Living by Design

© BPTrends - www.bptrends.com - Click Image for Larger View Although we have been emphasizing the importance of fostering a culture of social innovation, there is no excuse for neglecting the existing value creation capabilities of the organization. The BPTrends Pyramid is a very helpful model for keeping things in perspective, demonstrating the strategic placement of business processes. Why is attention to business processes key to business success? Basically, they form the "design" layer of an organization. We are all familiar with the power of innovative product design . As I pointed out in a previous post , value-driven design creates a powerful overlap between opportunity and capability, envisioning a creative outcome that can be realized as a new or improved product. In the same way, processes are the design bridge in an organization. This is where we creatively leverage corporate resources (capability) to achieve business vision and strategies (opportunity). The ...

I love models... and I'm not referring to the icons representing our cultural preferences in human vanity. Rather, I'm in love with visuals that portray a rich coalescence of principles and depict in shocking clarity how things interrelate. One such model I revisited lately is the BMM, the Business Motivation Model. A simplified version is shown below: The BMM brings sanity to business by addressing two fundamental questions: What do we need to do? Why do we do what we do? Using a practical and comprehensive framework it allows business planning to adapt strategically in a cohesive and efficient manner. As the BMM Specification states: The Business Motivation Model provides a scheme or structure for developing, communicating, and managing business plans in an organized manner. Specifically, the Business Motivation Model does all of the following: It identifies factors that motivate the establishing of business plans. It identifies and defines the elements of business plans. I...

Each year, millions of dollars dissipate via projects that provide little residual value to their sponsors and end users. The source of the problem: an ever-widening communication gap between complex business needs and convoluted technical capabilities. Yet there is hope. One of my favourite bridging devices is a powerful visual modeling standard called Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) . Currently undergoing acceptance by the OMG , BPMN aptly crosses the chasm, clarifying business value and contextualizing technical capability through the following characteristics: Uses a common modeling language, easily understood by business and technical stakeholders Facilitates efficient process knowledge sharing for Business to Business (B2B) applications Addresses problems with previous attempts in using "software oriented" UML notation for business modeling Provides round trip engineering with XML based business processing languages like BPEL4WS Download an HTML version o...