So you've decided to take a shot at the "CPR" approach to BPM and business knowledge management (BKM) outlined here previously. You agree that culture, process, and results represent a potentially effective strategy for engendering support for BPM and BKM initiatives. But, you're probably asking yourself, how best to proceed?
Well, I've also mentioned here previously, in a mini-rant on BPM and marketing, what I believe to be a strong candidate approach. My colleagues at Robert Frances Group (RFG) and I have found a focus on seven interconnected key factors forms a firm foundation for such initiatives. And conveniently for lovers of alliterations, all of them start with the letter "P." The "seven Ps" we believe are in fact pillars of enterprise transformation are listed (at least quasi-)logically and briefly summarized below.
• Processes are the basic building blocks of excellence, in BPM, in BKM, and in almost every other significant, strategic business and IT endeavor.
• People must be measured and organized in relation to process fulfillment.
• Platform support must be unified and integrated in terms of both people and process. (Platforms must be rendered invisible, keeping the focus on people, tasks, and information.)
• Products (and services) are what and how IT delivers business value. Each is constructed of a number of processes and interconnected IT and intellectual property (IP) elements. (They are not the products and services proffered by vendors to support enterprise initiatives. Just to be clear.)
• Planning addresses the evolution and growth of all of the other "Ps," and their alignment with business goals.
• Projects are how strategic initiatives are parsed into achievable, interconnected steps toward continuous improvement of business and IT operations, and of IT-business alignment.
• Portfolios are the means of organizing and cataloguing projects as well as IT and IP assets. Portfolios often serve as the lingua franca for IT-business collaboration. (Portfolios of IT products, projects, and services, for example, often represent the underlying elements supporting and enabling specific business services.)
The above focus areas can be customized to reflect the priorities and goals of note at any particular enterprise, and should be. They also represent headings under which specific questions need to be cataloged and prioritized. These categories of questions can then be used to foment the conversations within IT and between IT and business leaders necessary to get to successful, business-driven, human-centric BPM and BKM.
I will, perhaps unsurprisingly, have more to say about each of the above focus areas, and their particular relevance to BPM and BKM, in future outings in this space. Meanwhile, if you have experiences, opinions, or other relevant thoughts to share, do please let me know.
Michael Dortch has been an analyst, 'information entrepreneur,' speaker, and writer about IT and 'the real world" for the past 30 years. After almost 10 years at the Robert Frances Group (RFG), Michael begins a new position with Aberdeen Group in September.
Dennis Byron is an analyst with ebizQ, focusing on Open Source Software as well as Business Process Management technologies.
