How to pick your battle? One of the success factors in a BPM implementation is knowing how to pick which workflow to automate. There are two different views on how to approach this topic: one side likes to tackle the most complex process to show immediate value; the other view likes to take things slowly, as in relationships.

BPM implementations are like relationships, we have to take it slowly. We need to build a good foundation and good understanding, but we’re always driven by how much value we can return immediately on our investment.

We’re trying to force change instead of driving change. Forcing change makes people uncomfortable and gets them to dislike the change. On the other side, if we drive change with the users we will increase satisfaction and boost the adoption because the users feel the change is coming because they asked for it not because it was forced on them.

Something easy with wide use

If this is the first BPM implementation you have in your organization – no matter how much BPM experience you have prior to that – it’s always best if you pick on something easy with wide use, such as PTO (Personal Time Off). Typically those simple implementations touch wide audiences in the enterprise and  get everyone to start thinking how much their life could become easier once they started using this new application and how much they wish they could have their next workflow automated on this platform.

Picking a non mission critical and widely used workflow takes less time to implement and it’s also a good candidate for learning both the technology and how things work in your organization, its also good guinea pig to help understand the business expectations.

Downfall of this approach

Alright, we’ve discussed the good sides of picking a simple and widely used workflow, but what’s the downfall of those use cases? Well, usually those use cases are at the bottom of the priority list, which means it will take a while until the organization starts realizing value from the platform.

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