In `IT Doesn`t Matter, Business Processes Do,` Howard Smith, Computer Sciences Corporation`s Chief Technology Officer of the European Group, and co-chair and co-founder of the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org), suggests a gradual approach to implementing BPM as a business practice.
"To put business process management to work in your organization take several small steps rather than one large, doomed-to-fail, step," he says in the book he co-authored with Peter Fingar.
In their book they state that the first three months should focus on learning and experimentation.
* Month One: Focus on comparing BPM to existing methods and systems focusing on the new process-modeling and process-deployment techniques. Identify relevant BPM technologies, architectures and methods. List all existing internal projects that aim to improve business processes, their associated IT systems and technical activities and costs. Develop an analysis framework to compare a piecemeal approach with the continuous approach of BPM. Identify possible targets for pilot projects.
* Month Two: Develop an outline for a management perspective on BPM in the context of existing strategies. Brainstorm BPM`s organisational implications and define the precise relationships to existing business and technology initiatives. Select one business domain for piloting BPM, focusing on a large, complex problem that so far hadn`t been solved. Use this to demonstrate the radical nature and benefits of the BPM approach to executive management.
* Month Three: Use a process model to encode a part of the existing business strategy and to develop a process pattern that can be adopted across the company as a test. Identify the reasons others will put forward to show that the BPM approach cannot work. Draft a plan that compares the total cost of process ownership as it is with that of the BPM approach. Draft a detailed comparison between BPM and existing technologies and approaches. Complete the integration of operational systems for the chosen process domain to the process-management environment, Experiment with the redesign, deployment, execution, operations and analysis of variant process designs. Understand the trade-offs that BPM requires in order to reap its benefits.
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Founded in 1959, Computer Sciences Corporation is a leading global information technology (IT) services company. CSC`s mission is to provide customers in industry and government with solutions crafted to meet their specific challenges and enable them to profit from the advanced use of technology.
With approximately 90,000 employees, CSC provides innovative solutions for customers around the world by applying leading technologies and CSC`s own advanced capabilities. These include systems design and integration; IT and business process outsourcing; applications software development; Web and application hosting; and management consulting. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., CSC reported revenue of $14.8 billion for the 12 months ended April 2, 2004. For more information, visit the company`s Web site at www.csc.com.
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