Warwick, I agree that BPM has been held up as the solution to almost every type of business problem around, and its reputation is suffering accordingly. It’s definitely an uphill battle to get companies thinking across the silos.

One early realisation was that BPM was trying to ‘eat the elephant’ … ie be everything to everyone. On the technology side, it was trying to pull together a vast array of pre-existing technologies PLUS introduce a new modelling standard. As if that weren’t enough, it was also aspiring to be the next big thing in management philosophy, blending with or replacing a raft of pre-existing process improvement methods.

It seems to me that BPM technology has now passed through ‘hype cycle’ and has entered the ‘valley of death’. Broad awareness of the technology is being achieved and attempts to use the new technology are becoming widespread. Like many major innovations, BPM may have been ‘hyped’ beyond reality during early commercialisation … the question is ” Has the hype been so far ahead of reality that it fall victim in the ‘valley of death’?”.

As a ‘management philosophy’, BPM is still not well understood and few organisations have committed to this aspect as far as I can see. Creating a true ‘process managed’ organisation involves a whole lot of challenges that are disruptive and costly … in the end, the pain will be for nought if the technology isn’t available to turn the theory into practice. While the principles of a BPM-oriented organisation are starting to cut through, the reality of planning and managing the transition from silo-based to process-based is proving to be daunting.

The promise of BPM is still compelling and impressive but it may in the end be a ‘bridge too far’ to achieve in one innovation cycle.

Chris Adams
VP of Product Marketing and Management
Ultimus