How to guide organizations in Maturity in BPM?

By: Pedro Robledo, BPM process management expert

The selection of software for the technological implementation of the Business Process Management (BPM) discipline will depend mainly on whether we want to cover the entire BPM life cycle or only some of its phases. The selection methodology explained below is valid for both cases, but when defining the evaluation criteria, it will be necessary to take into account what is the scope sought (with respect to the BPM life cycle), in order to evaluate similar products.

A Process Oriented Organization is one that, following the principles of the management discipline of BPM (Business Process Management), recognizes the importance of the processes that define the value chain of your business, deals with the management thereof and treats them as assets of the company. Business processes must be cared for, maintained and managed correctly in order to create value for their clients through the processes they execute.

The transformation of a traditional functional organization to a process-oriented company implies a significant change in the corporate culture, being the most critical success factor for the success of any BPM initiative in the organization. To manage the change of a BPM implementation, it will be necessary to lead a project that motivates those involved in the change, to assimilate that it is a change to improve and achieve short-term achievements over time.

When a company is process-oriented implies that the responsibility for the results obtained is established on the transversal processes and not on the functional level of the organizational units, and also identifies which processes participate in the strategic compliance of the company, so that they will optimize those processes according to their contribution in the objectives to be reached. But on the way to achieve Excellence in Processes, the company goes through different levels of maturity in processes.

Maturity as a measure to evaluate the capabilities of an organization in regard to a particular discipline has become very popular since the Institute SEI (Software Engineering Institute) of Carnegie Mellon University proposed the model CMM (Capability Maturity Model) for the evaluation of software development processes. This model has been used to apply it in other approaches such as, for example, IT Infrastructure Management, Enterprise Architecture Management and Knowledge Management; and also, for Process Orientation of an organization.

Many organizations use maturity models (Business Process Maturity Models - BPMM) to check how well their organizations manage their processes. BPMM is a model that we must consider when starting any process management project, improvement of the same or BPM project and can be used by organizations to:

• Describe the state of how our organization is, its strengths and weaknesses in relation to process management.
• Prescribe the path we must follow to advance in process management and improvement of them.
• Compare the status of our organization with respect to standards and other organizations and as a benchmarking tool.
• Ensure the culture of continuous improvement of the business processes of an organization

Different Maturity Models in BPM

The company can be guided in different Maturity Models in BPM (BPMM) proposed by different authors. In the following figure, we see a comparison of several reference models:

Comparative Table of Process Orientation Maturity Models

Maturity Models in BPM (BPMM Robledo, 2014)

In 2014, I designed my maturity model after a thorough investigation of the critical success factors that are reflected in the different existing maturity models, but above all analyzing three main BPM gurus: Fisher, Rosemann and Jeston-Nelis. Also caused by the different evaluations I have carried out in different companies from different industries.

In my model, I consider 7 key factors of success or pillars necessary to measure the maturity of the process orientation of an organization:

• STRATEGY: Alignment of the Processes to the Organizational Strategy.
• PROCESSES: Identification, Analysis, Modeling, Design and Automation of Processes: Strategic, Keys and Support. Including the definition of business rules and automated processes for decision making.
• TECHNOLOGIES: Application of BPM Technologies for the different phases of Process Management: modeling, design, automation, integration and monitoring. As well as the implementation of technological trends (Social, Mobility, Big Data, Cloud and Internet of Things).
• PEOPLE: Knowledge and competencies BPM, Responsibilities, behaviors and leadership.
• GOVERNMENT: Control and administration of BPM initiatives and their implementation with BPMS. Definition of Scorecards that allow a predictive, proactive and reactive analysis in real time of performance, performance and the achievement of business objectives. Center of Excellence BPM.
• METHODS: the adoption of formal, well-defined and repeatable methodologies to carry out BPM and its continuous improvement.
• CULTURE: Culture of the organization towards process management. Organizational structure oriented to processes. It is not enough to train people, but change the business culture.

7 Key Factors of the Maturity of a Process Oriented Organization

In this model of maturity each of these 7 key factors are divided into five "levels of maturity", so that an organization that has institutionalized all the practices included in a level and its inferiors, is considered to have reached that level of maturity.

Companies must ensure that their business processes are more mature, that they are capable of offering greater performance over time. Companies must provide process enablers that belong to individual processes and business capabilities that apply to the entire organization.

Model of Maturity in BPM based on 7 Key Factors

For the application of the maturity model, the cycle can be structured in three stages: preparation, evaluation and improvement plan.

Cycle to apply the Maturity Analysis model

With this cycle, organizations can develop programs to improve their maturity in BPM easily and simply, involving managers and workers in the transformation of their processes. Being cyclical will seek continuous improvement. Let's see each stage:

1. Preparation

In this stage, three important actions are carried out:

a) Beginning of the evaluation establishing the bases so that the evaluation of maturity is correct and adequate, synchronizing the objectives of the evaluation with the strategic objectives in the short, medium and long term.

b) Perform initial diagnosis of the organization.

c) Formation of the Work Team responsible for executing all the activities. It is normally set up with five people: responsible for the process, member of the board of directors, responsible for quality and experienced executors. Although people could participate outside the organization that provide value in the evaluation. A team person will be designated as a team leader.

2. Evaluation

In this stage the level of maturity of each key factor will be determined. Each key factor is evaluated in a table according to five gradual levels of maturity. If an analysis of maturity in an organization is carried out annually taking into account the seven key factors, it can be represented in a radial graph, comparing two consecutive years. This graph guides the organization in what factors attention must be paid to level up, so that a specific plan can be defined for each key factor.

Graphic Analysis of the Evolution of the Maturity of a Process Oriented Organization

3. Improvement Plan

In this stage, the results of the previous stage are analyzed and a concrete improvement plan is determined according to the priorities of the organization and taking into account the objective of reaching higher levels of maturity.