BPM reference model - fragment 07 - All attention at enterprise BPM systems

... continued from fragment 06

1.7   All attention at enterprise BPM systems

The situation with the second enabler is much more difficult. We have observed that some BPM systems are complex, a "problem" of their history, and chaotic and inefficient. In such systems, the control and operations parts of the enterprise business systems have been constructed separately under different management policies, and they have different speeds of evolution, are not well integrated, etc. Certainly, such BPM systems cannot implement changes at the required pace.

An example of inflexibility can be workflow-based solutions which are often very difficult to evolve. Workflow technology, as a general rule, makes the flow of human work explicit and executable. It also covers to some extent other artefacts such as roles, rules and data, but not explicitly. Everything that is not explicit is usually "spread" somewhere in the program code, and thereby becomes difficult to maintain.

The BPM discipline inherits a lot from workflow technology, but by extending it the BPM discipline handles explicitly more business artefacts (i.e. services, events, etc.). Also, the BPM discipline considers the whole cycle of continual process improvement. Thus, potentially, BPM systems can be more flexible than are workflow-based solutions.

Of course, high flexibility does not happen automatically simply by buying a modern BPM suite. The ability of a particular BPM system to evolve at the required pace must be properly architected -- i.e. designed, planned and supervised during its implementation.

This book constitutes practical guidance and help for transforming your existing enterprise environment into a BPM system which is easy to evolve. It provides many recommendations, principles, methods and examples.

... to be continued in fragment 08 ...

Thanks,
AS