Everything’s in the Name! February 5, 2011
Posted by Sanooj Kutty in Business Process Management, Others.Tags: bpm, business analysis, business architecture, business process automation, Business Process Management, change, change management, culture, enterprise architecture, information management, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, process, strategy
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The name game has now creeped into Business Process Management. A former manager of mine kept referring to BPM only to see a demonstration from Metastorm’s Enterprise Architecture software and exclaim that this is the BPM tool I was looking for.
Initially, as a BPM evangelist, I was peeved, peeved enough to withdraw myself from the program and request to be assigned to conventional IT project management. The industry had suddenly fallen in love with BPM and it was the buzzword everywhere.
As a committed BPM-er, I continued to pursue personally my passion for BPM. From Aris to Adonis to Tibco to Interfacing to Metastorm to IBM Blueworkslive, my shallow time-permitting evaluations confused me at times too.
Aris calls it a Process Platform or Aris House.
Adonis calls it Business Process Management.
Tibco calls it the same.
Metastorm has both Enterprise Architecture and BPM
Interfacing calls it Process Center.
Yet, do they mean Business Processes or Business Architecture ? Or are they one and the same?
Today as I tried out the BPMN Modeller Visio add-on from Interfacing, I realised one thing. Whatever name you call them, they all aim to achieve the same objective. However, because of the difference in scope, standards and methodologies that may be adopted by different tools, it is important that when you ask for a solution, you ‘name’ it right.
Platform, Architecture, Management or Center? They can all mean the same, yet behave different. They can all produce the same result, yet look different. They are all good tools and will serve very well. However, would they fit your organization easily?
I have chosen the Visio add-on to introduce to my employers. Not because I really liked it, but because every one has a Visio on their desktop and over 5 years, there are more people who know to use Visio than just the single me who has used a BPMS before in my organization. Without a BPMS coming into the organization anywhere soon, this tool allows me to introduce the principles of Business Architecture and Business Process Management.
I would call it BPM although I know I am only Architecting/Modelling the processes. Simply because, management and others in my company call it BPM. Any other name and it confuses all. Hence, everything’s in a name.
And yes, I do not blame my manager anymore. He was merely an outcome of the industry fad to outdo each other with different fancy names.
What will you take to your grave? May 18, 2010
Posted by Sanooj Kutty in Electronic Records Management.Tags: CAA, collaborationx ERM, culture, electronic records managementx, FDA, FSA, inventoryx information governancex records management, KM, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, records, regulations, risk, SEC, storage, strategy
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“The only thing a man takes to his grave is his Knowledge. Acquire when alive, distribute before death.” ~ Late K. A. Abu Backer, my grandfather and a high school Math teacher.
If not in his true sense, the fossils and historical tombs like the Pyramids have surely carried with them knowledge. How else would we know that the Egyptians must have used the Pythagoras Theorem to build their Pyramids?
These fossils and Pyramids and other historical remains and relics are nothing but an organic records keeping exercise conducted either by nature or man’s ego. These have over time given future generations an insight into the past, to learn from it and also recover lost knowledge through them.
Much is being spoken today about Information Governance or ERM or Rose or whatever name you or Shakespeare may want to call it. And yes, organizations have been fined from thousands to millions of dollars due to poor records keeping practices and we still see these happening on a day to day basis.
Read more at AIIM Communities. Click here.
