You Can’t Keep A Good BPM Market Down

Its been a week since SAP’s big BPM announcement. Not exactly an earth-shattering announcement. My summary - at some point in the future (2 years?), SAP-only shops will be able to more easily configure internal SAP application workflows. This is a SAP application workflow band-aid, not a viable BPM offering. I am not alone in this assessment - the reviews have ranged from unimpressed to downright negative.

Honestly, this is no surprise. The big software vendors - I call them Stackers - have been and continue to pursue the promise of BPM half-heartedly. Actually, they have done everything in their power to bury BPM deep in what they view as their real markets. You can’t blame them - BPM ain’t in their DNA. And it is really hard to change your DNA.

SAP wants you to buy applications from them. BPM to them is just some integration and workflow between their applications. Always has and always will be - no matter what the Netweaver BPM roadmap says. Not to get too cheeky, but SAP does not have the best reputation in this sense - see their public spat with Waste Management about non-delivery of promised functionality.

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Bridging the Gap with UI, Part 2

Last week, I wrote about the importance of understanding user roles and how a successful UI allows each user to focus on what s/he does best, especially with regards cross-functional process teams (Rule #1).

It’s crucial to get these groups aligned from the very outset of a project, to get them walking lock-step with each other as soon as possible. This is Rule #2.

But how is this accomplished through the UI?

The most important thing we’ve learned about aligning cross-functional interests from a UI perspective has to do with the early discovery and documentation phases of the project. This is the first (and potentially only) opportunity to get everyone’s interests on the same page, and is exactly why we created Lombardi Blueprint.

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Bridging the Gap with UI, Part 1

It is tempting to go on and on about the relationship between business and IT. Here at Lombardi we like to instead talk about effective cross-functional teams that can build the end-to-end process together. And we practice what we preach - this is why we have BPM Analysts, Consultants and Developers on our delivery teams. Note this does not mean companies have to fundamentally re-organize, but they do need to be able to create dedicated cross-functional teams if they are going to be successful.

That being said, I think that user interfaces are key to how these cross-functional teams can work together effectively. This is something that I touched on briefly in my previous post about Web2.0 and “making BPM cool again.”

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The Right Team for Your BPM Rollout, Part 2

Ed.: In a previous post about staffing your BPM rollout, Rainer discussed the difference between “point project” and a ‘transformational initiative”; and the need to staff either approach effectively.

Remember that a transformational BPM project unites all parts of the business and IT in a shared commitment to change or improve the way a company operates. And that a point project is a specific BPM initiative with a defined end point and ROI associated. In a point project, you may or may not involve all parts of IT and business. The point project is less disruptive, but also very contained in the benefits that it provides.

But regardless of the approach, you have to be careful to avoid personalities that can sink your BPM cruise before it even leaves the harbor. Personalities like the Bench Player, the Corner Case Master, The Overwhelmed IT Manager or the Overwhelmed Business Manager. (All discussed in my last post.)

Below are techniques that I’ve found useful in building a strong BPM team.

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Process People Q&A with Rachel Aukes, Wells Fargo

Recently we sat down with Rachel Aukes, a member of the Wells Fargo Financial Information Systems Continuous Improvement Team. Rachel, who plays an active role in the use of BPM at Wells Fargo, shared how Wells Fargo got started with BPM. In February, Wells Fargo received the Global Award for Excellence in BPM and workflow.

Process People: Describe in as much detail as possible the problem or need on a project level that first made you consider BPM and/or Lombardi as a viable solution.

Rachel Aukes: Our BPM program came about as a solution to organizational level needs - in fact we selected our BPM solution (Teamworks) and began to implement it before deciding on a specific project. We were challenged with increasingly complex, paper-intensive processes that had a large number of manual steps and handoffs. That was obviously inefficient and meant there was room for errors (such as bad typing, misplaced files, etc.). The idea of what BPM offers became prevalent in 2006 when most of our development staff was focused on maintaining our legacy systems while building our future systems of record. This effort was strategically important to our company; however, the business had immediate tactical needs that must continue to be met. We asked ourselves what we should do to best support our business partners, and we determined that BPM was a good solution for this. We haven’t looked back.

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Q&A With Amy Carr of the Center for Child Protection

Since it is Friday, we’d like to share a story that is a bit off track from our regular focus on process. This past weekend, Lombardi participated in the Austin Cup, a bowling tournament that benefits the local Center for Child Protection. Lombardi has experience working with non-profits in a BPM capacity, and it was nice to collaborate with the CCP outside of the office. Below is a Q&A with the CCP’s Amy Carr, who was an absolute pleasure to work with, and who has a lot of valuable information to share below.

• Tell us a little about the CCP and what the organization does. The Center for Child Protection, an accredited children’s advocacy center, is the first stop for children in Travis County who are suspected victims of sexual abuse, serious physical abuse and for children who have witnessed a violent crime. The Center is a child-friendly, specially equipped facility where children go for recorded forensic interviews, medical exams, counseling and intervention during the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases. All of our services are provided to children and their protective caregivers at no charge. In 2007, the Center served more than 1,400 children and 900 adults.

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SaaS BPM - For Real

I’ve been seeing a bit of blog postings lately on the reality of SaaS on Demand or SaaS BPM.

Last week, Jason Stamper at CBR included some commentary on a beta product that he had heard about through the Process Factory. And couple of weeks ago, Jack van Hoof - who writes on SOA and EDA, posted a well thought-out blog entry about the marriage of BPM and SaaS, including the possibilities and the complexities at hand.

I love seeing this kind of dialogue on the Web because SaaS BPM is extremely popular with our customers right now. However, despite the aspiration of many developers, SaaS and BPM is NOT an easy combination. Nor is it likely that the two will ever be completely married in the traditional integrated form.

We launched Lombardi Blueprint a little over a year ago. It’s a SaaS-based modeling tool that integrates with Lombardi Teamworks, which operates behind the firewall. What worked so well in this case was that anyone in an organization could access the modeling tool to help shape a BPM project during the discovery stage. It doesn’t need to be integrated into legacy systems and it doesn’t require IT to deliver company data to the hosted model outside the firewall.

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The First 180 Days, Part 2

Ed.: In this second post in the series (see our previous coverage here), Fahad is focusing specifically on the Enterprise Plan Program. Think of this as the plan for rolling out a BPM initiative across the company in the first 180 days and beyond.

Enterprise BPM initiatives require well-defined operating procedures for selecting projects, governing delivery, staffing teams and managing infrastructure requirements. We call these procedures the Four Pillars of Enterprise BPM. The Enterprise Plan is therefore comprised of 4 corresponding sub-plans, including the:

• Strategy Plan
• Governance Plan
• Capability Plan
• Infrastructure Plan

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Blueprint Best Practices Webinar

By now, you’ve probably experienced how simple it is to document a process with Blueprint. But we know creating detailed diagrams takes a significant portion of your time. So, we made Blueprint even better! The Spring ‘08 Release of Blueprint is here and it is the next evolution of diagramming. Based on user feedback, we’ve streamlined diagramming and added many requested features to make it even easier & simpler to document your process.

I’ll be leading a webinar on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 10:00-10:30 a.m. CST on best practices for process mapping and modeling with Blueprint. The topics I’ll be covering include:

• Effective utilization of the process map for simplicity and clarity
• Fast and efficient techniques for diagramming
• Using subprocesses to reduce complexity and encourage reuse
• Leveraging existing work that you’ve done in Microsoft Visio

Update: The webinar is now available on demand. Check it out now. For the Blueprint veterans out there, the webinar focuses on the features we just introduced and I’ll think you’ll find it very informative. But if you don’t have an account yet, don’t feel left out! Sign up for one now and join us on Tuesday.

Check Out Bruce Silver’s BPMS Watch Rankings!

The selection process for choosing a BPM vendor can be pretty daunting. BPM is a rapidly evolving space, and there seems to be a different philosophy on process at the core of each vendor’s solution set. Usually the first step an organization takes is to read some of the research that’s out there. While Gartner and Forrester do provide world-class research on our corner of the software world, I think it’s also worth mentioning another place to look for an in-depth look at the major players in business process management.

Bruce Silver’s recently published BPMS report provides one of the most thoughtfully composed product rankings in BPM. I would also like to quote and commend him on his methodology for the research, which I think is an admirable approach:

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The Right Team for Your BPM Rollout, Part 1

In my BPM career, I’ve encountered a broad cross section of approaches when it comes to staffing an initial BPM implementation. I have found that some approaches function better than others, and that there are some clear mistakes to avoid.

One of the key points to recognize is that not all BPM projects are created equal. It is critical that you recognize whether or not your BPM project is a ‘point project’ or a ‘transformational initiative.’ If you start with a project approach and the first BPM projects are successful, it is highly likely that you will have a transformational initiative on your hands. Good news.

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Process People Q&A with Jeremy Kraybill, Boundless Network

Process People will be conducting a series of periodic interview sessions with Lombardi customers to provide useful insight into the BPM issues that they faced at their company, guidance for how to overcome obstacles, and to share the lessons learned during their process improvement journey. These real-world interviews will be posted regularly, so be sure and check back frequently. . .

In this Process People interview, we welcome Jeremy Kraybill, CIO for Boundless Network.

Process People: Describe in as much detail as possible the problem or need on a project level that first made you consider BPM and/or Lombardi as a viable solution.

Jeremy Kraybill: At Boundless Network, we were undergoing a business process re-engineering project at our business. We initially set out to document and analyze manual process changes that would reduce our company’s cash cycle and help us scale our back office. After the first couple weeks of the project, we realized that there were a whole set of business processes held in individuals’ heads that we could benefit from automating. Nobody at the company had previous BPM experience, but after looking at the first BPM vendor’s demo we knew that a BPM solution had great potential for our business pains. After a 3-month evaluation process we selected a BPM solution and have been very happy with the decision and how the implementations went.

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Chronological Is Not That Logical

When you’re tasked with documenting your department’s processes, it can be overwhelming. Often times the project is so hard to approach that the gut reaction is to rely on everyone’s favorite method for doing anything: start at the beginning, and take it one step at a time.

Unfortunately, this approach just doesn’t work when documenting business processes. It’s not the processes themselves that present a problem — it’s the people. When you try to document each step chronologically, the inevitable result is a trip down rat-hole lane. Rat-holing is when you get caught up with the minor details and exceptions that occur in any process. I’ve seen documentation sessions go on for hours with little to show for the effort because each stakeholder in the room was preoccupied with the subtle exceptions to the steps that they themselves were most passionate about.

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Drive the Path (process and data flow)

Any tools can be used in the wrong way, and I believe that’s the reason many developers hate BPM. They just don’t know how the BPM tools should be used. . .and I’d love to rectify that situation right now.

If you grok Process Driven Development you will love BPM. If you don’t, then you’ll try to use your BPM tools like a traditional application development environment and you will end up with a mess.

It’s all about the Process. . .before you begin development, discover the answers to these questions in this order:

1. What are the steps?
2. What are the possible paths through the steps?
3. What data controls the path through the process?
4. What data flows through the process.

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Governance? What the heck is that?

The Spring ‘08 release of Blueprint is now live & kickin’. You might think Blueprint is a cool process modeler, but there’s much more to it. There is no better BPM governance tool on the market.

Governance? What the heck is that?

Isn’t this just another buzzword? And how does something like Blueprint help with governance?

The term “governance” is often used but little understood. And yet if we think about our customers’ successful BPM projects, they always succeed because of tangible leadership from somewhere in the business. A BPM project is not application development, it is a different type of technology-based project. One that is not aligned with the business, but instead one that is integrated into the business. The foundation for business integration isn’t a shared model, it’s a shared understanding.

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The First 180 Days, Part 1

In this series of two posts, we’ll lay out the development of what we call the Enterprise Plan Program. Think of this as the plan for rolling out a BPM initiative across the company in the first 180 days and beyond.

The objective of the Program is to develop the plan for how the enterprise BPM program needs to be rolled out and managed past the “startup” (or Pilot) phase. This includes a consideration of strategy, governance, organizational capability and infrastructure impact. In many cases, the team driving this deliverable must also answer how the enterprise BPM initiative fits with other business and technical initiatives that may already be in progress.

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Notes on User Experience and Design – Web2.0 and Making BPM Cool Again

A few weeks ago we were having a conversation at SXSW here in Austin that is worth relaying.

There has been a good deal of talk about making BPM more engaging to users via Web 2.0 and Ajax, which is ultimately part of the whole Enterprise2.0 conversation. It makes me laugh, though, because Ismael Ghalimi was talking about making BPM cool again way back in 2006 – was it ever cool?

Well, anyway, we’ve obviously come a long way since then, and certainly Lombardi has been at the forefront of the UI/UE innovation since the very beginning. We recently announced the Spring 2008 release of Lombardi Blueprint, which incorporates our most evolved thinking about usability and experience.

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The Blueprint Spring ‘08 Release Is Here!

I’m very happy to announce that the Spring ‘08 release of Blueprint is now live. A quick rundown of the new features is below. But don’t take my word for it: log in now and check it out. Sign up for a your own account now if don’t have one yet.

Improvements in the Spring ‘08 release:

• Improved usability in the diagram view : Significant ease of use and productivity improvements have been made in the diagram based upon customer feedback and testing. The toolbar in the diagram view has been replaced by the Blueprint “plus sign”, which allows you to click where you want to insert an item and have it show there immediately. New Blueprint users will be able to get started quicker and experienced users can get their job done a lot faster.

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Spring Release Preview

I’m happy to announce that the Spring release of Blueprint is nearly here. We’ve been working on this one for a while and I think it makes Blueprint hands down the best process modeler on the block, online or off. We’re really excited about it and I think you will be too.

Watch a preview video now.

Here’s a quick peek at what’s coming:

• Improved usability in the diagram view : Significant ease of use and productivity improvements have been made in the diagram based upon customer feedback and testing. The toolbar in the diagram view has been replaced by the Blueprint “plus sign”, which allows you to click where you want to insert an item and have it show there immediately. New Blueprint users will be able to get started quicker and experienced users can get their job done a lot faster.
• Improved drawing functionality in the diagram view : Based upon customer feedback, we’ve closed the remaining gaps in Blueprint’s diagramming functionality. Blueprint now supports multiple end points inside a single diagram as well as loops and parallel flows beginning and ending at any activity. Blueprint should now be able to represent nearly any process flow that you can dream up.

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Blueprint at the GWT: Voices That Matter conference

Last month Blueprint’s Director of Engineering, Alex Moffat, spoke at the GWT: Voices That Matter conference. Alex talked about how we built the product and the tradeoffs we made along the way. His talk was really interesting and provides a great peek behind the veil into the development process.

Google was nice enough to record the presentation. It’s embedded below.

Improving Blueprint

One of the best parts about working on an application such as Blueprint is the ability to continuously improve the product based on real customer feedback (a usability engineer’s dream). That said, we’ve got some GREAT things queued up for release this year - so keep posted here for updates. As always, we welcome your comments & feedback on how you’re using Blueprint and what we can do to help make you more successful.

Also, in case you missed it, Blueprint is featured on Google’s GWT blog. Make sure you check it out & tell your friends!

Tips for viewing and printing diagrams

When you click the Print button, Blueprint generates a PDF version of your diagram. The great part about the PDFs is that they’re extremely scalable–you can view them on screen or print them on any sized printer (or plotter!). Here are a few tips for working with them:

Viewing Diagrams On Screen
Zooming
By default, Adobe Reader scales the diagram so that the entire picture fits on one screen. If you’re going to present your diagram to other people, you’ll want to zoom in:

Choose Actual Size from the zoom menu to view the diagram as it will appear when printed.

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Moving Processes Between Projects

Need to reorganize your processes? Over the weekend, we added a feature that a lot of people have been asking for: the ability to move processes between projects.

To take advantage of it, go to the Projects page and find the process that you’d like to move:

Then just click the Change Project link and pick the project you’d like to move it to:

Try it out and let us know what you think.

Announcing A New Blueprint Release!

The Blueprint product team is continuously improving the product based upon customer feedback. We’ve recently made some exciting usability improvements and introduced some new features that we’d like to tell you about…

Multi-level Undo
Made a mistake? Blueprint views include a new action toolbar with a one-click access to easily undo your recent changes. You can also print your process diagrams and export to Powerpoint for sharing with others.

It Should be Easy
We’ve made numerous changes to improve the ease of use and usability of Blueprint. These changes include improved help, guided wizards for creating processes, search capabilities, improved process lists, and easier navigation.

Diagram Labels
Gateways and splits now include text labels for improved readability and legibility of diagrams. Blueprint also supports having labels on flow lines as shown below.

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Feature preview: Undo

Ever make a mistake and wish you could go back in time and fix things? I do. All the time. That’s why we’re adding the ability to undo changes in the next version of Blueprint.

Watch a demo

Soon you’ll be only a control-Z away from making amends for that accidental touch of the delete key. Eagle-eyed readers may also notice a few other user interface improvements we have on tap for the next release in the video…