Choosing a BPMS Deployment Approach

Find the approach that fits your culture and goals

The business process management (BPM) technology landscape is changing. Addressing only the parts of the process automated within a BPM system (BPMS) is no longer good enough. Integration and orchestration of the systems and functions around the edges of the process are required to transform your company to a dynamic customer-driven business that supports enterprise-wide business programs. The emerging class of intelligent BPMS1 moves beyond process modeling, execution and monitoring functionality, to include a wide range of integrated composition technologies that would have previously been classified as custom integration and vertical application development. This new class includes advanced analytics for operational intelligence, enterprise content management, role-based user interfaces with social features, mobile connectivity, middleware integration, correspondence generation, case management and work management. Furthermore, most organizations are seeking some form of industry-specific templates and frameworks that embody industry best practices and prebuilt content for accelerating BPM benefits. These solutions
2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 1 of 8

provide a great leverage point for creating process-based applications.

Selection Criteria Details for Intelligent Process Management Suites, G00219274, Gartner, Inc., 17 November 2011
1

There are many ways to implement a fully-integrated BPMS within an organization and your approach needs to consider the goals of the implementation, the culture of the business and technology groups involved, as well as the technology. The BPMS marketplace provides a wide variety of toolkits, templates, applications and frameworks in addition to consulting and services. Most vendors will tell you that their approach is best, but you need to consider if the technology and deployment methodology is a good fit for your corporate culture and business objectives. Selecting a methodology and toolset that is not a good fit can result in implementation delays, inability to achieve the desired benefits, and in the worst case, project failure. This paper explores several different approaches to implementing a BPMS, including their characteristics and the scenarios for which each is best suited. Aligning these approaches with an organizations requirements can help in selecting a BPM solution that is the best fit.

Approaches to BPMS Implementation

The tools and technologies available when implementing a BPM system can greatly impact the approach. These can take a number of different forms:

BPM Toolkits: Build your own application

2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 2 of 8

BPM toolkits are process-centric technology stacks that operate as application development environments to allow an organization to build their own applications in much the same way as they implement other enterprise software. Although they provide the benefit of model-driven development for process applications, they are most often used within more traditional software development methodologies to create process-aware applications or embed

process management capabilities within an existing enterprise application. BPM toolkits provide maximum flexibility, but also typically require the greatest amount of effort, dedicated (or outsourced) staffing, and a support model to implement and maintain a solution.

Horizontal Templates: Learn how to use the tools

Horizontal BPMS templates provide pre-built content that can be used for creating a new application, including process flows, rules and user interface screens. Once an application is built on a template, updates to that template do not impact the application: effectively, the template is simply a sample application that is copied and modified to create the application. Horizontal templates provide functionality that is useful across a wide customer base but can require a great deal of additional work to create an operational application. They are often included at little or no cost with BPM systems. Horizontal templates are often little more than sample applications that may have been developed as sales tools, but can be useful as learning tools as well as a baseline for beginning development of a process application.

Reusable Frameworks: A more complete starting point

2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 3 of 8

Frameworks are an extension of the base BPMS product that are typically maintained by the vendor and upgraded with the product. They may provide industry expertise, but more often provide additional horizontal functionality that can be reused across multiple applications. The difference between templates and frameworks is that applications built on frameworks will inherit new functionality when the framework is upgraded, whereas

updates to templates are not propagated to applications based on them. Frameworks typically provide more sophisticated functionality than horizontal templates, and allow multiple applications to benefit from extensions built on a single framework.

Vertical Application Templates: Configure a pre-built application

Vertical application templates are often produced by vendors with a great deal of practical industry knowledge, either through their role as a business process outsourcer, or through a close affiliation with organizations in that industry vertical. In either situation, a version of the solution is likely being used in a closely-related organization that provides feedback to the vendor on required functionality. Unlike simple horizontal templates, vertical application templates may embody a significant amount of intellectual property regarding the specific industry, such as pre-built business processes, rules and work styles. They tend to be more attractive to business people selecting a solution since the application templates speak the industry language fluently, often including such features as prebuilt management and monitoring including quality algorithms and productivity reports. The underlying domain expertise tends to result in faster deployment, since almost everything required for a specific vertical application is available out of the box, requiring
2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 4 of 8

only application configuration by business process analysts rather than development. However, this may prove less flexible for general purpose process-centric application development. As with horizontal templates, vertical application templates are often sample applications that are modified to become the final application, hence are not upgraded when new versions of the

template are released, but provide a much higher baseline of functionality than horizontal templates.

Self-Assessment
To select an implementation approach, start with a self-evaluation of your goals and culture: Implementation goals Are you looking for a fast commodity solution or a unique custom-built application? Is there a corporate bias towards packaged applications versus do-it-yourself software development projects? Is the initiative business-driven, with specific business or customer objectives, or primarily an IT project with specific system performance or infrastructure goals? Does your project impact multiple groups across the organization? Technology culture Does your company have strong and deep development skills across multiple programming languages? Do you have a technology team available with BPMS experience? Does the business trust IT to effectively deliver solutions on-time and under budget while meeting the business objectives? Does your company leverage enterprise and data architecture teams to govern strategy execution? Business culture Does your company have a processcentric view of the business, and support process
2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 5 of 8

methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma? Does your company have a strong organizational change management program? Does your company have an enterprise process champion and competency center? Do business areas actively participate in implementation projects, including requirements, user acceptance, and deployment, or even perform their own lightweight development?

An understanding of your implementation goals, technology culture and business culture will help to determine the best approach to BPMS implementation for your organization.

Selecting an Implementation Approach

Whether selecting a toolkit, horizontal template, a reusable framework or an application template, organizations look to these solution accelerators to reduce the time and cost required to implement a BPM solution and achieve the business objectives. Selecting between the varieties of accelerators available, however, can be a challenge: BPM toolkits, or stack solutions, are used by application developers to add process functionality to existing enterprise applications, or in a middleware role to orchestrate and integrate existing applications. Although often augmented by horizontal templates, stacks tend to be used in more traditional IT application development lifecycles. BPM toolkits are well suited for organizations with a strong technology culture and proven track record of IT delivering benefits for the business. They are well-suited for creating unique applications where technology is a competitive differentiator. Horizontal templates are often most used as sample applications and learning tools, or as templates for simple administrative applications such as expense reports. They are
2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 6 of 8

commonly included with BPM toolkits to provide implementation start-up assistance, and are useful for guiding in the creation of components that can be reused across different business areas. Reusable frameworks are most useful when a variety of vertical applications are required that share common functionality. Frameworks provide processes, rules and other components

that can be shared between multiple applications, and any upgrades and changes to that framework are reflected in all applications built using the framework. They are suited to building applications that have a core of commodity functionality but require some unique capabilities. Although they provide a more complete starting point than BPM toolkits, they often require a significant amount of development effort to create an operational application. Vertical application templates are most useful when the desired application functionality closely matches the vertical template. If the application is quite different from the vertical template, the template may offer little benefit, or even act as a detriment. These are suited for organizations with business-driven implementations where there is a preference for packaged applications, especially for commodity applications that require only a minor amount of configuration beyond the vertical template. Many BPM systems offer more than one of the above options in their portfolio: for example, one may offer a vertical application template for a specific industry function while also exposing the bare bones BPM toolkit capability. Identifying an organizations use cases for BPM systems can help to identify which of these or which combination of these is most appropriate for the process applications to be developed.

2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 7 of 8

Summary
The emerging breed of BPMS is no longer business as usual: these are full application composition environments, providing orchestration of disparate systems in addition to a rich feature set that adds value beyond basic process management. A BPMS may provide features for a business architect to align enterprise-wide

processes with strategic goals, for a process analyst to create detailed process models, and for a developer to define orchestrations and integration with other systems. The form that these tools take and their intended audience can have a significant impact on the success of BPM initiatives. About The Author Sandy Kemsley is an independent analyst, process architect and blogger specializing in business process management. She performs engagements for both end-user organizations and BPM vendors across North America, writes the popular Column 2 blog at www.column2.com and is a featured conference speaker on BPM. About The Sponsor DST Systems is a global provider offering comprehensive technology and service solutions that safeguard and process the critical, high value information people care most about. DSTs business process management application, AWD, helps organizations lead business transformation efforts while still reducing the cost of managing work, adhering to regulatory compliance, and connecting with customers. AWD is delivered either through re-usable frameworks or packaged as part of vertical applications. Horizontal templates are used along with the implementation methodology to join process patterns, best practices, and each customers unique culture and goals to achieve accelerated business results. The combination of DSTs domain expertise and technology enables business-centric companies to turn a world of change into a world of possibilities. For more information, please contact DST at www.dsttechnologies.com.
2012 Kemsley Design Ltd. www.kemsleydesign.com www.column2.com Page 8 of 8