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Business Process Management: Ally or Obstacle
Understanding Business Process & its Impacts on IT Project Success

IT projects often fail to produce business benefits and fall far short of ROI objectives.  They also produce staff and customer angst and resentment instead of satisfaction and praise.  After years in darkness an answer emerges: IT applications must enhance business process to be effective!

What is a Business Process?  Why is it important?  Whose responsibility is it?

This one-day briefing explores Business Process from a business systems perspective.  It specifically defines Business Process, explains the importance of Business Process to business and IT, and surveys best practices of integrating business process into systems projects.

Business Process requires looking beyond technology.  So, this briefing identifies and explores the issues associated with Business Process.  What are they and what’s different about managing them?

• Separating Business Process from System Requirements: How can the two worlds work in harmony without complete overlap of staff, duplicated effort, or major gaps?  What techniques enable effective and efficient project efforts?

• Staffing issues: How do you staff and organize projects that span both worlds?  Especially supply chain projects that may bridge multiple organizations.

• Life-cycle issues: What impacts does eBusiness impose on development strategies, e.g. iterative prototyping, especially given diverse and even contradictory emulation, extension and innovation objectives?

• Project approach issues: Does incorporating Business Process impact the SDLC?  If so, should they fit together for success?

• Modeling and tool issues: What established modeling notations work well?  Can UML be used?  What tools support business process modeling?  How do they integrate with systems development tools?

• Modeling and documentation issues: Which metadata are really mandatory, e.g. for defining XML objects/elements?  What metadata are needed by which methodology and technology approaches?

• Implementation issues: Acceptance challenges, organizational change, role & responsibility changes, and, especially, relationship changes (including interpersonal, small group, department and organization-to-organization).  How do you plan for and manage the changes typically caused by Business Process change?

• Personal change management issues: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."  How can YOU become & remain flexible, and how can you help foster flexibility in all participating parties?

This briefing involves the participants in structured and interactive discussion designed to provide the opportunity to raise and discuss the project issues and challenges that you face as you plan and implement your projects incorporating Business Process.