Roger Burlton's manifesto on a necessary foundation for all things process (uploaded with permission of the author).

1. The Business Process
Manifesto
A necessary foundation for all
things process
Roger T. Burlton, P.Eng. , CMC
Business Process Trends Associates
www.bptrendsassociates.com
+1-604-240-5436
rburlton@bptrendsassociates.com
Twitter:@RogerBurlton
©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved.

2. Notice of Confidentiality
Permission is granted for unlimited reproduction and distribution of
this document under the following conditions:
(a) The copyright and this permission notice are clearly included.
(b) The work is clearly credited to BPTrends Associates.
(c) No part of the document, including title, content, copyright, and
permission notice, is altered, abridged, or extended in any manner.
BPTrends Associates may be contacted at
88 Waban Park, Newton, MA 02458 USA
info@bptrendsassociates.com
+1 617 964 4753
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 2

3. Agenda
 Some definitions
 The principles for the principles
 The 8 principles themselves
 Summary
 Feedback
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 3

4. Why a Talk on the Fundamentals and Why Now?
• The complexity of BPM adoption
• Too much confusion over concepts
• Mistakes made are primarily in mis-understanding of
concepts and thinking
• Need for (BPM) to become more professional, disciplined,
repeatable and trusted
• Needed for Business Processes to be managed as enterprise
assets
• There can be no useful body of knowledge or methodology
without a foundation
This requires standardization of the fundamentals
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 4

5. Rationale for a List-Based Manifesto
• Atul Gawande’s book:
– ‘The Checklist Manifesto. How to Get Things Right’
– Breakthrough performance can come with simple
process guidance at virtually no cost
• Malcolm Gladwell
– “experts need help, and progress depends on
experts having the humility to concede that they
need help”
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 5

6. The Business Process Manifesto: Use of Terms *
• Dictionary definitions define our terms*.
• Providing a sound semantic basis for the discussion of the
concepts
• Let’s start with the name of the document itself.
– Business: A recognized organization designed to provide goods
or services.
– Process: A set of actions or operations conducing to an outcome
or result.
– Manifesto: A public declaration of intentions, motivations, or
views: a public statement of policy or intention.
* Source: Webster’s New Third International Dictionary
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 6

7. The Business Process Manifesto: Use of Terms *
• Let’s also define other key terms used in the document.
– Principle: a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or
assumption
– Action: something that is done
– Asset: an item of value owned
– Capability: the ability of an asset to support the achievement of a
desired outcome.
– Organization: an entity which pursues collective goals, exercise control
over its own performance, and has a boundary separating it from its
environment.
– Outcome: the value that follows as a result or consequence of a set of
actions.
– Stakeholder: a person, group, organization or other relevant entity that
affects or can be affected by an organization's actions.
* Source: Webster’s New Third International Dictionary
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 7

8. Rules for the Manifesto*
• Be tightly focused on the subject not issues that belong in other
domains.
• Be methodology-neutral.
• Not a BPM Manifesto!
• Have no jargon
• Stay short and to the point
• Distinguish what a Business Process is and is not
• Consolidate items if a more basic principle can be identified.
* Inspired by Ron Ross and the Business Rules Manifesto (www.businessrulesgroup.org) and
Einstein's observation that “A model should be as simple as it can be but no simpler”
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 8

9. Example: The BPTrends Associates BPM Methodology:
Supports the Manifesto Principles which are Methodology Neutral
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 9

10. Manifesto Scope
IN:
• Principles, definitions and assumptions
• The business motivation for Business Processes
• What Business Processes are and are not
OUT
• Process modeling notation and syntax
• Process for Business Process (i.e. Methodology)
• Technology for Business Process (e.g. BPMS)
• Organization roles and responsibilities for Business Processes
• Information about other associated professional domains
Note: this is a still work in progress and will be for some time
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 10

11. The 8 Principles of the Manifesto
1. A Business Process is a distinct asset of an organization.
2. A Business Process exists within a clearly defined business context.
3. A Business Process is guided by business strategy.
4. The performance of a Business Process measures business value
creation
5. A Business Process is enabled by a set of business capabilities.
6. A Business Process name should be unambiguous, business friendly
and internally consistent.
7. A model of a Business Process retains explicit knowledge about that
Business Process.
8. Business Processes must have integrity
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 11

12. 1: A Business Process is a distinct asset of an organization.
1. A Business Process executes a set of actions that transform
physical or informational things in the organization from an input
state to an output state.
2. A Business Process strives to create value for customers and other
stakeholders by continually satisfying their needs and
expectations.
3. Anything that is not a set of actions is not a Business Process
including a person, a role, an organization unit, a facility or a
technology.
4. A person, a role, an organization unit, a facility or a technology
only creates value through its participation in one or more
Business Processes.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 12

13. 2: A Business Process exists within a clearly defined
business context.
1. A Business Process is clearly bounded by a well-defined
organization or group of organizations.
2. A Business Process starts when one or more prerequisite
business conditions are satisfied or when defined business
events triggers its initiation.
3. A Business Process ends when the intended business result
that delivers value to customers and other stakeholders has
been achieved or when the drive to achieve it has been
withdrawn.
4. A Business Process delivers things to or receives things from
either stakeholders external to the organization or other
internal Business Processes and not to or from a person,
internal organization unit, information system, piece of
equipment or facility.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 13

14. 3: A Business Process is guided by business strategy.
1. A Business Process should be guided by business strategic
intent.
2. A Business Process should be guided by the customers’ and
external stakeholders’ needs, expectations and the
organization’s performance objectives.
3. A Business Process should conform with the principles and
values of the organization.
4. A Business Process should comply with the organization’s
policies and business rules.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 14

15. 4: The performance of a Business Process measures
business value creation
1. The value created by a Business Process can be measured by
one or more key performance indicators(KPIs).
2. The performance of each action within a Business Process
should be traceable from the lowest level of KPI
decomposition up to the highest level organization KPI.
3. Business Process KPIs must be measurable and comparable
over time in all situations in which the same Business Process
is executed.
4. Business Process performance should be continually
optimized at all points in the lifecycle of the Business Process.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 15

16. 5: A Business Process is enabled by a set of business
capabilities.
1. A Business Process requires access to co-ordinated, practical
knowledge of how to best perform the Business Process.
2. A Business Process requires clear organizational roles and
responsibilities for all its actions.
3. A Business Process requires individual and organization incentives
to be consistent with the desired outcomes of the Business Process.
4. A Business Process requires assigned human resources to be able to
conduct the work needed to execute its actions.
5. A Business Process requires information technologies to optimally
enable the automated aspects of the Business Process.
6. A Business Process requires facilities and equipment to optimally
enable the physical aspects of the Business Process.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 16

17. 6: A Business Process name should be unambiguous, business
friendly and internally consistent.
1. Only one syntax is required for all Business Process names.
2. A Business Process name should reflect action and adopt a
verb-noun structure.
3. A Business Process name should unambiguously
communicate the intended result of the Business Process.
4. A Business Process name describes what the Business
Process does, not who or what is used to do it or how it is
done.
5. A Business Process name is first and foremost for business
purposes, not technology ones.
6. A Business Process should have one and only one name
regardless of where or how it is used in the organization or
who uses it.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 17

18. 7: A model of a Business Process retains explicit knowledge
about that Business Process.
1. A model of a Business Process should hold the complete set of
information chosen to be recorded about that Business Process.
2. A diagram is not a model but a way of viewing some of the
model information from the perspective of an interested party.
3. A notation is not a Business Process model but a set of
constructs by which some of the model information can be
portrayed.
4. Different audiences should be able to view chosen model
information using a notation that is suitable for them without
compromising the model.
5. All Business Processes decompositions and compositions should
be described using one common set of properties.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 18

19. 8: Business Processes must have integrity
1. Only one set of Business Processes is required for all
organization purposes.
2. A Business Process may be comprised of a set of component
Business Process actions and be part of a higher level
Business Process.
3. Each action conducted in the organization must be a
component of at least one Business Process.
4. Every Business Process has a life. It is created, it is changed
and may be terminated. This life should be managed.
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 19

20. Business Process Manifesto: Compliant Illustration
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 20

21. Effort: Contributors to date.
• Roger Burlton, Ron Ross, Paul Harmon, Alexandre
Magno V. Mello, Sally Bean, Artie Mahal, Dr Jurgen
Pitschke, Brenda Michelson, Craig Reid, Sandy
Kemsley, Peter Matthijssen, Sandra Foster, Roger
Tregear, Andre Macieira, Leandro Jesus
• Add your name to the list
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 21

22. Your Feedback
Provide feedback to:
rburlton@bptrendsassociates.com
We need your help
to become truly
Elegant
We Think we are
here
Copyright ©2011 BPTrends Associates. All Rights Reserved. 22