A business process management (BPM) program launches the BPM discipline, which treats business processes as assets that improve enterprise performance by driving operational excellence and business agility.

A BPM program brings common business processes into a fresh view for evaluation and improvement that will directly boost enterprise performance. Existing processes may be duplicative, inefficient, slow and unreliable. BPM generates models for such processes and applies metrics and analysis to change them to achieve far better performance results. BPM does mean changing the way things are done, and this may meet resistance, even if the enterprise will perform better as a result. New processes can also be subject to BPM and benefit from rule management, simulation, direct business control and a new level of agility. BPM brings attention to the highest-value processes — the ones that are most aligned with the business goals and strategy — for the best return on investment.

A BPM program offers great potential advantages but nearly always represents a change to past practice. The cultural willingness to change is important. Assess the following readiness factors:

• A focus on improving business performance
• A willingness to review established practices and change them
• An acceptance of continuous change now and into the future
• The ability to see beyond functions to the broader cross-departmental, customer outcome view
• An acceptance of process modeling, analysis and refined performance metrics

Gartner recommends that IT leaders follow four major phases to establish and operate a BPM program:

• Strategize and Plan: Prepare the analysis, justification and direction for BPM. Describe the need or opportunity, benefits anticipated, resources needed, and risks — all compared with alternative initiatives. Work with all stakeholders to specify how the goals can be met.
• Assess Competencies: Determine the critical success factors that lead to BPM success. Learn from others' experiences on what works and what doesn't. Determine the most important competencies to be applied, and what competencies are available from internal or external sources.
• Implement: Set the organizational structures, determine the corresponding accountabilities, and fill the roles and positions. Fully communicate the goals, plan, actions and timetable. Execute the action plan, institute all the metrics and provide relevant reports.
• Operate and Evolve: Pursue the initiative's goals, and evaluate progress against the objectives. Determine what is working well and what can be improved. Use the experience to focus on the critical issues, and improve the plans for subsequent initiatives.

The following documents are foundational research to get started with this initiative:

"Toolkit: First 100 Days of the BP Director"

"Toolkit Best Practice: Organizing for BPM; Who Does What?"

"Research Index: A Guide to Principles of Business Process Management"