You'd expect the BPM-savvy practitioners and evangelists such as found on LinkedIn's "BP Group" to be able to easily come up with a good definition of BPM . A specific and actionable definition. You'd be wrong. In a BP Group forum discussion entitled "Can Anyone Make One Sentence Describing BPM", most of the answers were generic and non-actionable and often sounded like mission statements -- the kind of feel-good mission statements that are ridiculed by cynical business writers -- or worse the statements were self-referential ("BPM is about improving your processes"). In fairness. participants shared many worthwhile insights. It's just that the there was a general and disappointing failure to answer the question in a useful way. Let's look at what would be a good top-level definition of business process management -- and then why a good definition is important. On the forum, Kenneth Beard came the closest to a good description of BPM with his "scientific management of work activity to enable informed decision-making", although I would make the case that final phrase in this definition is outside the scope of a definition of BPM. Your host proposed the that BPM can be simply defined as "the modelling and management of repetitive work", which is certainly not original, but this concise definition emphasizes a fundamental concept, specifically the centrality of the question of work to the definition of BPM.
This definition is built starting with the idea that "BPM is a management discipline covering certain kinds of work." Process is about work, and in terms of being a subset of the domain of work, process is specifically about repetitive, repeatable work. As to how BPM and software technology is related to that work, BPM technology is first of all about modelling that repeatable work reality. BPM models of reality are used in support of the construction of technological artifacts, which in turn assist in the execution of that work. (ACM or adaptive case management is a new, closely related and very interesting way of looking at the same thing. And going even further, the developing technology of ontological engineering, which is suitable as a foundation for advanced BPM/ACM modelling of work, is now reaching maturity and over the next few years is likely to find its way into commercial and open source products )
If you want to be successful in selling and executing more BPM projects, the answer is yes. It is your host's belief that the slow rate of adoption of BPM technologies stem in part from a lack of common agreement between technologists and business executives on exactly what BPM is all about. You can't sell technology and best practices if the whole domain is only fuzzily defined. Can you imagine the following dialogue between a BPM champion and a CEO? CEO: "So, why BPM?" BPM Champion: "Let's look at how we can execute better. And ramp up new business models faster." CEO: "Sounds great, but it's a little generic don't you think. Like work faster or work smarter?" BPM Champion: "BPM is all about work. Really it's the first technology that's really all about work. So, maybe it's not a cliche." CEO: "Well, we can have all the strategies and theories and financing and incentives and processes and HR and manufacturing and whatever we want, but ultimately, at that final moment where it counts -- we hand the whole thing off to a black box, a black box of employee work." BPM Champion: "And then we pray." CEO: "And pay... I'd rather someone get down in the weeds and take control." BPM Champion: "OK then, let's look at what BPM can do for us. I'm looking at a pilot project already."
By the way, this analysis of work and work-management technology is the same analysis that's been offered for a 100 years by OR (Operations Research), except that until the last generation, OR never had the ability to go beyond paper forms. The fact that OR, especially as defined by Taylorism, has many flaws, does not obviate the objective.
The road to BPM will take time and will require the development of a culture and the tools associated with making theory practical. Already we see enough success to know that the journey will be worth it. But as we start on this journey, let's really know what BPM is and why it can be so powerful. BPM provides the tools for the job. How you use those tools to "be excellent" or to "achieve higher levels of customer alignment" is up to you.
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Terminology Note
In casual discussion, the many of BPM-associated terms are almost synonymous. However in the definition proposed here, the terms are distinct. Here are some of the key terms; the terms are reasonably compatible with systems theory.
Draft Version 0.0 -- Note: How does "CASE" fit into the above model? How does a "business case for BPM" fit into the above model?
Supply Chain Insight: Processes Define Organizational Work
"A process is a way that a company gets work done. Processes define what an organization does," explains Joel Wisner, professor of supply chain management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
John Jeston On Lego, BPM And Work
John Jeston of Management By Process (January 2013, in a BPTrends column) has a very nice analysis of BPM as a technology supporting various work patterns.
What do BPM and Lego have in common?
BPM Is THE Technology Concerning The Work Of Business
Since the original posting last year, your host has pushed the definition further. Consider this positioning of business process technology:
Business process technology is the technology which is directly and explicitly concerned with the "work of business".
And considering that "the work of business" is business, that makes business process technology centrally important.
Getting domain and definition correct for technology sales is not trivial or triviality. The slow pace of BPM technology adoption is very signficantly about a failure to sell. But you may ask "a failure to sell 'what'?" And that gets to the the sales and marketing challenge for any technology. A focus on bits and bytes and interfaces ensures that the technology is seen as a cost, not a solution. The phrase "if you are not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" comes to mind. In other words, selling BPM technology requires making the business case. And the business case, always domain-specific, will be about work.
IBM Redbook BPM Definition of "Process as Work"
The following definition of process is found in an IBM Redbook entitled "Scaling BPM Adoption".
"A process describes a sequence or flow of activities in an organization with the objective of carrying out work." (Emphasis added.)
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247973.html