user
organizations
l Developed independently in different
departments
l Different sponsors and champions


Part 3

Trends in BPM and BPMS


Business-Driven Trends in BPM
Business Driver Resulting Change in BPM
Knowledge work is replacing More agile to allow flexible
routine work business processes
The value of collaboration in More social to allow
business is recognized collaboration within BPM
Need to respond quickly to Event-driven intelligent
changing events processes
Business demands greater End-user tools for business-
control over processes led design

The Impact of Social Software


What Is Enterprise 2.0?
l Enterprise-facing social software
l Business purpose, not purely social:
l Social interaction to strengthen weak ties
l Social production to collaboratively produce
content

l SaaS or on-premise


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


Social Software Impacts:
The Four C’s
l Collaboration
l Configurability
l Cloud
l Community


Design-Time Collaboration
l Multiple people participate in process
discovery
l Internal and external
l Technical and business

l Captures “tribal knowledge”


Runtime Collaboration
l User adds new participants to leverage
knowledge and relationship
l User discussions linked to process
instance
l Threaded discussions
l Wiki pages
l Instant messaging
l Tags and categories


Process Event Streams
l Publish and subscribe model for process
events
l Changes to models
l Runtime process instances

l Increases visibility
l Increases participation
l Supports wider variety of devices, including
mobile


BPM Configurability
l Composite development environments now
included with many BPMS
l UI forms development
l Container-based portal environment
l Ready-made BPM widgets
l Wiring interfaces between widgets


BPM in the Cloud
l Reduce capital costs
l Full capabilities of on-premise version
l Design and run from anywhere
l Key targets:
l Business process outsourcers
l Small and medium business
l Business-to-business processes


Online BPM Communities
l External communities of practice
l Provide idea exchange, tools
l Augment or replace internal BPM center of
excellence
l May be vendor specific/sponsored

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


Agile/Dynamic BPM


Work: Taylor vs. Drucker

l Scientific l Management by
management objectives
l Standardize l Participants choose
processes to actions to meet goals
increase efficiency

The Extremes Of Work

Routine Knowledge
Work Work


From Structured BPM to ACM
Adaptive Case
Structured BPM
Management
Repeatability Highly repeatable Unpredictable
Process Assist human
Focus
transactions knowledge
Efficiency and Problem resolution
Goal
automation and documentation

Back-office financial Patient chronic care
Example
transactions management

Characterizing The Extremes
Routine Work Knowledge Work
l Predefined process l No predefined model

model l Collaboration on demand

l Controlled participation l Little automation, but
l Automatable, especially guided by rules and
with service integration, events
rules and events


The Structured/Unstructured
Debate

If you can’t model
Exceptions are the
it up front, you just
new normal: every
don’t understand
process is different
the process


It’s Not That Simple
Structured Work Unstructured Work
l Some process are that l Some processes have

repeatable, especially sufficient variability that
automated processes modelling is inefficient
l Ad hoc process l Instrumentation of

exceptions already exist, unstructured processes
they’re just off the grid provides value


A Spectrum Of Structure

Structured Structured with Unstructured with Unstructured
• e.g., automated ad hoc pre-defined • e.g., investigations
regulatory process exceptions fragments
• e.g., financial back- • e.g., insurance
office transactions claims


Dimensions Of Work
l Structured to unstructured
l Controlled to collaborative
l Internal to external
Structure
participation

Collaboration
l Not strictly independent
External
Socialization


What’s Required For Agile BPM?
l Modify structured process models during
runtime
l Manage unstructured/unpredictable and
semi-structured work
l Provide real-time process intelligence to
identify future problems and inform
decision-making


Event-Driven BPM


What Are Events?
l Events are how the “real world” interacts
with processes and systems
l An action outside a process that impacts
that process
l Real-time information
l Instructions

l Originating with people, sensors or other
systems


Why Do Events Matter?
l Events make processes more responsive
to internal and external situations
l Allow processes to respond to changing
conditions
l Asynchronous information or control
provided to process


Combining Events and Processes
l Event triggers a process
l System or sensor
l User action

l Process creates an event
l Process log
l Explicit message or signal

l Event interrupts or diverts process
l External error or cancellation


Event-Driven Financial Process
l Scenario: loan origination documents
l Customer documents created or gathered
in front office
l Transactions created by front office
l Back office verifies documents against
transactions


Event-Driven Process


Part 4

Implementing BPM


Types of BPMS


Gartner’s BPM Use Cases
l Implementation of company-specific
process application
l Support for continuous process
improvement
l Business transformation initiative
l Redesign for process-based SOA

Gartner MQ for BPMS, 2009


Gartner Use Case Characteristics
(a.k.a. “Functions”)
l Business perspective on models
l Orchestration of end-to-end processes
l Rules engine
l Pre-built industry-specific content
l Management visibility and control
l Model-driven development
l …and more


Forrester Market Divisions
l Dynamic case management
= document-centric BPM
l Comprehensive integration solutions
= integration-centric BPM
l BPMS
= human-centric BPM

Forrester Wave for BPMS, 2010


Characteristics of
Dynamic Case Management
l Strong enterprise content management
(ECM) requirements
l Records management
l Search
l Content analytics

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


Characteristics of Comprehensive
Integration Solutions
l Heavy integration requirements
l ESB
l Service registry, repository and governance
l SOA development environments

l Human-centric BPM capabilities
l Exception handling and escalation


Characteristics of BPMS
l Web service and other lighter-weight
integration
l Lighter-weight content management
l Focus on process application development
l Process modeling and design collaboration
l Process development and composition
l Collaborative work environment


Evaluation Criteria for BPM


BPM Evaluation Criteria
l BPM “style”: integration, human-centric,
document-centric
l Collaborative modeling
l Process design
l Application composition/development
l Business rules
l ESB/SOA


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


Starting and Growing a BPM
Initiative

Picking The Right First Process
l Small enough to be manageable
l Minimum “useful” functionality in 1st iteration
l Minimize customization, breadth before depth

l Big enough to be relevant
l Line of business

l Expected return on investment (ROI)
l Improved user experience, automation, tracking

l Opportunity for future reusability
l Related to future plans

Gaining Business Buy-In
l Collaborative process discovery and
design
l Ongoing involvement during agile
prototyping and implementation
l Control over production runtime
environment
l Methodology and corporate culture


Ensuring User Adoption
l Build a user-centric solution
l Different interfaces for different personas
l Configurable by user to their work style

l Provide benefits to individual users
l Integration to reduce rekeying information
l Automated work auditing
l Incentives tied to appropriate system usage


Measuring Success
Hard ROI Soft ROI
l Reduced headcount due l Improved customer

to improved efficiency satisfaction
l Reduced skill levels due l Increased revenue based
to automation on increased capacity
l Reduced SLA violations l Increased competitive
l Reduced time to change advantage due to
reduced time to market
l Reduced monitoring
overhead l Outsourcing/offshoring
l Customer self-service

Expanding the Initiative
l Find an internal evangelist
l Measure and understand ROI
l Deeper integration
l Increase benefits via integration and automation

l Wider adoption across the organization
l Generalizing the benefits
l Expand initial processes into adjacent areas


BPM Center Of Excellence
l Vision for enterprise BPM
l Overall BPMS architecture
l Process redesign to expand existing BPM
processes to new participants
l Training and mentoring on tools and
methodology
l Governance
l Repository of reusable artifacts


From BPM Project To Program
1st BPM project
Resources
Resources

CoE: Plan Core team Expand team

Resources
Resources
2nd BPM project

Time


Summary


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


Sandy Kemsley
Kemsley Design Ltd.
email: sandy@kemsleydesign.com
blog: www.column2.com
twitter: @skemsley

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Introduction to BPM

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Introduction to BPM