Biggest BPM Challenge

Someone posed the following question on one of the LinkedIn Groups:

What is the biggest BPM [business process management] Challenge? 

Good Question…

Implementing BPM software is the easy part of your project – gathering the requirements is difficult.  If you have selected the process you wish to manage and you have documented that process [gathered all of the requirements], configuring/coding up the solution isn’t hard.

Taking on a BPM project is challenging.  There are steps you can take that will increase your chances for success?  In my experience, if I covered these bases in advance, the project went smoothly:

• Identify an Internal Champion – This person will be the internal sales person for this project.  This is not a one time sales activity, it is ongoing.  And, he/she can help you wade through the internal politics.
• Manage Change – People hate change.  A BPM project will not only change the way a person works, it can change the corporate culture.  Typically, the Champion leads your company through the changes.
• Manage the Project – You will need to identify a [good] project manager.  In order to secure success, select a cross functional team so that they can feel some ownership.  Be sure to involve potential nay-sayers – if they have some ownership, the nay-saying will be greatly reduced.  It only takes one unhappy person to derail a project like this – I have seen it happen.
• Selecting the initial Process to be managed – Projects that take a long time are hard to manage and can go wrong for many reasons.  Choose a process that is not too large or too small but has some visibility so that your success will be noted.  Choose one that can be completed in 3-6 months so that people don’t forget about the project and so that success can be seen fairly quickly. 

From a project perspective, it would not be unusual to spend 5 months gathering requirements and only one month on the actual implementation. 

Your BPM project, managed properly, can bring your company some significant financial benefits.  Now is a good time to get started.

Your Thoughts…

What has been your experience?  What might you add to this list?

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