After BPM, what is next?

Posted on February 26, 2010 by kswenson

Next Wednesday, March 3rd, we will be giving a webinar on Adaptive Case Management. I have mentioned this subject a couple of times in recent posts, as new technology area. Advancements have provided ways to support increasingly sophisticated types of work. Initially, very simple work tasks with productivity software, advancing to more sophisticated work processes with workflow and BPM, but never before has there been wide adoption of of technology to support Knowledge Work. Continue reading →

Chasing Rabbits with BPM

Posted on January 25, 2010 by kswenson

“Chasing the Rabbit” by Steven J Spear is a book about what he calls high velocity organizations. Velocity is equated with success because these companies have the agility to respond and capture business. It is not just speed. These organizations are able to capture quality.

I was interested because someone had told me this was the secret to highly reliable organizations. The book covers in detail the US Navy nuclear program which has 5700 reactor years of use without a single nuclear mishap. Continue reading →

It is All Taylor’s Fault

Posted on January 8, 2010 by kswenson

The Industrial Revolution brought about mass production of parts and products. The concept behind mass production is: break the job into a series of well defined components (interchangeable parts), and set up to produce those parts in large quantities to get economy of scale. Millions of identical parts can bring the price down of a completed product. The cost of setting up a factory is high, but is recouped through small savings multiplied by many instances.

Fredrick Winslow Taylor applied these mass production ideas to work and called it “Scientific Management“. Continue reading →

4 Process Trends & 1 Gap

Posted on December 2, 2009 by kswenson

So much buzz about a new emerging category of process technology. Analysts and vendors alike are talking about it, using a variety of different names: Case Management, Unstructured Processes, Human Coordination Technology, Human Interaction Management, Smart Case Management, Dynamic Process, etc. I helped lead a Thought Leader Summit meeting on this topic in November Continue reading →

Interstage BPM Version 11 & Cloud

Posted on November 19, 2009 by kswenson

Fujitsu made a couple of press releases last week, announcing two things: a new release of Interstage BPM, Version 11, and our Cloud BPM offering. This post just contains links to articles on the subject of these announcements.

Product Review: Interstage BPM V11 – Column 2
Fujitsu Interstage BPM in the Cloud – Column 2
Fujitsu BPM Cloud Challenges IBM, Oracle in Cloud Computing – Channel Insider
Fujitsu fields BPM on cloud computing platform – Search SOA
Fujitsu Announces Free Access to Enhanced Cloud BPM Platform – Enterprise Systems
Fujitsu Cracks BPM Auto Discovery Code – CTO Edge
Auto-Discovery Comes to BPM – IT Business Edge
Fujitsu releases new version of Interstage BPM Captures hybrid collaborative process patterns – CBR
Fujitsu Interstage BPM Version 11, Lets Businesses Proactively “Sense and Respond” to Change – SOA World
Fujitsu Announces Free Access to its Enhanced Cloud BPM Platform for Solution Providers and Enterprise Teams – EBizQ
Process intelligence tools reduce guesswork, increase payout of BPM – Search CIO Midmarket
Process intelligence tools reduce guesswork, increase payout of BPM – a writeup on the use of Process Discovery at ESI.
Fujitsu gives BPM users a helping hand – article by David Worthington at SD Times.

While there are many small features in the Version 11 release, the two main ones are a significantly extended capabilities in Dynamic BPM and extended tenant management capabilities. The latter feature helps to support the extended cloud BPM offering which includes a complete BPM design, development, and run-time capability which is free for small teams.

Process Improvement: Informed & Lean

Posted on October 15, 2009 by kswenson

I could call this post “Removing the Risk from Lean Process Improvement” because it starts with the assumption that you want to improve your processes using Lean principles, but you want guidance on how to apply those principles most effectively.

Soooo much discussion of Lean last week at the Forrester Forum and the Gartner BPM Summit. Who can argue against Lean? It is after all a focus on providing more value with less waste. Lean is a focus on eliminating waste, the original sevens wastes identified by Toyota, as well as elimination of anything that does not provide value to the customer. We all want to get rid of waste and inefficiency.

How do you identify the waste in your business process? This is harder than you might think. Continue reading →

Human BPM vs. Case Management, Summit Nov 3

Posted on October 14, 2009 by kswenson

There might be three distinct kinds of process support necessary:

1) System Centric Processes
2) Human Centric Processes
3) Knowledge Worker Processes Continue reading →

What is Case Management?

Posted on September 23, 2009 by kswenson

So much discussion recently about Case Management, but do we really know what we mean? Let me collect here some definitions, and then offer my own. (You will find many of these ideas expanded in full in “When Thinking Matters in the Workplace“)

The Case Management Society of America, a health care oriented professional group, defines case management as: Continue reading →

Process Discovery & Mass Personalization

Posted on July 23, 2009 by kswenson

At dinner with Forrester analyst Clay Richardson he mentioned that process support should be less like mass transit trains and buses, and more like a Zipcar. Both approaches can be seen as a way to solve metropolitan transportation problems; both are more efficient in energey use; both save the consumer money over owning and maintaining (including parking) a private vehicle. This fits well with ideas I have been trying to communicate Continue reading →

XPDL Fully Tipped

Posted on July 13, 2009 by kswenson

In March 2007 I wrote an entry called “The Tipping Point for XPDL” where I mentioned among other things that 8 of the top 11 BPM vendors support XPDL. Since that time XPDL has moved forward by adding support for BPMN 1.2 as well as compatibilities levels and conformance tests.

The vendors have moved forward as well. At the time I listed Adobe, Appian, Oracle (BEA/Fuego), Fujitsu, Global 360, IBM (FileNet), Pegasystems, & TIBCO as supporting XPDL. I was not aware at the time that Savvion had XPDL support. Metastorm added XPDL support in April 2008. And now Lombardi has released support for XPDL (see Bruce Silver). That completes the list. Continue reading →

Thinking Matters

Empowering knowledge workers to be more efficient, adaptive, and effective.

Category Archives: BPM