International Process and Performance Institute

Time for an edgy article, one that challenges the status quo and upsets some apple carts...

BPM.  Business Process Management is a tool - but it is NOT A TOOL. For everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, that thinks BPM is some form of technology or use of technology you have missed the boat, the big picture and the real opportunity. People who believe that BPM is the expression of process in technology are limiting their perspective to a very tactical aspect of BPM that is not transformational and that is often destructive. Those who are "implementing" BPM with software modeling tools, workflow execution software, BPMN, BPEL, or whatever haven't missed the boat, they have missed the ocean.

But that goes against an awful lot of leadership commentary and work in practice so what is the disconnect? It starts with an understanding of what BPM is - which is certainly a challenge because there is no common definition of BPM. Instead there are many opinions and pespectives. Let's try and remedy that with what may very well be the best definition of BPM to date:

BPM Defined

BPM is an understanding of the work that people do in an organization as related activities (or tasks) that often encapsulate or create experiences (customers or internal customers), that exist to achieve a result, that are optimized and managed against desired experiences, that are refined to eliminate non-value added work, and that are supported by technology in a way that makes all experiences (customers, internal customers, participants, managers,etc.) simpler, easier and more successful.

So BPM is a tool, because it is something we can use to accomplish many organizational benefits of great value. We can increase customer satisfication, improve customer value, reduce costs, improve employee morale, make less mistakes, create more consistency and get more work done.

BPM is not a tool because too often the term "tool" refers to technology, and as we can clearly see from the definition above technology is a suporting aspect of BPM but it is not BPM.

From the definition supplied we can also see that BPMN is not BPM. I pick on BPMN because of its hype as a "standard" when under no circumstances has it ever been "standard." BPMN is a complicated technical expression that has attempted to codify a bunch of analytical concepts from several decades ago along with process structure that partially aligns to workflow technology.

Of course, that aligns to all those people who have been coming out of the woodwork lately with "decades" of BPM experience when the term was only coined in the early 1990s. Huh? Reminds me of the guy who claimed that BPM is really just a part of the philosophy that lead to mass production and assembly lines...

What about Richard Norman? Have you heard that name before? He was the guy who coined the term "Moments of Truth" and produced major works in the understanding and leveraging of processes behind customer experiences and customer value. Moments of Truth aren't in any of these other things I have mentioned... well, that's not true. The concept of Moments of Truth isn't in any of these things but Moments of Truth are THERE IN SPADES.

The Magic of BPM

The magic of BPM is the opportunity to address human experience in process. Yes, that means dealing with subjective, emotional, unpredictable and often inconsistent behavior but that's what it means to be human. How can we possibly discount this if we are truly logical, rational and intelligent? Water and oil don't mix, and these concept refute each other. We cannot be logical, rational and intelligent if we ignore the human aspect of process. In fact, the human aspect of process - and of BPM - is the single most important perspective hands down in BPM. If you only get one piece of it, this is the piece you need to "get."

So BPM is in a mess but if you can wade through that mess and understand what BPM is really all about you can achieve great things. You can certainly use technology to aid you, and you may find that technology will empower you. But BPM - once and again - just isn't technology folks. It isn't BPMN, it isn't something you can buy in a box, it isn't mathematical and it refutes all attempts to create a singular executable expression form of it. It's essence rests in human nature, and anyone that suggests they understand and can codify that has failed to reach the state of wisdom.

While I may be bold enough to present a definition of BPM I am not fool enough to suggest that I understand all aspects of BPM. Instead, while I make observations that capture many important aspects of BPM I wisely understand that what I don't know easily outweighs what I do know.

The mess comes from believing that we we know, what we care about, or what we want to be true is a comprehensive - no, a complete and holistic - understanding of BPM. We aren't close to that, but some of us are farther away from the truth than others...