| | By Mick James
One of the two great
gifts of consultancy to
the world, the other
being the 2x2 matrix, has
been the elucidation of
the concept of the
business process. It is
so central to the
practice of consultancy
that I often forget that,
out in the real world,
“business process” is a
phrase that rarely passes
anyone’s lips and often
has to be explained if
casually dropped in
conversation.
So I was intrigued
when ActionBase, a small
Israeli company, followed
up on a piece I wrote on
developments in business
process management (BPM)
and software development
to suggest that I was
ignoring an equally
important part of the
picture – human process
management (HPM).
Human process
management – in
ActionBase’s view – is
required to manage all
the interactions that
occur outside the
carefully structured
world of the business
processes.
“It’s a bit like the
structured/unstructured
data issue,” explains
ActionBase’s chief
technology officer, Jacob
Ukelson. “Just as the
world came to understand
that most data is
unstructured so there are
structured and
unstructured processes –
we believe that human
process management will
be used to manage those
unstructured processes.”
In comparison to the | |
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| | regular and structured
processes that are often
embodied in heavy duty IT
systems, human processes
tend to be dynamic and ad
hoc and involve
relatively lightweight IT
artefacts such as emails
and Word documents.
“People start these
processes but then the
requirements change, the
external environment
changes,” says Ukelson.
“You may be working
across various different
teams and silos, or you
may need people from
other departments and
organisations who won’t
have the tools.”
It’s a concept that’s
initially hard to sell to
those who believe that
everything in an
organisation can be
captured, for instance,
in an overarching ERP
system.
“They find it hard to
understand why we say
that 80% of the processes
are outside the system,”
says Ukelson. “For them
if it’s not in the
system, it’s not a
process.”
In fact, Ukelson
believes that some level
of HPM is entirely
complementary to – and
essential for – the
smooth running of BPM and
the systems that embody
it.
“Once you have found
out what your processes
are, then if it is
regular and structured
enough, you may want to
use BPM for it – and you
should,” he says. “But if
it’s not like that, it’s
very hard to implement in | |
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| | who is supposed to be
doing what and whether
they’ve done it or not.
Similarly a passive
document, such as the
minutes of a board
meeting, can be used to
initiate and monitor
multiple processes.
“The way people have
used email has evolved to
be good for certain
things, but email breaks
down when you try to run
a process through it,”
says ActionBase
vice-president for
business solutions Eyal
Sherman. “It allows the
process to flow but
doesn’t manage it.
Similarly, the process
context tends to be
missing from document
management systems. There
are lots of things for
structured processes and
lots of things for
collaboration but very
few that merge the two.”
From a consultancy
viewpoint, the outputs of
a running HPM approach
may be as interesting as
its initial
implementation.
“You get an audit
trail – you can look at
how that process runs
through the business and
who is doing what,” says
Sherman. “There’s no easy
way of doing that with
just email – there’s no
easy way to glue together
all those emails without
some amazing artificial
intelligence – which
doesn’t exist – or asking
everyone. Now we can look
at how the actual process
runs, not how we would
like it.”
Clearly a system like
this is applicable in | |
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| | many contexts, but
ActionBase says its plan
– which will involve a
major push into both the
US and Europe this year –
will be to exploit
vertical applications and
niche markets.
“Vendors that have a
particular niche
understand it very well,”
says Ukelson. “So, for
example, does someone
involved in fraud
escalation – because if
things get lost, he’s the
guy who gets screamed
at.”
Other uses that
ActionBase has already
seen are in internal and
external audit, and the
managing of tenders and
contracts, as well as in
verticals such as
engineering, environment
and utilities where there
are stringent compliance
requirements. But the
possibilities are
unlimited, and the
company is keen to work
with channel partners in
as wide a number of
contexts as possible.
“Because HPM deals
with all the stuff that
goes on outside their
systems they can position
it as a value added to
that product,” says
Sherman.
The approach can also
be easily used to
document and transmit
best practice in those
human processes. “At the
moment they are all lost
to the organisation,”
says Sherman. “They find
it very hard to struggle
for best practice because
they have no idea what’s
going on.” | |
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