For knowledge workers, automating the business process so that the system can “tell them what to do” is the entirely wrong focus for IT system support. The focus of the system should instead be on presenting to knowledge workers the current status of the project, measured a couple of different ways. The distinction is subtle, but important. Continue reading
Continuing the pattern from my past few post on Antifragile concepts, today consider Naive Intervention, that idea assuming that simple model actually represents a complex system can lead to disastrously bad decisions. Continue reading
If you are sending information to a group of people, you should FIRST post that information on-line, and THEN you should email everyone about it. Today I experienced a classic violation of this guideline, and while the damage is not huge, it is so pointless. I am documenting this case as an example of what not to do. Continue reading
There is a continual ongoing debate on how best to express how people plan to work together. Earlier posts make the case that two-dimensional graphical languages are inappropriate for knowledge workers. Many argued against this saying that these languages are still useful for process specialists. However, for unpredictable work, the knowledge worker must directly do the process planning. This post addresses the question of whether we might be able to use two languages in one system: one for the knowledge workers, and one for the business analysts. Continue reading
One of the best examples of an ACM system, one that received a gold award in this year’s Excellence in ACM awards, was the system developed by Computas for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. The focus of this post is on how they achieved true end-user agility in their process plans. Continue reading
A basic assumption so central to running an organization that we never question it. What if it is impossible to collect process knowledge? The thought follows from Steve Denning’s excellent article “Can Knowledge Be Collected? Lessons From The Health Sector” in Forbes this month. Continue reading
Peter Schoof ran a discussion today on whether BPMN is compatible with ACM or not; this was the subject of my talk at the ACM workshop. I responded by giving the justification for this position from my talk and the subsequent discussion. Continue reading
Here is an article I wrote for Workforce Solutions Review, a well produced magazine from the International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM). It seems that there is some interest in Adaptive Case Management from a HR perspective — and for good reasons. When I get the details of the publication issue I will include that here. Meanwhile, this post outlines a vision for ACM and Human Resources & Management. Continue reading
The First International Workshop on ACM has move through the process of selecting the papers to be presented, and the 2012 program has been published. We are happy to announce that there were enough high quality papers to make it a full-day workshop. Below, I have duplicated the program, along with some comments about each of the paper topics. Continue reading
For me, the highlight of the Fujitsu Laboratories of America Technology Symposium 2012 was the panel on “Bandwidth, Online Education, and Learning” where many new trends in education — something near to my heart — were discussed. Continue reading
Thinking Matters 