Where does BPM, as a term, come from?

Check out this great commentary on ebizq.net on the orgins of the name BPM. Its a great look at how the term come to be and why this term is so important in the changing economic climate. The problem with finding the origins of BPM, is that there isn't a clear origin. The jury is out on just who first coined the term and the article mention draws from reader's ideas on the origins. Its a fascinating look at the world of BPM and we encourage you to check it out.

And how do you think the term BPM came to be?

Happy Holidays from BPM

We will be taking some much needed time off for the holidays. We'd like to thank you for your readership and we encourage you to check back with us next year for more innovative thought, perspective and news surrounding the world of business process management.

We wish you a joyous holiday season!

Evolve BPM: Best of 2008

With the year drawing to a close, we're going to share the top five articles of 2008. Look for more news from BPM in 2009!

How do you Define Business Process Management?
Shocking Numbers for Business Process Management Adoption
SAP Introduces new Business Process Certification
Haldiram looks to Infogain Corporation for BPM
Pegasystems Launches an Industry-First BPM Platform-as-a-Service

Ascentn Expands to Romania

According to this post on eBizQ Ascentn, which is a provider of .NET-based Business Process Management System (BPMS) solutions, has announced that its further expansion by signing a partnership for the Romania-region. Read the full post here.

Agile Architecture

Researching through slideshare.net, I came across this interesting presentation from Mike Kavis, the CTO of M-Dot, in which he highlights how to provide business agility by leveraging a sound architectural vision and strategy made up of SOA, EDA, Cloud Computing. Enjoy!

Agile Architecture

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mashups security)

BPM Risk Management Outline

I came across this post on Business Process Management IQ that details a comprehensive outline for managing risk in any project as provided by PMBOK (the project management book of knowledge). I’ve copied the outline below. Enjoy!

Risk Management Outline
1. Risk Management Planning – approach to and plan for risk management as well as the approach an organization takes to execution of plans
2. Risk Identification – determining risks and identifying the characteristics of those risks
3. Qualitative Risk Analysis – prioritizing risks responses based on probability of occurrence and impact
4. Quantitative Risk Analysis – analyzing effect of risks should they come to fruition
5. Risk Response Planning – developing options and actions to minimize risks and their effects
6. Risk Monitoring & Control – tracking risks, monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, executing risk response plans and evaluating effects of those plans

Note: PMBOK states some risks are positive and refers to them as Opportunities. Some risks are negative and are commonly referred to as Threats. I think it is a stretch to call a risk an “opportunity.” I prefer that you conduct a SWOT analysis.

BPM Solutions from IBM

Here’s an interesting clip I came across on YouTube. This clip, provided by IBM, provides an overview of a business process management solution based on service oriented architecture that can provide the flexibility your company needs to innovate and win in your marketplace. The video is 5 minutes long, so take a couple of moments to view it. Enjoy!

Colosa Launches Business Process Library

This post on BPM Architect highlights Colosa’s latest launch of a new library of business process templates called ProcessMaker Library. Colosa is a leader of open source business process software, and now it will be able to simplify business process for managers to increase the efficiency and structure of their business.

New templates will be added every month so the library will have a range of business process templates. Patricia Cabero, ProcessMaker Community Lead, mentions:

"ProcessMaker Library responds to a community desire to share workflow designs. This innovative resource will offer increased utility to ProcessMaker users and grow the community network in new and interesting ways. The Library is in Beta version, and new templates and features are coming soon."

The free software can be downloaded here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/processmaker

How do you Define Business Process Management?

Enterprise architects, business solution providers, and project managers all define BPM in different terms. Arjun Thomas has used wikipedia’s definition of business process management in his post today, which reads:

“Business process management (BPM) is a method of efficiently aligning an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility and integration with technology. As organizations strive for attainment of their objectives, BPM attempts to continuously improve processes - the process to define, measure and improve your processes – a ‘process optimization’ process.”

Do you agree with this definition?

IBM identifies spot in BPM World

According to this article at ITWeb, IBM has established its place in the BPM space.

The article states:
IBM introduced Business Space, a role-based desktop environment for monitoring business processes, combined with application content and collaborative tools.

Find out more here.

Is It a Business Process Management Product, Feature or Function?

Dennis Byron asks an interesting question in his latest post on BPM in Action, Is It a Business Process Management Product, Feature or Function? Dennis explains that there are many variables that and scenarios for each case that can define enterprise software as products, features, or functionality. He also goes on to discuss how BPM is not service oriented architecture, do you agree with him? Make sure to read his full article.

Better BPM for banks

With the current instability and unpredictable of the financial markets, Savvion has developed a program to improve business processes within in banks, including services such as loan processing, underwriting and servicing. The program can implement regulations and requirements within a companies documents quickly, allowing them to keep up with the ever changing market. Read more here.

The values of business process outsourcing

CIO Today recently examined the value that can be added from outsourcing your business processes. High quality can come from outside the organization, which also could lead to customer retention. Read about it here.

What Businesses Can Learn from Processes of U.S. Elections

I came across this very intriguing post by Dennis Byron at BPM in Action earlier today. Today is Election Day, and he explains that many businesses today are just like ballot initiatives. There is much human intervention with double and triple checking at times, and technology is a very small part of the work flow itself.

Human interaction at election locations start at the beginning with ID checking, calling out your name in public, signing the book, and then finally voting. The main idea here as with processes in businesses as well, is that problems occur in the human workflow process and not the technologies. Do you agree?

Seven forms of BPM

I recently found an article by Tom Baeyens that looks at seven forms of business process management. BPM is such a broad term that you need to find a BPM engine that works for your project, and Baeyens sets out seven different types.

Case 1: BPM as a discipline
Case 2: Combining template based and ad hoc task management
Case 3: Transactional asynchronous architectures
Case 4: Service orchestration
Case 5: Visual programming
Case 6: Thread Control Language
Case 7: Easy creation DSLs

Find out more about each individual case here.