| Businesses have to succeed in an economy that is a | | | | Another important element is ‘goal |
| ‘complex adaptive system’ rather than a | | | | definition’. Goals are a set of RULE correlated |
| complicated system that can be decomposed into | | | | parameters that can be verified at certain intervals or |
| building blocks. Adam Smith’s invisible hand at | | | | be triggered by thresholds. In difference to KPI or |
| work. A system of independently acting agents is not | | | | key performance indicators, goals can be verified |
| complicated but complex and is considered a complex | | | | during real-time processing. KPI’s tend to be |
| adaptive environment that resists decomposition, see | | | | accumulated, consolidated data warehouse numbers. |
| Anderson, Arrow, Pines (1988). From a planning | | | | A goal mismatch event should trigger some |
| perspective it seems ideal if businesses would not | | | | corrective process. Goals can be anything from simple |
| consist of independent acting agents, but would act | | | | SLAs to revenue targets. |
| coherently, hence BPM to the rescue. I propose that | | | | I do not want to belabor the current technology |
| such perfect businesses would be so foreign in a | | | | issues with roundtrip from BPM model to execution. |
| dynamic free market economy that they would fail. | | | | While it may be true that most BPM systems can |
| Thus also large companies are complex adaptive | | | | offer some case management aspects, the analysis, |
| systems, in which (like in most natural systems) | | | | model, implement, simulate, deploy, monitor and |
| successful structures emerge, adapt and evolve | | | | improve cycle remains as a huge obstacle to the |
| rather than being artificially created (think about | | | | promised agility. |
| in-house politics for a moment!). In such systems, | | | | Key functions of complex adaptive (CA) process |
| functions cannot be created by a methodology of | | | | systems: |
| analysis and design, mostly because for the lack of | | | | 1. Distributed (similar to grid computing) |
| realistic abstraction. That does not mean that there is | | | | communication enablement of process systems |
| no process perspective but it is much less detailed | | | | 2. The exchange of process definitions is less |
| than a step-by-step flowchart model. Models are only | | | | relevant than meta-data and methods |
| necessary to define the real-world entities for | | | | 3. Consolidated central repository (not archive) for |
| process handoff between process owners. | | | | change management |
| Before jumping into the technology aspect of | | | | 4. Create a business architecture model of data |
| complex adaptive process I need to discuss the | | | | entities in repository. |
| business element of my approach. I agree that there | | | | 5. Utilize an object model with state/event modeling |
| are businesses with different management styles | | | | (implementing i.e. pi-calculus) |
| regarding customers service and HR. I propose that | | | | 6. Enable a 100% change roundtrip for ALL elements |
| even businesses with a more ‘employee | | | | of a process |
| control’ approach would possibly benefit more | | | | 7. Empower users to write boundary rules in natural |
| from less process analysis and more frequent | | | | language accessing the object data |
| process adaptation through process owners, because | | | | 8. Strong distributed security with embedded access |
| of the huge amount of control structure. | | | | control on method and attribute level |
| I arrived at my above perspective not from an | | | | 9. Enable authenticated users to create virtual |
| expansion of BPM to dynamic process management | | | | organizations of collaborators |
| or from the needs of case file collaboration, but from | | | | 10. Empower business users to access and use |
| – non manufacturing – business and human | | | | defined data entities from repository |
| resource management for service processes. I am | | | | 11. Simple mapping of backend business systems to |
| opposed to the idea that a business can be improved | | | | data entities. (SOA or not) |
| by analyzing and designing rigid processes, except for | | | | 12. Simple linkage to external event creating systems |
| an irrelevant small percentage (as an addition to ERP). | | | | 13. Empower business users to create their own data |
| I fail to find the proof that flowchart-designed | | | | entities. |
| processes and the related change management | | | | 14. Enable business users to create all the necessary |
| bureaucracy do make a business more agile. People | | | | content linked to business objects |
| are (if at all) agile but never analyzed and designed | | | | 15. Seamless integration with all inbound and outbound |
| processes. Frequent process changes will simply | | | | content (backend archives) |
| destroy whatever initiative employees might have | | | | 16. Enable business users to define role-specific user |
| left. I have yet to see a business that does actually | | | | interfaces as needed. |
| automate more than 20% of its processes and | | | | 17. Use timeline graphs to show past activities for |
| currently assume that this is the maximum that can | | | | documentation |
| be achieved. Rather than the 80% often proposed. | | | | 18. Use organization charts to show authorized roles |
| The more processes are controlled, the more bypass | | | | and departments or virtual organizations |
| and add-on activities exist. I fail to see the sense in | | | | 19. User authorization (role/policy) and workgroup |
| creating rigid processes and then define everything | | | | queue assignment are independent |
| that does not map into it as an exception. The | | | | 20. Real-time business data are mapped into the |
| process spectrum is rather from straight through | | | | process to measure business results. |
| processing to social networking with case | | | | 21. Customer focused processes are setup to survey |
| management in between. | | | | customer satisfaction. |
| Process management in manufacturing was always | | | | 22. Consolidating process, business and satisfaction |
| mostly focused on quality to reduce cost, while it | | | | data for the process owner |
| seems that for business services it is reducing | | | | 23. Business results are accumulated and dashboards |
| manpower, needed skills and thus cost. I suggest | | | | and reports create transparency |
| that process management must always focus on | | | | 24. Enable offline and mobile participation for all CA |
| customer service quality first. But not process makes | | | | processes |
| people happy, but people make people happy. | | | | 25. … I certainly missed a few things! |
| Therefore we need to empower people! I disagree | | | | Wish list: |
| that it is only the knowledge workers who need | | | | - Business trained document classification and routing |
| more dynamics and back office clerks who need rigid | | | | - Business trained content capture and data |
| BPM. Also a simple activity within a case can be | | | | extraction |
| strictly guided by a complex adaptive process, so | | | | - Machine learning agents discover user activity |
| why bother to waste time with expensive and | | | | patterns in state space |
| inaccurate process analysis? | | | | Let me note that it is not simple to ‘utilize neural |
| The most likely approach to succeed is to empower | | | | networks’ on top of an existing BPM engine, |
| the process owner to create processes on the fly as | | | | because it cannot expose the state space for |
| needed and empower the users to adapt those on | | | | time-stamped user activities. It is also difficult to |
| the job. Here the similarity to Human Focused | | | | empower business users to define GUIs and write |
| Process, Case Management and Dynamic BPM | | | | rules without a deeply embedded security layer as |
| approaches becomes apparent. A complex adaptive | | | | otherwise they can define themselves unauthorized |
| process is however much closer to the dynamics of | | | | data or content access. |
| social networking rather than to case file collaboration. | | | | |