BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

The Evolution of Business Process Management

as a Professional Discipline
Sandra Lusk, Staci Paley, and Andrew Spanyi

The evolution of Business Process Management (BPM) as a customer-centric and process-

centric approach to improving business results has entered its third wave over the last thirty five
years in the form of Business Process Management (BPM). Yet, there is much more work to be
done before BPM is broadly recognized as a professional discipline. This article presents a
summary of the historical evolution of BPM, the current state of BPM, and the work being
undertaken by the Education Committee of the Association of Business Process Management
Professional (ABPMP) in this regard.

The Process Evolution and Drivers to Produce BPM

The BPM timeline in Figure 1 presents the three waves of process evolution since its post-
industrial revolution inception. The timeline illustrates that the shaping of BPM into its present
state is the result of significant business drivers, business tools, organization development
methodologies, key technological developments, technology and measurement tools, standards,
and related controls.

The latter part of the timeline sees a shift from technology as one of the main process drivers to
technology as process enabler. BPM and BPM tools are evolving as a result of the innovation,
customization, increased one-to-one customer focus, and business growth that has been caused
by consolidation and 24-hour global manufacturing and service. Technology in the form of
evolving products, combined with Internet protocols, is beginning to enable the separation of
business management from systems management, the separation of process from systems, and
the development of the context-driven process models that are essential to BPM.

Figure 1. Three Waves of Process Evolution

Phase Time Focus Business Technology Tools/Enablers

1750 ƒ Specialization ƒ Functional ƒ Mechanization ƒ Scientific

– of Labor Hierarchies ƒ Standardization Management
1960s ƒ Task ƒ Command & ƒ Record- ƒ PDCA
Productivity Control keeping Improvement
Industrial Age
ƒ Cost ƒ Assembly Line Cycle
Reduction ƒ Financial
Modeling

Information Age
ƒ Quality ƒ Multi-Industry ƒ Computerized ƒ TQM
Management Enterprises Automation ƒ Statistical
1st Wave ƒ Continuous ƒ Line of ƒ Management Process
70s - Flow Business Information Control
Process
80s
Improvement ƒ Task Organization Systems ƒ Process
Efficiency ƒ Mergers & ƒ MRP Improvement
Acquisitions Methods

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

Phase Time Focus Business Technology Tools/Enablers

ƒ Process ƒ Flat ƒ Enterprise ƒ Activity Based

Innovation Organization Architecture Costing
ƒ “Best ƒ End-to-end ƒ ERP ƒ Six Sigma
Practices” Processes ƒ CRM ƒ Buy vs. build
ƒ Better, Faster, ƒ Value ƒ Supply Chain ƒ Process Re-
2nd Wave -
Cheaper Propositions – Mgt design/
Process 1990s
ƒ Business via Speed to Reengineerin
Reengineering
the Internet Market, g Methods
Customer
Intimacy,
Operational
Excellence
ƒ Assessment, ƒ Networked ƒ Enterprise ƒ Balanced
Adaptability, Organization Application Scorecard
& Agility ƒ Hyper Integration ƒ Self Service &
ƒ 24X7 Global Competition ƒ Service Personalizatio
Business ƒ Market Growth Oriented n
ƒ Continual Driven Architecture ƒ Outsourcing,
3rd Wave - Transformatio ƒ Process ƒ Performance Co-Sourcing,
Business n Effectiveness Management In-sourcing
2000+
Process over Resource software ƒ BPM Methods
Management Efficiency ƒ BPM Systems
ƒ Organizational
Effectiveness
over
Operational
Efficiency

Processes can now be identified in context; measured, managed, and aligned to the business –
i.e., integrated with technology; and used, in turn, to drive technology. This has led to increased
interest in the “Enterprise as an Adaptive System” concept. From this point of view, the
enterprise itself provides internal and external visibility, agility, and adaptability, based on process
feedback. From a standards and control standpoint, the combination of technology protocol
standardization, quality, international standards, benchmarking practices, and Sarbanes-Oxley
controls has driven requirements to model, evaluate, report, and integrate BPM.

As far back as 1911, Frederick Taylor focused on manufacturing tasks and time/motion studies,
which were measured statistically. In order to maximize profits, the primary business drivers
were efficiency and minimized cost. An organization would focus on training its workers to follow
specific steps that required narrowly focused skill and endurance. Standards and controls were
mechanistic. Process drivers were maximized around distinct, insular, repeatable tasks.
However, given the business environment at that time, the business areas were intentionally
siloed.

In the 1960s, technology increasingly became a business driver and amplified the speed of
change. This launched the first wave of process orientation. International (Japanese) companies
became much more competitive, due, in part, to their focus on quality improvement programs and
reduced defects. US companies started to mirror the quality approach. The combination of
process scrutiny and technological superiority lead to technology as process driver. American
business changed its operational paradigm, and the process era began.

American business scrutiny of international competition changed focus to measurable processes

and to speed that could be combined into “Just in time” manufacturing. The growing use of
computers in the 1970s and 80s combined with procedure specialization that accommodated
technological precision in fields such as nuclear power, and led to quantitative statistical software
and related data gathering techniques that measured, gathered, and interpreted results.
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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

The second wave of process orientation covered the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Revenue
growth returned as American companies leveraged international process practices. Focus shifted
to TQM, and then to ISO compliance standards. Over a decade of statistical analysis increased
the need to manage data in a meaningful way. The organization shifted from a focus on corporate
mission and group brainstorming to cross-functional teams and to handoffs within the
organization as the “how” to do tasks replaced the “why.”

The third wave began in the mid 1990s and continues in the present as the “coming of age” of
process-centric business. Technology is shifting from being a process driver to a process enabler.
The identity of the customer changed from markets to individuals with customized solutions.
Just-in-time manufacturing of the first wave led to just-in-time supply chains of the third wave,
with the accompanying need to understand processes across disparate enterprises. The
company as a system became more important than an examination of its individual parts. With
the advent of thin-client applications and commonly used protocols, applications could be utilized
regardless of the operating system or work station. This allowed “business management” to start
to separate from “systems management” and enabled “process management” to exist separate
from the systems themselves.

Our challenge now as BPM practitioners and leaders is to establish a context in which to overlay
consistent practices, commonly shared principles, acknowledged measurements, and technical
solutions even while the field itself continues to evolve.

Therefore, the challenge for BPM is to craft a discipline with the same characteristics of flexibility,
transparency, and adaptability that corporate businesses intend to establish by using BPM
methods.

What Is The Current State Of BPM As A Professional Discipline?

In order to answer this question, we first need to define what is meant by a “professional
discipline.” “Professional” is defined as “conforming to the standards of a profession,” while
“discipline” is “a branch of knowledge or teaching” and “a method of practice.” So, is Business
Process Management a professional discipline? Not quite yet. However, one thing is clear:
Companies struggling to reduce expenses and maximize their IT budgets are keen to deploy
Business Process Management as the latest means to achieve those goals.

There are so many interpretations for Business Process Management that twenty people might
well provide twenty different answers. Key words commonly include improvement,
documentation, and ownership, but there is still much confusion about what managing business
processes really means. In fact, while there is increasing clarity on what a business process is,
there remains much work to be done in gaining consensus on what it means to manage large
cross-functional business processes. Nevertheless, it is clear from all of the effort that
organizations are expending to identify and understand the fundamental flow of their business
activities, and from the deluge of papers, discussions, organizations, and vendors entering the
arena of business process management, that there is a lot of knowledge being shared and a lot of
teaching going on. So, while not a clearly defined discipline yet, the makings of a discipline are
there nonetheless.

The second part of our definition is about conforming to the standards. Here, not surprisingly, is
another area where there is a lot of discussion and lobbying but no clear consensus. After all, if
we cannot define what it is, how then can we adopt standards in either methodology or enabling
technology? There have been numerous papers and articles on proposed modeling standards,
such as BPMN or BPML, and much positioning among vendors to derive a common execution
language, such as BPEL and BPEL4WS, but so far there has been no agreement on universally
accepted standards.

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

BPM as a professional discipline is in a precarious stage and is in danger of becoming just

another ideal place that we will spend years and substantial dollars trying to reach and never
quite succeed because we have not agreed first on what it is and secondly on how to use it
effectively. That said, however, there is an obvious – in fact, urgent – need to put our arms
around the concept of Business Process Management, and to bring together a common
understanding of what it is and what it is not and to provide a balanced approach, together with a
set of tools to equip organizations to embrace successfully the professional discipline that BPM
can become.

What is ABPMP?

The Association of Business Process Management Professionals (ABPMP) is a non-profit,

vendor independent, professional organization dedicated to the advancement of business
process management concepts and practices. It is deeply dedicated to accelerating the evolution
of BPM toward a professional discipline. ABPMP is practitioner-oriented and practitioner-led.

Organization / ABPMP History

The Association of Business Process Management Professionals began in 2003 as a result of

conversations between three former associates who currently work for three different Fortune 50
companies. They had all been working on BPM programs and projects for several years. They
realized that there was no professional society for people doing BPM work. Furthermore, it had
begun to appear that the IT vendor community was trying to “take-over” or redefine the BPM
space as a technology layer, which would prove problematic for practitioners. They decided to
start a professional association for practitioners of BPM modeled after other professional
societies such as AITP, DAMA, PMI, etc. Sixteen people showed up for the first organizing
meeting. The three founders are Brett Champlin, Allstate Insurance Company; Chris Jensen,
McDonald's Corporation; and Richard Lovell, Motorola Corporation.

The mission of the ABPMP is to engage in activities that promote the practice of business
process management, to develop a Common Body of Knowledge in this field, and to contribute to
the advancement and skill development of professionals who work in this discipline.

The principle challenges in this regards are

• the relatively immature current state of BPM as a professional discipline
• the wide range of process improvement and management methods currently in use,
representing challenges of standardization
• the wide range of BPM technologies currently in use, again representing challenges of
standardization

We believe that BPM will rapidly evolve as a professional discipline, such that practioners will
understand the fundamental requirements involved in fulfilling roles at various levels, and that
there exists a standard framework of certification for a business process management
professional that will guide and assess an individual’s competence in fulfilling key roles.

ABPMP’s vision is to
• be the center for the community of practice in Business Process Management
• be the professional society for business process management professionals
• define the discipline and practice of BPM
• recognize, acknowledge, and honor those who make outstanding contributions to
our discipline

ABPMP has local chapters in several US areas, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, and

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

Southeast Michigan, and has many more chapters forming in the US and internationally.

ABPMP is governed by an elected Board of Directors. Each chapter president is an ex-officio and
voting member of the International Board of Directors. ABPMP has a Board of Advisors made up
of some of the most well known authors, practitioners, and thought-leaders in the field. They are
also volunteers and periodically offer the Board of Directors and chapters advice on the industry
and how ABPMP can best serve its members.

On December 5, 2004, at the ABPMP Board of Directors meeting, Andrew Spanyi was asked to
form an Education Committee to help develop the components necessary to develop a BPM-BOK
and Professional Certification Program in BPM. The Education Committee held its first meeting
on January 17, 2005, and is made up of representatives from the academic community, as well
as practitioners and consultants working in the insurance, utility, and manufacturing industries.
The current demographic of the Committee is 50% practitioners, 25% academic, and 25%
consultants/other; it provides a well-balanced representation of BPM professionals.

What Is The End In Mind?

ABPMP is dedicated to making a contribution such that BPM rapidly evolves as a professional
discipline, where practitioners will understand the fundamental requirements involved in fulfilling
roles at various levels, and where a standard framework of certification as a business process
management professional will guide and assess an individual’s competence in fulfilling key roles.

What Is Our Approach?

Accordingly, ABPMP has formed a committee to examine the current situation for the needed
evolution of BPM as a professional discipline. The intent is to use a structured approach to work
towards developing a “certification program” for BPM professionals. Along the way, the intent is
to examine
• a Definition of BPM (Focus of Study and World View)
• a List of Reference Disciplines (Theory and Application)
• a Body of Knowledge (Principles & Practices)
• current BPM Research Agendas

Outlined below is the progress to date in each of these areas:

• The sub-group working on the “definition” of process management found a wide variety of
definitions in the literature, but little convergence on any one definition. As a result, the
members of this committee have developed a draft document on the definition of process
management that includes a brief amplification of key terms, accompanied by a visual
model that depicts the key messages in the text. A summary “elevator pitch” along these
lines is also being developed.
• The draft definition of business process management is proposed as
o Business Process Management is a disciplined approach to identify,
design, execute, document, monitor, and measure both automated and
non-automated business processes to achieve consistent, targeted
operational results that align resources to an organization’s strategic
goals.
o Business Process Management (BPM) involves the deliberate,
collaborative, and increasingly technology-aided definition, improvement,
innovation, and management of end-to-end business processes that
drives business agility.
o It is the method by which an enterprise aligns its business processes to
its business strategy, leading to optimization of overall company
performance through improvements of specific work activities, within a

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

specific department, across the enterprise, or between corporations.

The group emphasized that in order to understand Business Process Management, it is

necessary to have a common understanding of business process.

A further insight in developing the definition of Business Process Management was that Business
Process Management follows a comprehensive system that drives corporate value.

Figure 2 below represents an initial draft perspective, which depicts the alignment between
strategy, value-chain definition, business processes, and measurement within the context of a
cycle of institutionalized practices, standardization, and improvements.

It is contemplated that a full system would begin with enterprise strategy (light blue circle),
followed by value chain definition and ownership to establish corporate and business unit goals
(top curve). Next, it is necessary to establish metrics to baseline and measure process chain
performance (bottom curve). Finally, business processes can be standardized and automated
across the enterprise

Figure 2. The Business Process Management System

Define Corporate-wide Business Process

Value Chains and Leadership

‹ Map the company’s Institutionalize ‹ Assign executive

core business activities responsibility/
Practices sponsorship of
process chains

Standardize
‹ Provide ‹ Leverage
continuous Business Processes BPM
improvement Products
‹ Adopt common design /
reengineering methodology
Business Strategy ‹ Document processes
Business Strategy
‹ Manage process diversity

‹Manage ‹ Enable
process Change Mgt
governance

Measure Process Chain Performance

‹ Manage to scorecards / dashboards and chains of

accountability

Concurrent with the work on defining business process management, the committee also
examined the issues and obstacles faced in implementing process management. Preliminary
survey results indicated that the following factors are some of the top of mind items for
respondents:
ƒ Engaging senior management

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

ƒ Obtaining sufficient resources

ƒ Accessing economical and effective training for executives and managers
ƒ Addressing cross-regional and international issues in implementation
ƒ Achieving strategic alignment
ƒ Incorporating process performance measurement into traditional measurement practices
ƒ
These finding were fairly consistent with what has been found in a broad-based study that was in
part initiated by ABPMP, and was executed by BPMG. This group recently reported in their March
2005 Research Report, “Building on Experience,” that the top four issues and challenges faced in
implementing process management were
1. Commitment by top management
2. Program organization and structure
3. Performance objectives aligned to process
4. Certification of process people

These findings reinforced our dedication to the development of both a list of reference disciplines
and a common body of knowledge [BOK] for business process management.

The preliminary work on the key topics in a matrix of reference disciplines is summarized in Table
1 below.
Table 1

Finance
Management Science
Organizational Mgmt
Law
Communication
Information Systems
General Systems Theory
Social Sciences

For each reference discipline, the intent is to define key content according to the definition,
analysis, design, development, implementation, and assessment of business processes, which all
need to fit together to address customers’ needs.

Concurrently, the group working on the body of knowledge for process management conducted a
review of work on BOK done by other associations and organizations, including, but not limited to,
The Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK), The Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK), Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge (EABOK), and The Data
Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK). As a result of this review, a draft position and a plan
for the way ahead on a BOK for process management is in development.

The view on BOK content is that different BUILDING BLOCKS activity areas – e.g., definition,
analysis, design, development, implementation, and assessment – all fit together to address
customers needs. BPM has execution or production oversight responsibility as well as process
change management responsibility. The BOK will likely address, at a minimum, the following
areas:

1. Diagnosing the Organizational Context

2. Describing Business Processes
3. Analyzing Business Processes
4. Implementing Process Transformation
5. Managing Business Processes

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

In terms of the work on current BPM Research Agendas, a draft summary of current research
initiatives in process management has been compiled, including descriptions of nearly 30
research projects being conducted by universities in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Finally, ABPMP has began an examination of certification program options, including, but not
limited to, reviewing program concepts from HP, Intel, and others with a view toward developing a
robust, practical, and exam-based certification program.

What’s Next?

The top priority will be to publish a first draft of an ABPMP BOK in the fall of 2005 that will provide
some guidance to ABPMP members and other interested practitioners.

It is understood that the first draft of the BOK will be revised in the form of a more comprehensive
second edition about a year later, and there will probably be requirements for further editions over
time.

Concurrently, work will also proceed on the following topics:

• Definition of BPM (Focus of Study and World View)
• List of Reference Disciplines (Theory and Application)
• Current BPM Research Agendas
• Model Curricula for Academic and Training Programs

It is contemplated that this work will lead to the development of a very much needed,
independently developed and test-based “certification program” for process management
professionals.

It is contemplated that this certification program will be structured so that business process
management professionals can represent their qualifications with confidence. The program is
expected to have several modules to address the needs of the BPM professional in different
roles, and certification will require
• multiple examinations to cover range of BPM roles and responsibilities,
• a combination of examination, education, and experience,
• adherence to a Code of Ethics, continuing in the education program to maintain
certification.

The benefits of such a certification program are that it will serve to

• provide a body of knowledge and a common lexicon to link the wide range of process
improvement and management methods currently in use
• accelerate the maturity of BPM as a professional discipline
• enable some standardization and common understanding of the wide range of BPM
technologies
•
It is contemplated that future work may include guidelines on the type of continuing education
requirements needed to maintain BPM competency.

Readers interested in obtaining more information on the work being carried out by ABPMP’s
Education Committee are invited to contact [email protected] .

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BPTrends June 2005 Evolution of BPM as a Professional Discipline

About the Authors

Sandra Lusk is a Senior Business Process Management Consultant at PacifiCorp. Her

responsibilities include the BPM Governance, training, mentoring and support of business
improvement initiatives. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and is
the President of the ABPMP, Portland Chapter.

Staci Paley is an Architectural Consultant and the Supervisory Editor for the PacifiCorp corporate
Technology Blueprint. She introduced major processes into the IT business unit (currently
working on ITIL), and established the PacifiCorp business modeling standards. Her background
includes BPM, Technology Strategy, and Marketing/PR. Staci is the VP of Membership for
ABPMP, Portland Chapter.

Andrew Spanyi is an internationally recognized author and conference speaker on Process

Management. He is the author of “Business Process Management is a Team Sport, Play It to
Win!” and chairs the ABPMP’s Education Committee.

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