Bonitasoft has put out a good whitepaper for getting started with BPM. In it they talk about 10 best practices. They do point out that the goal of managing your business processes is to optimize efficiency and improve profitability.
I have addressed many of these in the past, but some of these are worth revisiting. I will reorder them to fit my experiences.
Model how you actually work
Don’t try to model you should work – Model how you actually work. There are a number of reasons for this.
In my last blog, I talked about completing the initial project within 6 months. If you decide to model how you should work, the modeling could take more than 6 months.
Perfection is not an acceptable goal. Even if it were possible [its not], when you implement the solution using real people you will find errors.
Who decides ‘how you should work’? How do you know that they are ‘right’? If it is a decision by committee – the more people involved in making the decision, the longer it will take.
It is a good idea to start with how you actually work. Your user community usually understands how you actually work – so it minimizes debate. Using your actual process minimizes the impact of ‘change’ [most people don’t like change].
My Recommendation: While you are looking at your existing process, if there are tasks that really don’t add value I would look into removing them.
Again, success in your first project will get you the support you need to move to the next project.
Next week: Involve all stakeholders
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