Category: EbizQ

I was never much of an artist. It didn’t matter what media I used – crayons, pencils, the occasional paint-by-numbers oil paint – I simply couldn’t create a realistic, compelling or even interesting piece of art. The story in sculpture class was even worse-most of my projects devolved into awkwardly-shaped bowls or inelegant renderings of animals that looked like they escaped from some mad scientist’s Botox laboratory.
In short, in my art projects, there was a gap between the goals I set out to achieve and the work (or implementation) that I did.
Unfortunately, that same type of gap can exist when it comes to IT projects. Or business projects. Or business and IT projects-especially business and IT projects like business process management (BPM), which typically require a wide variety of involvement from different IT and business stakeholders

In the past few columns I talked about SOA governance, specifically, why we need it and why it’s so hard. In this week’s column I wanted to look a little more closely at what it takes to implement a good SOA governance strategy.

Recently, I moderated an ebizQ Webinar featuring Ann Manes Thomas from The Burton Group and Ed Horst from Amberpoint. The focus of the Webinar was governance and SOA.
There were so many great topics discussed during the Webinar that I thought it made sense to spend some time exploring them in greater detail and raise some additional points not covered.

I like doing things right; It’s extremely satisfying when you know you’ve accomplished a task successfully, and have done so in a way that will stand the test of time.
The problem is, I don’t always do things right. Sometimes I don’t have time to do something right. Other times I’m not sure I know the right way to do something, so I make up a solution as I go along. Or perhaps I simply think that this time, there’s no one watching me, so it doesn’t make a difference how I do it. It won’t matter, as long as it gets done.

Even though we’re at the start of a new year, some things don’t change. For example, I believe the increasing importance of business process management solutions in business and IT strategies that we’ve seen over the past few years will continue to accelerate in 2007. In fact, I predict that 2007 will be a significant year for the widespread adoption and use of BPM technologies.

Now that the holidays are done, I start thinking about money-and how much I’ll have to pay in taxes for last year’s earnings. Yes, I know it’s early-after all it’s not April-and thinking about taxes isn’t really the best way to start the year, but I think it’s a form of reflection for me. It’s like a New Year’s resolution-this year I will promise to keep better track of my receipts and write down all my mileage and I will make sure to organize and add up my receipts and expenses each month, instead of in one mad-ditch scramble to get it all done before taxes are due.
It’s pretty much the same thing with business process management (BPM). Every organization that’s considering business process management (or any similar IT technology investment), wants to know what they have to put in or spent on it, and what they’ll get back at the end of the year. Let’s take a closer look at some of the ROI-related factors when it comes to making a BPM decision.