Business Process Management, Remember the Basics

As Sandy Kimsley pointed out in her links, Ken Swensen responded to the question, is BPM Dead? In all of our discussions of technology, business processes, business rules, business events, it is easy to lose focus on the basic worth of business process management.

Therefore, it is useful to review the differences between function- and process-orientation within organizations. Most organizations, that use BPM, intend to become process-centric. Organizations with a robust process focus are distinguished by having a extensive, cultural process orientation. Big, complex organizations consider the process focus as extremely important, and this system is particularly common in insurance, healthcare, and financial services. A functional organization orientation, on the other hand, is more prevalent in small enterprises and is well-suited to the way they handle business.

A functional organization is an organization that delivers a strong capability in a limited number of functions. These might include highly specialized product and skills where knowledge or availability is limited. Obviously, a functional focus works for them.

Each focus,functional versus process-centric has advantages and disadvantages. In his admirable work on business process management, James Chang created the table below that summarizes the differences between organizations adopting each focus. A functional organization allows an easier balance of work among workers with functional excellence because they all have similar skills. This organizational style outlines natural, comprehensible ways that each task should be performed and assigns this to the appropriate proponent.

	Functional Organization	Process Organization
Work Unit:	Department	Team
Key Figure:	Functional Executive	Process Owner
Benefits:	Functional excellence, Easier work balancing because workers have similar skills, Clear management direction on how work should be performed	Responsive to market requirements, Improved communication and collaboration between different  functional tasks, Performance measurements aligned with process goals
Weaknesses:	Barrier to communication between different functions, Poor handover between functions that affects customer service, Lack of end-to-end focus to optimize organizational performance	Duplication of functional expertise, Inconsistency of functional performance between processes, Increased operational complexity
Strategic Value:	Supports cost leadership strategy	Supports differentiation strategy
Work Management:	Functional Quality Focus	Cross Functional Coordination

Table 1 Benefits and Drawbacks of the Functional Versus Process orientation in organizations (Business Process Management Systems, Chang).

Conversely, a process organization enjoys improved communication and collaboration and may therefore be highly responsive to market requirements. Further, performance is easily measured across the process organization, as it is stated in terms of process goals. However, process organizations suffer from lack of or poorer quality communication between the different functions relative to their functional counterparts. There is reduced end-to-end focus, as opposed to the functional structure. Moreover, there may be considerable duplication of functional expertise, inconsistent functional performance between processes, and increased operational complexity. This may make the structure of the process-based organization redundant and bulky.

- Tom Debevoise

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[Helmut]

I am using a BPM Suite called "Corporate Synergy" and I am prefering process orientation as it is much more flexible and easier customizable than a funcitonal oriented approach.

In September I am organizing a ree of charge webinar in regards Basics of BPM (Business Process Management)

Business Process Management Webinar