Fear of change, lack of executive buy-in, and tougher business expectations are the major reasons why many business process management (BPM) projects fail.
This is according to Dr Helena Barnard, senior lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, speaking at the ITWeb BPM Summit at Vodaworld in Midrand, yesterday.
Barnard outlined why BPM initiatives traditionally fall short. “There is always the risk that people will be unable to perform according to new expectations. Successful BPM implementations are designed to make it easy for people to succeed. However, the organisation needs to deal with the fear of failure, she explained.
“When BPM implementation processes focus only on the formal processes, and not on informal practices, it misses some of the most powerful organising mechanisms in the organisation.”
Barnard warned that companies should not expect a BPM implementation to be a simple process. She noted that businesses can expect a time of flux because there will be a new set of metrics to measure business excellence, and the old way of performing tedious tasks will no longer be relevant.
“People who introduce these initiatives don't understand how profoundly they disrupt employees' daily lives. The star performers may find that their skills have become obsolete and the slackers may find their laziness has been discovered, and that their jobs are on the line.”
According to Barnard, for a BPM initiative to be successful, companies need to attain executive buy-in and develop quantifiable goals and measures. She said it's vital for managers to integrate visibility and feedback into a BPM initiative.
“A BPM initiative changes the entire system - and by working systemically, it fundamentally disrupts it. For a while it will feel like swimming through mud, but it's important to continue pushing through and keeping the end goal in mind.”
Barnard explained that using BPM as a tool to reorganise a business system is like aligning all of the pieces of the puzzle together. After a time of chaos, roles will become clearer, incentives will work as they should and real business benefits in the form of efficiency and revenue growth will start to accrue.
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