Business Process Management (BPM) is a management discipline that requires organizations to analyze, model and redesign their business processes as a way to improve the effectiveness of those processes. Using BPM, organizations can achieve savings and efficiencies through new applications that streamline and automate business activities. Thus, BPM provides a springboard to business innovation, allowing organizations to dramatically improve such activities as recruiting and hiring, budget formulation and reporting, inventory management, and customer service and support.

Unfortunately, many organizations experience frustration and even failure when trying to implement BPM solutions. Problems often start with missed deadlines, perhaps because the implementation team did not fully understand all of the activities and steps required for implementing BPM. Delays lead to cost overruns, and soon the organization is forced to take shortcuts and scale back its BPM solution to avoid further expenses. Moreover, once the original deadline is missed, organizations often must make adapt the BPM implementation to new business developments and strategies—thus spurring an endless cycle of change and delay.

The result? A BPM solution that is behind schedule, over budget, and unable to deliver the promised efficiencies or innovation.

How can organizations avoid these pitfalls? By adopting a BPM-centric application development that enables organizations to innovate and introduce new BPM solutions faster and at a lower cost than traditional custom development projects. In this approach, business users are fully engaged throughout the implementation, and help map out the process using BPM platform tools. These tools enable close collaboration between the business and IT staffs, thus increasing the likelihood that the organization will achieve the desired results.

Project Performance Corporation has developed a methodology for implementing BPM solutions in just 60 days. At Project Performance Corporation, we have found that BPM development is best achieved with an approach guided by five basic principles:

• Select high-value processes that are small and less complex, with about 10 to 15 main activities;
• Use existing infrastructure, such as existing code base and interfaces to legacy systems;
• Limit the number of interfaces linking the BPM system and external systems;
• Use out-of-the-box functionality to develop graphical user interfaces (GUI);
• Select processes that can be automated using established design and development patterns.

This approach yields BPM solutions that can be implemented quickly, are easy to use by employees, customers and other targeted users, can be adapted to changing business and market conditions, and, most importantly, will achieve BPM’s anticipated efficiencies and goals.

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