S04E01 A new beginning....

Hello there, it's been a while since I last posted an article in my Process Extraordinaire Weekly newsletter and I believe it is good to cover that first. I can say it just has been too busy as we (at Celonis ) just wrapped up a stellar Q4 (which runs until the end of January by the way, no... don't ask me why) and this certainly played a part of course. However, I always tell my clients that I prefer transparency, so let me just state that I simply did not feel like it for a while. I've been publishing content on this platform for quite a while now (since 2015-2016) and I have always enjoyed that (and still do) but at the moment that the pressure from other topics gets too big, this joy seems to disappear a bit to the background. So, you take a step back, focus on the topics that need the most attention (family, work and of course the BPM360Podcast ) and you get back at it later.

Well, later is here now and I am ready to get back at it and share with you all my experiences on the wonderful topic of business process management (in the widest sense possible). I've also decided to do this in a slightly different format. Instead of deep diving into one topic I will go to a recap of the things I talked about with customers, industry experts and others on topics in #BPM or related it. Sometimes, this might result in an additional episode of the podcast that I co-host with my fellow BPM expert and dear friend Dr. Russell Gomersall . Sneak preview, watch out for the next episode where Russell and I go back and forth on process hierarchies and why functional decomposition and end to end thinking get mixed up from time to time.

The one topic that has been quite central during my conversations last week is around the implementation challenge of BPM. To me, implementing BPM means two major topics:

1. Technically implementing a BPM platform (essential but not the most important thing)
2. Organisationally implementing the mindset behind BPM (critical and more challenging)

Way to often I am involved in BPM implementation projects at clients that started immediately with point 1, only to discover that the adoption of the BPM platform is trailing behind expectations. It can also lead to the situation that the BPM platform is not supporting the requirements of the organisation fully because of decisions that have not been taking before the BPM platform was configured.

So, if you want to achieve the best possible result of implementing BPM, don't forget to include the following steps into your project plan (this is not an exhaustive list by the way, I need to keep some parts secret so I can stay in business ;-) ):

• Make sure you articulate the WHY of implementing BPM (hint: try to connect it to the strategic initiatives in your organisation)
• Get a strong executive sponsor (I believe this is a universal requirement for successful project management and BPM is not different) who can align peers, settle conflict and open all the necessary doors internally.
• Define a structurally strong yet flexible governance (like a bamboo stick basically) for your process ownership. This can also include the application of topics like Process Classification.
• Please please please have a management of change process defined and up and running. Nothing is more frustrating than spending a tremendous amount of energy on building up a single source of up to date truth, only to find it utterly outdated after 6-12 months because you didn't manage the changes to the processes and applications properly. Do yourself a favor and get this right from the start.

Once you've gone through these points, you may think about technically implementing a platform and the likelihood of achieving a better grade of adoption is very high.

More to follow, please check in next week for episode 2 of the new format.

Ciao, Caspar