Enterprise patterns: Maturity Of Process System (MOPS)

Business situation: You want to reach a particular level of maturity (in accordance with CMMI ) of a process-based business system - what BPM functionality will help you?

Note This is blogpost a short version of  http://improving-bpm-systems.blogspot.ch/2009/12/bpm-for-cmmi.html

We know levels of maturity applied for process-based work:

1. A performed process is a process that accomplishes the work necessary to produce work products.
2. A managed process is a performed process that is planned and executed in accordance with some policies. 
3. A defined process is a managed process that is tailored from the organization’s set of standard processes. 
4. A quantitatively managed process is a defined process that is controlled using statistical and other quantitative techniques. 
5. An optimizing process is a quantitatively managed process that is changed and adapted to meet relevant current and projected business objectives.

We know that BPM (as a discipline) has 6 following functions:

1. Model / Plan / Simulate 
2. Automate / Instrument 
3. Execute 
4. Control 
5. Measure 
6. Optimise / Reflect / Refactor 

The table below shows what all functionality of BPM discipline is involved at each level of maturity. But, the nature involvement maybe different: “implicit” (informal or ad-hoc), “explicit” (formal or systematic) and in between (marked as “I/E”).

BPM functions vs levels of process maturity	Performed process	Managed process	Defined process	Quantitatively measured process	Optimising process
Model	I/E (black box)	Explicit (locally and approx.)	Explicit (globally and detailed)	Explicit(globally and detailed)	Explicit (globally and detailed)
Automate	Implicit	I/E	Explicit	Explicit	Explicit
Execute	Implicit	I/E	Explicit	Explicit	Explicit
Control	Implicit	I/E	I/E	Explicit	Explicit
Measure	Implicit	Implicit	I/E	Explicit	Explicit
Optimise	Implicit	Implicit	Implicit	I/E	Explicit

So, you can easy evaluate the needed BPM functionality to deliver a particular level of maturity of a process-based business system.

Thanks,
AS

BPM for CMMI

The aim of this paper is to match BPM (see annex A for some BPM basics) and the process improvement approach used in the CMMI-SVC v1.2 [1].

The summary is the following:
1. understanding of BPM discipline is very beneficial for improving your CMMI processes
2. staring from “defined processes” (capability level 3) it is necessary to use BPM suite software
3. moving to higher levels requires the serious thinking about architecting of your BPM system to support your CMMI processes

Thanks,
AS