2012 International ACM Awards

My first post of 2012 can not be delayed any further … so many things are commencing in the Adaptive Case Management world. In this post I will cover the first of three important upcoming event you might want to plan for: the 2nd Annual Adaptive Case Management Awards.

Last year the WfMC sponsored the ACM awards and it was a huge success. From the submissions, the panel of world renown judges selected the best 10 examples of the use of case management. These were then featured in the First ACM Virtual Summit, and then in September the case studies became available to everyone in the form of the first ACM case book called “Taming the Unpredictable.” The feedback has been incredibly positive. It is very vaulable to have a book that describes in detail how people have actually used case management techniques to accomplish business goals.

This year we want to make it bigger and better.

We are going to spend more effort up front making sure that everyone knows about it, and attract a larger set of submissions, and hopefully select more finalists from that.
The judging criteria will be more refined after what we learned last year.
We already know to plan for the virtual summit which will encourage more people to participate.
We have an example of a successful book which will attract interest in submissions.

This format, of accepting case studies, judging, selecting, then presenting, and publishing in a book is a accepted way to gather the best examples into a place for delivering to an audience. It is clear to me that the more that the public knows about this approach, the better they will be able to make appropriate use of it.

Most of the information you need is at the Adaptive Case Management Awards site. The schedule is as follows:

Any time between now and Feb 28 register an intent by submitting an abstract. There is no risk, and those who do this early will get some feedback and guidance on the abstract.
Before March 15 officially register.
Before April 20, submit the finished case study for judging.
June 6, winners will be announced at the ACMLive Virtual Summit
September, the associated book will be launched

Mark these dates on your calendar, you don’t want to miss out just because you missed the deadline. I have a list of questions an answers below:

Must the case use a bona fide ACM product? No. ACM is an approach to supporting knowledge workers, not a type of product. Many of the submissions last year were on custom home grown systems. Some other cases were hosted on systems designed specifically for ACM, while still others were build on systems that had to be, shall we say, adapted into supporting case work. Instead of looking at the system, you should ask the question of whether the case study is about supporting knowledge workers, and if so that would most likely be appropriate.

What really constitutes knowledge work? A good reseource for this is my chapter from the 2010 BPM and Workflow Handbook on Business Intelligence which I link here for convenience (pdf): Knowledge Work and Unpredictable Processes. The publisher has made other books available to registrants at a discount.

What about Enterprise 2.0, or Social BPM Cases? There is a big overlap between E20, social business, and enterprise social with adaptive case management. See the judging criteria to evaluate whether your E20 case might qualify. The case must show how knowledge workers are supported while getting work done.

How about Just Plain Case Management? Be aware of the importance of adaptability. Read my post on Understanding what “Adaptive” means. For example, telephones clearly support knowledge workers, but they are not adaptive in any significant way. Judges will be looking for some ability to mold the system to the individual knowledge worker over time.

Do you need more judges? I am hoping to expand the pool of judges this year, and if you are have made a contribution to ACM discussions in the past year, please send a message to .