I have come across some interesting statements about business processes over the years. Some of them never fail to amaze me, often coming from senior people in organisations. It is important to realise that they can lead to the wrong decisions on process design, development, and adoption, and even lead to business failures. Do you recognise them?

#1 “With some proper governance we can make this process work”. Wrong! Governance is the lazy man’s solution to incomplete process design. As if the angels descend from above and magically connect your loose process steps. If you want management to provide oversight or intervene in the execution of a process, you will have to clarify roles and responsibilities for the correct execution of the process. Governance is a process in its own right and relates to management activities, decision-making, issue resolution and strategic intervention in a process. For instance, regulatory oversight in banks monitors the quality of the processes and their execution, but does not necessarily complement them.

 

#2 “Don’t blame the process, blame the execution”. Although some processes may appear challenging, it is up to the process owners to keep them simple, understandable and easy to execute. Making mistakes is another matter. However, people create processes and these processes should facilitate, accommodate, and in some cases even please! I have seen outsourced service providers forcing companies to blindly adopt new processes without any consideration of the way in which the services were designed in the client organisation. Guess what: they did not fit and were ignored, as they confused management and staff.

 

#3 “Without proper measurements (KPIs, dashboards, etc.), we cannot guarantee the quality of the process execution”. While this may be true for manufacturing processes that do not tolerate defects, most processes do not really require this level of scrutiny. The quality of processes is first and foremost part of its design and depends on the motivation of the performer. If the performer is equipped with the right tools and incentives, there is little need for output controls. Outcomes can be measured simply in terms of customer satisfaction and revenue growth, irrespective of the process design. It is common knowledge that less KPIs create more self-reliance and quality awareness with process performers. There are abundant examples in the public sector to corroborate this.

 

#4 “Every process can be automated”. Really? This would imply that most work can be done without any human intervention. As soon as a human being starts or stops a piece of work, passes judgement, defers, escalates, skips or intervenes in a process, there is no real automation. Don't confuse using IT with a desire to automate an entire process. Delivered ERP and CRM applications prove to many a project or process manager (and they are still hurting!) that automated processes are at best a pipedream.

 

#5 “We documented all our processes last year”. So your business hasn't changed since then? Are you still maintaining these processes to reflect what you currently do in your organisation? People making these claims usually sigh with relief that the hard work has been done. To be honest, it It hasn't even started; synchronising and tuning your processes is as vital to an organisation as using a satnav when you have to change your route to work because of road works, traffic jams or the re-opening of a bypass. Like the journeys you take, your processes are always subject to change and proper maintenance and user awareness make for smooth traffic.

 

#6 “We can't afford to keep a bunch of business analysts to maintain our business processes”. If you need business analysts to support your operations, your finance function or your manufacturing, then you clearly haven’t designed them for the people that have to work with them on a daily basis. It makes sense to challenge your process design and architecture on occasion as you try to respond to evolving customer behaviour, regulatory pressure or M&A activity, but don’t become dependent on specialists outside your workforce to maintain your day-to-day activities.

 

#7 “We have outsourced our processes to ... (India, Philippines, Eastern Europe)”. This is hardly ever the case. It involves primarily the outsourcing of the execution of some processes to a third party, as it is more cost effective, using third party processing technologies that are more specialised or available 24/7, or the result of vertical integration, in other words the deployment of specialist suppliers to deliver part of a complex solution, for example BP commissioning Halliburton and Transocean in the Gulf of Mexico. On top of these specialist contracts, you will find that you manage most of the processes yourself, or as in the case of BP: you are still responsible for the design and execution of the entire process in the eyes of the law.

 

I admit that some of the examples referred to above are stark and don’t do justice to the innovators in various sectors pushing the boundaries of what BPM can offer, in technological, organisational and behavioural terms. However, it may not be as easy to effectively challenge these seven statements as some vendors or consultants will try to make you believe.