Business Process Management

Business process management (BPM) programme combines two of the most essential competencies for a sustainable business - a strong IT infrastructure, and a comprehensive approach to continuous improvement. Companies that ignore the need for harmony between IT professionals and the business do so at their peril. So why do so many associated BPM as an... IT-function? In the big picture, Business Process Management (BPM) has at its core the same question as continuous process improvement approaches like Lean and Six Sigma: how do you continuously adapt and improve the way you do business? In response to the question, BPM has evolved a system subscribed to by both the business-side and IT professionals alike, and encompasses a set of technologies that support business process and a comprehensive management discipline. In this respect, it makes the founding fathers of BPM difficult to identify. Frederick Taylor's scientific management principles of the early 1900s, in which he advocated choosing work methods based on scientific study, is one of the earliest concepts to influence BPM. Automobile manufacturing pioneer Henry Ford, who essentially created the production line, and Taiichi Ohno, engineer of Toyota's production line based on the just-in time system, were a further two business minds ahead of their time, whose theories continue to form a cornerstone of the BPM approach. Jumping ahead a couple of decades, the evolution of IT infrastructures has meant greater analysis of process and business information with the aim of making better and faster decisions. In the beginning, this was done in a fragmented fashion, effectively against the principles of good BPM, with each system supporting a specific function or process. The task of integrating these is one which is still ongoing, but increasing support for BPM is being seen across the IT community, as more come to see BPM as a combined discipline, rather than simply as technology only. But there remains little industry consensus when it comes to the definition of ...Read More