The biggest challenge in implementing agile methods in a business process management (BPM) project involves changing the culture and mindsets of people.
This is according to John Hayden, head of Absa's Change Centre of Excellence, who addressed delegates at this week's BPM Summit, held at Vodaworld, Midrand. He gave an overview of how organisations can apply agile practices in their BPM projects.
Hayden said the challenges businesses face are universal. Before an organisation embarks on a business process reengineering drive, it firsts needs to understand what business problems it wants to address, whether it fits with the business strategy, and what the pay-back will be, he added.
According to Hayden, BPM projects typically include the redesign of a business system, including process and organisational redesign, and the implementation of scanning, management and workflow technologies.
More business, less IT
“IT has to come with some high-level idea of what they are going to do, and the business case needs to be determined to support the project and to scope out the benefits,” he said.
“A lack of collaboration between IT and business leads to a trap of zero cooperation within the organisation.”
“E-mail connectivity has destroyed, to a large extent, face-to-face communication and collaboration. We are so busy these days, that we don't have time for meetings. Our ability to get together and talk is compromised because we are spread too thin and rely too much on electronic communication.”
Agility is key
According to Hayden, an agile methodology promotes user involvement versus rigidly sticking to process methodologies and tools. In addition, an agile approach drives customer collaboration rather than contract negotiation. And it enables business to respond to changes, rather than following a prescribed plan.
“Agile requires a fundamental change in people's culture and mindset, how they work and behave. It emphasises co-location, and face-to-face, verbal communications and collaboration,” said Hayden.
He claimed that creating an agile methodology does not mean putting an organisation into an environment of chaos and anarchy. Rather, it's a highly disciplined attitude.
“It's about a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organisation and accountability; it's about managing a team rather than individuals.”
He added that for an agile BPM implementation to occur the initiative needs complete buy-in from top executive level and the leadership team needs to be committed upfront to deliver a new way of working.
“Projects that don't have committed line sponsors are almost guaranteed to fail,” he said.
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