Chapter 10

Why do you need a structured approach to

implementing BPM?

The iceberg syndrome discussed in Chapter 1 showed that an organizations

perception of a BPM program is likely to be only what is above the water line
at a project level, but the reality is that most of the implementation effort
is below the water out of sight. BPM is not about projects; it is about the
business opportunity that BPM can provide if a process view permeates every
manager and person in the organization. Certainly, a project is often how a
BPM effort will commence, but there must be a concerted effort to move a
project from the traditional project status to blend into a business-as-usual
environment.
The traditional way that most organizations have gone about process
improvement projects can be shown with the Deming Cycle (Walton, 1986) of
Plan, Do, Check and Act. This evolved over time into the cycle shown in
Figure 10.1, which shows the traditional steps a business improvement project
would complete, such as:
1

2
3
4

Conduct a review of the areas to be improved, understand the business objectives, collect stakeholder requirements and select the initial processes to be improved
Complete the As is mapping in sufficient detail to understand the
process and learn how to improve it
Agree the timeframe for the delivery of the redesigned processes with
the business and complete the To be step to redesign the processes
Implement the redesigned processes.

Most organizations have historically stopped at this point, considering that

the implementation of the redesigned, more efficient processes constitutes a
successful project. In many cases the process redesign project will be repeated
within eighteen to twenty-four months, because the business has changed and
the processes have thus become inappropriate.

Chapter 10

Why do you need a structured approach to implementing BPM?

41

As is

Business context
Stakeholder vision

Process-centric
approach

To be

(Continuous learning
and improvement)

Develop and
implement

Figure 10.1
Traditional process
project approach.

Continuous
improvement

To overcome this continuous need for new business process improvement

projects, organizations establish a continuous process improvement program
within the organization to change the processes as the business changes. This
completes the feedback loop.
One of the key questions in this approach is, have you solved the correct
problem? How can you be certain that the way you have redesigned your
processes contributes to the organizations strategic vision or intent?
Stace and Dunphy (1996) say that:
strategy is the search for directions which energize the life of an organization; structures provide the social organization needed to facilitate the strategy.Strategy
and structure need to be constantly re-examined and realigned to be effective.

The first consideration is therefore to ensure that the organizational strategy and structure support each other. But is that all?
C. K. Prahalad, speaking at a Harvard Change Colloquium (Breaking the
Code of Change) in August 1998, described three agendas that must work
simultaneously and continuously together:
1

The intellectual agenda. This is what some call strategy; while others
have described it as an organization vision or strategic intent. This
is referred to as Organization goals and measures of organizational
success in Figure 10.2.
The management agenda. This consists of the structures, technologies and systems of the organization. It includes how management
chooses to utilize and move resources within the organization to
meet the organization needs. We would explicitly include processes
in this agenda, and this is shown as the Organization management
column in Figure 10.2.
The behavioural agenda. This covers the culture, values, ethics,
leadership styles, personnel training, skills and key performance
indicators of the people within the organization. It is important
here to ensure that the reward systems respond appropriately to the
behavior you wish to promote. This is shown as the last row
Performance and measurement) in Figure 10.2.

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Business Process Management

Performance needs

Organization

Performance
levels
Process

Figure 10.2
Performance
components.
Reprinted from
Harmon 2003
with permission
from Elsevier.

Goals and
measures

Design and
implementation

Organization
goals and
measures of
organizational
success

Organization
design and
implementation

Process
goals and
measures of
process success

Process design
and implementation

Organizational
Performance and
Role design
measurement goals and measures and implementation
of success

Management

Organization
management

Process
management

People
management

Prahalad correctly stated that an organization must operate with all three
agendas simultaneously.
The challenge for the organizations leadership and management is to take
these three agendas and determine how to apply them to the business in a
practical way. Rummler and Brache (1995) and Harmon (2003) have shown
how to achieve these three agendas with their performance levels and
performance needs, recreated here as shown in Figure 10.2. It provides an
excellent description of an organizations performance levels and performance needs, and how to apply the Prahalad agendas.
Most organizations that wish to improve their business processes start with
the middle box, Process design and implementation. They carry out the As
is and To be process modeling, implement the new redesigned process, and
wonder why the results do not always meet their expectations.
Leo Lewis (1993) stated that reengineering is not a bed of roses Some
statistics say seven out of ten reengineering initiatives fail. McKinseys found
that a majority of companies researched achieved less than 5 percent change
due to reengineering (Newsletter for Organizational Psychologists, 1995).
How can you redesign processes without knowing what you wish to
achieve from the project what the new goal(s) of the process will be? Are
you trying to improve processing times from five days to two days, or two
hours? If it is two hours, the approach to the redesign will be substantially
different than with a two-day goal. Are you endeavoring to increase the quality of your service offering, even though this could mean an increase in the
processing time for some transactions? The approach you take to the
redesign process will be totally different depending upon your answer to
these questions.
Then you must ask, how do you know that the process will contribute
towards, and add value to, the organizations strategy? Even if you know the
process goals and redesign the processes to meet those goals, will this meet or
contribute towards the strategic goals of the organization?

Chapter 10

Why do you need a structured approach to implementing BPM?

43

Case study: Importance of understanding organization strategy

We were asked to review the current processes in the operations area of an organization and to recommend how they should go about an improvement program.There were two options put forward.The first
was for incremental process improvement, with no additional automation, and the second was for an automated BPM solution. It was interesting that both options met the designated process goals, which the client
had documented. So we asked them to describe their organization strategy for the next three years.
The organizations strategic intent was that it:
will place us substantially ahead of our competition, such that it will be difficult for competitors to match the
process and systems service levels able to be consistently achieved.This will form the foundation of our competitive advantage in the near and medium term.
The incremental option would have provided incremental improvement. Only three out of the twentyfive processes could be redesigned totally, whereas the remaining processes would have only been incrementally improved.
The automated BPM option would have provided substantial innovation and integration with other critical systems, as well as the ability to provide the organization with continuing business agility.
Message: It became obvious for our client to choose the automated BPM option. Unless the project manager clearly understands the organizations strategy, and ensures that the project satisfies and adds value to
this strategy, then the project runs the risk of solving the wrong problem.

Having linked the organization strategy with the supporting process goals
and created the redesigned processes, you must ask, who will implement
these new processes? The answer is, the people within the organization.
Unless the organization structure, role descriptions, skill sets and reward systems support and are in alignment with the organization direction, you will
only be covering the first two of Prahalads agendas.
Once all these areas have been addressed, the organization must ensure
that there is an ongoing process to manage and continuously to improve the
business processes.
Implementing a BPM project is a multi-faceted and complex process that,
if tackled without a structured approach, either will not work or will not meet
the expectations of the stakeholders. However, over-applying a methodology
or framework will not provide the flexibility required to meet the varying challenges.
What is needed is a practical, comprehensive, structured approach that can
be tailored to each organization. We have developed a proven framework that
provides this structured and flexible approach for use in the implementation
of BPM projects and programs. The framework covers all of the reality of the
activities that reside below the waterline of the iceberg in a BPM project, and
consists of ten phases and three essential components. Each phase is then broken down into logical steps that, if followed and executed correctly, will
ensure the success of your project.
These phases, essentials and steps associated with the framework are common sense. However, as Mark Twain is purported to have once said: Common
sense is most uncommon. In our experience, even though people know these

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Business Process Management

things they rarely execute them well, in a logical sequence or, indeed, at all.
The framework groups these various aspects of a BPM project into a logical
sequence. However, as stated earlier, a framework or methodology can be as
much a millstone as a savior, so it is essential that it is used according to the
organizations needs.

Conclusion
A rigorous yet flexible framework is essential to facilitate improvements in
business processes. Our approach to BPM recognizes that change is ideally
driven by people who operate within an organization where the vision and
process goals are clear, organization roles and accountabilities are transparent, and systems, process and technologies are supportive of the organizations purpose. This, however, is rarely the case, and the framework provides
an approach for how to make them clearer. It also provides a structured
approach throughout a BPM project, from project conception and initiation
to completion and sustainable business-as-usual.