While our team is still busy with the final analysis of the data from the ‘Quality in Process Management Survey’ we conducted together with the University of Applied Sciences Koblenz over the past few months, let me kick off the discussion with a few general observations:
Even though business process management still ranks as one of the leading topics for senior management (as it has for the past 10 years or so), the quality of the processes designed, implemented and operated does little to suggest that much attention is paid to delivering something that comes even close to the importance attached to it.
With just 4% of companies claiming that their processes are ready for operations once they leave the project phase and more than a third of companies having to invest substantial effort to re-work processes to turn them operational, it seems that a lot of the BPM initiatives are a far cry from anything that could be called successful.
Of course, all this is not from lack of trying: Many companies have invested in technology to support their processes, have created roles such as process managers, process owners and have even established some sort of process governance. Much is in fact being done and companies are continuing to invest heavily into BPM. Only it seems that more investment and technology are unrelated to the causes behind the lack of process quality.
Over the next few weeks we will look at some of the survey results in more detail on this blog. And despite the negative tone of this post let me assure you that the survey results also show some positives: There are clear indications which explain why companies which are more successful than the rest of the industry have achieved that status through their approaches to managing their processes – from design to operations. So tune in again soon to find out more.
