Are Your Business Processes Stalled?

If your business process management isn’t up to par, you’re not alone.

At the Six Sigma IQ website, BPM expert Dan Morris assured readers that many companies suffer from stalled BPM. But whether you are stuck on simple improvements rather than true transformations or whether you are being overly tactical instead of strategic, there is a way out of the tunnel.

What’s your first step? Morris offered a self-test that can help you identify whether your BPM is in need of some adjustment.

• Does it seem like few really significant changes (transformational) get done?
• Are most of your BPM projects really just improvements on what is already being done?
• Do your projects challenge fundamental concepts in the way the business functions?
• Do your business managers think the projects make a real difference?
• Are your change projects normally considered to be successful by senior management?
• Do your BPM project benefits really make a difference to the bottom line (e.g. cost reduction or sales expansion)?
• Is the head of your BPM group considered a trusted business partner by business key managers – is he or she invited to their business operation meetings?
• Is your BPM program expanding in the company?
• Is your BPM budget adequate to support a growing service group?

Morris advised that in a nutshell, your answers to these questions will determine whether your business is improving significantly as a result of your BPM, and/or whether senior managers are getting the return they want from your efforts. If you thought you were doing a great job but the current answers to these questions involve a lot of “Nos”, you might be experiencing a setback that looks like this:

• Your group’s budget stagnates or increases very slowly
• The ability of your group to hire good people decreases and turnover is a problem
• The role that your group can play is limited
• BPM becomes a secondary concern with focus shifting to BPMS and IT application generation
• Your group is focused on chipping away at small improvements instead of projects that are big enough to make a difference in the company’s ability to compete
• Management’s expectations of your group are lower

For the rest of the post, check out QuickBase's Fast Track blog.