Scrum @ BPM

This morning, while waiting for the Office 2007 update, I was reading an article on the future of BPM - BPM in Ten Years? My Best Shot.

The combination of Scrum being implemented at work and BPM as my future professional target resulted in the idea that BPM's next incarnation will be a mixture of Scrum principles and BPM methodology.

To put it in a few more words, using Scrum, the team members are given freedom to choose their own paths to the target presented by the product owner. They act as rational personas and the result is a much more motivated and capable team.

On the other hand, currently there is little flexibility in the implementation of the BPM modelled processes. Very often the improvements are done like little "waterfall" development stages. There is little flexibility and continuation of the improvements.

This is exactly where the Scrum principles can help. They can empower the team members to provide feedback, influence the workflow and continuously improve, improve, improve... But then comes the question of the most proper management style to allow this to happen.

On BPM Methodology by SAP

Moist von Lipwig (from the Discworld) knows that if you seek successful operations, you should make your products easy to consume.

SAP knows the same. To speed up BPM adoption, they provide their customers with BPM methodology advices available on an SCN Wiki page. There are also other materials that you might find useful.

Perls, Tribes and Business Processes

Is it possible to say that the following relations are true:

perfect teacher, perfect student, perfect textbook (as in The three golden pearls)

to

perfect common goal and tribe leader, perfect tribe members, perfect tool or communication media (as in Tribes by Seth Godin)

to

process optimization, process members organizational culture, supportive organization/tools/machinery (as in Business Process Driven SOA using BPMN and BPEL)

?

Where are the people in BPM?

As I am reading through the second part of the BPM Roadmap, I cannot help but ask myself the question:

"Among so much information about processes and technologies, why there is no information about the people who will actually contribute to this revolutionary evolution?"

Is it just that I have not finished reading the book, or simply the people factor is not on the agenda?

On the first part of the BPM book

Some time ago I finished reading the first, theoretical part of the book BPM: the SAP Roadmap. It reminded me of the good old university years and the textbooks full of theories, history and new ideas. If you are not a believer in BPM, it probably will not manage to persuade you. For this, you will have to read the rest of the book. Probably a couple of independent source of information will prove usable as well.

However, this first part of the book will reveal you the enormous amount of effort behind BPM. You will feel the weight of the million hours of discussions and intellectual investement. The amount of experiments and improvements will finally dawn on you.

As a result you will feel the urge to continue reading it.
Just like I did.

Motivating the Change

I have finished the first, theoretical part of the SAP book about BPM. It contains a very good summary of the history and theory of the matter.

However, one of the strongest summaries of the whole improvement idea is the one from Exupery:



"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless see"

I have tried to connect it with my experience: persuading separate people to yearn is difficult and requires a lot of tact. It is even more problematic in a large organization as it meets different kinds of resistance on different levels and in different locations.

Well, I am most than willing to assist in helping people yearn about the see. I just hope that more of the people I meet will be able to see the poor elephant in the snake's stomach.

Shape vs. Function

Every big organization tends to be torn between two sets of rules. As I am reading

Monstrous Regiment, I decided to use the army as an example.

The army has official rules that define its shape. These are the official norms according to which the world believes the army functions.

The army also has rules that help it function. Nobody admits that they exist. Without them the whole structure will implodingly explode in a doomed attempt to fill the shape.

The big question is: Do we need to support both sets of rules?

A Nemawashi Juggler

Last year the tasks were hitting my head and crushing me onto the ground with an overwhelming fierce. The nemawashi principle of slow and deliberate planning followed by a fast execution was a mere whisper in an abandoned meeting room. I was running after the deadlines like a novice juggler believing that catching is the most important part.

Slowly it dawned on me that the preparation phase, the throwing is the one that needs my attention.

Trying to predict the steps ahead is taking me little by little out of the task swamp now. Thus giving me time to live.

SAP, Toyota and BPM

The first similarities between the SAP and the Toyota understanding of the world will strike from the very Forward page.

After reading just two pages, I realized that the goals for both of them are:
- evolution of existing processes
- revolution to a new level of processes getting outdated
- keeping the symbiosis between the previous two.

From then on, it just went enthralling.

(Business) Process Management

I have been interested in (business) process management for many years. Even before I knew what exactly it means. For example, I was keen on managing the process of disassembling my new toys and then assembling several other new toys from the parts in a business oriented manner (having several toys for the price of one plus the craftsmanship).

However, to put a new beginning (after my master degree in BA), I decided to check this Business Process Management: The SAP Roadmap book.

At first sight, it looks quite corporate. It is also very heavy. I suppose it is from the hidden knowledge inside ;- ))) It contains some remarks about the Toyota way as well, so I expect an interesting reading.

If I manage to understand it, expect more thoughts on it