Is BPM "just another technology"?
I have wrestled with this question as a sales person selling BPM and BPM-related solutions.
1)
[b]WHY BPM?[/b]
-- To sell one has to ask "
[u]why is there the possibility of a deal[/u]
"? And the answer is "to help us do more work with the same resources".
2)
[b]TO GET MORE WORK DONE [/b]
-- In fact ALL technology is about getting more work done with the same resources. Technology (or that subset "tools") is about
[u]force multiplication of human power[/u]
, either muscle or brain.
3)
[b]TECHNOLOGY IS HARD [/b]
-- And because work is complex, it's difficult to build technologies. Try building a steam engine or a computer program "from scratch"! (Carl Sagan famously said "[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s664NsLeFM]If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe[/url]".)
4)
[b]BUSINESS IS ABOUT WORK [/b]
-- Let's think about business. Business or any service is about organizing effort for a purpose. That's work. So work is what business is all about. There is nothing about business which is not purposive work, with work defined as the application of energy to transform material from one form to another.
5)
[b]BPM IS THE TECHNOLOGY OF WORK [/b]
-- Which brings us to BPM. BPM is THE technology of work, because by definition
[u]in BPM and only in BPM the technological artefacts of work are first class citizens of that technology[/u]
. There are other irreducible technologies which are complementary to BPM of course, such as business rules, business data, business analytics technologies, etc. (We could explore distinctions between different kinds of "work", especially between "process" and "project", and "case management" or "unstructured tasks". They are all still categories of work. I'm using BPM in the most general sense as a proxy for modeling and executing automation artefacts in support of work.)
6)
[b]OTHER TECHNOLOGIES MEDIATE IDEAS [/b]
-- But otherwise, all software is written to assist us with work -- except one isn't working with directly with the artefacts of work if one isn't using BPM. One must code (originally in Assembler, then Fortran and COBOL, then C and Java, and now Javascript and C# and PHP and Ruby etc.), which
[u]mediates between idea and usable artefact[/u]
. And even with "frameworks", there is still mediation between idea and useful technology.
7)
[b]MEDIATION BY CODE IS EXPENSIVE[/b]
-- The
[u]cost of programming ideas into usable software is huge[/u]
! And the cost starts with inception and continues with evolution and maintenance. And evolving business models built on code is "a wicked problem".
[u]Not using BPM is to be "anti-agile"[/u]
.
8)
[b]THE SALES QUESTION [/b]
-- So if BPM is THE technology of the work of business,
[u]does it help to say this in a sales context[/u]
?
[list]
[*]
Is BPM adoption helped by calling out how important BPM is?
[/list]
[list]
[*]
Is BPM adoption helped by noting that "[quote][u]you can work directly with your business ideas[/u]
" and "
[u]reach your goals faster[/u]
"? And then later, "
[u]change and evolve more easily?[/u]
"
[/list][/quote]
[list]
[*]
For organizations that want to win, absolutely. This is a message that resonates. And will work. But you have to be able to show why this works. And [quote][u]how business analysts and managers can work together in new fast-cycle partnerships[/u]
. There's a big social/managerial component here too.
[/list][/quote]
9)
[b]BPM SOFTWARE MATURITY [/b]
-- The challenge to date has been the immaturity of BPM technology.
[u]The round-tripping problem[/u]
, only recently diminishing as an issue, and which inserts programming into a BPM solution,
[u]is enormously expensive[/u]
. And results in a loss of business enthusiasm.
10)
[b]LANGUAGE VERSUS TECHNOLOGY [/b]
-- Signavio's pioneering video on the "
[u]language of business[/u]
" is entirely complementary to the idea of BPM being the technology of the work-of-business. And the idea of "the language of business" is probably easier to communicate.
[list]
[*]
At the same time, only claiming "the language of business" can be seen as rhetoric or sales claim. And to leave BPM at language is to miss out on the real power of BPM "inside the box". (In fairness to Signavio, the purpose of their video is achieved by the focus on just the concept of language.)
[/list]
[list]
[*]
Starting from language, but then [quote][u]showing that BPM in is very practical[/u]
and that BPM really is the technology of the work-of-business takes us beyond rhetoric.
[/list][/quote]
11)
[b]THE FUTURE [/b]
--
[u]BPM is not just another technology[/u]
. Like accounting is the expression of ideas of finance and money, BPM is the expression in technology of the ideas of work. As BPM is adopted, it will become part of business culture, just as accounting is part of business culture.