This morning I’m happy to announce that the year end release of Blueprint has gone into production. This is the culmination of our effort to make Blueprint a complete repository for all of your process related assets. The biggest change that you’ll notice immediately in this update is the ability to upload and store files as part of your documentation. We’ve also addressed several other top customer requests that we’ve heard on the forums and from out in the field.
Take a look at this screencast for a quick rundown or see the full details after the break.
I’d like to share this video that one of our Business Process Management Analysts, Nachi Chidambaram, recently created. Blueprint can be hard to explain to new users because it’s so different from any other product out there. Unlike Visio or Word, there’s no emailing files around and wondering what the latest version is. Plus it’s easy to pick up Blueprint and start making compelling process documentation without needing to take a big training course first.
Check out the video below. Nachi does a great job explaining what makes Blueprint is different how it makes your job of documenting processes easier. And just like the product, the video is quick and easy to understand!
The latest monthly refresh of Blueprint went live this morning, and I’m excited to give you the scoop on the changes. Over the past 6 weeks, we’ve focused on addressing the top pieces of feedback that we’ve heard from customers. With this release, you’ll find it much easier to keep track of who’s currently using Blueprint, to collaborate with new users, and to print out your process diagrams in exactly the right format. We use your feedback to drive our release schedule, so make sure you give us your thoughts!
Let’s take a look at the improvements in detail:
User Management: In today’s business environment, it’s more important than ever to ensure that you’re getting maximum utilization of your software. One of the great benefits of Blueprint’s SaaS model is that you can add users to your account just in time when they need access to the tool. When they’re done, you can remove or reuse their license so you’re not paying for software that isn’t being used. This can save you a ton of money compared to traditional desktop tools like Visio that require a big upfront investment and then only get used a few times a year by many people.
In this release, we’ve greatly enhanced our user management capabilities. You can now see at a glance who has access to your account, when they last used Blueprint, and how many seats you have available. If someone doesn’t need access anymore, it’s just one click to archive them and make their license available to someone new.
Today I’m happy to announce that we’ve gone live with the latest batch of Blueprint improvements. This release is unique–not only will all current Blueprint customers get to use the changes immediately, but anyone who’s signing up for a new account also will enjoy the benefits. Over the last month we’ve focused on two areas: giving you the best experience possible for documenting the details behind your processes and creating a simpler and easier signup process for new users.
Let’s take a look at the improvements in detail:
Structured Documentation View: The documentation view in Blueprint has always been a place to record the “narrative” behind your process–the procedures, training material, KPIs, and the like. But we’ve also heard from you that it’s important to be able to see all of the inputs and outputs, stakeholders, and opportunities for improvement that you’ve recorded in context on that view as well. As of today, the documentation view is your one stop shop for viewing and editing all of the details behind your process.
This has been one of my favorite improvements to Blueprint so far. We’ve been using the updated interface internally for the last few weeks and it’s already made us much more productive at capturing and disseminating information about our processes inside Lombardi, and I think it will do the same for you and your team. Let us know what you think on the Blueprint forums!
Scott Francis from BP-3 recently posted a great, objective review of the Blueprint Summer ’08 release. He does a thorough and insightful job covering the entire product. For example, here’s his take on the Visio import functionality we recently introduced:
Visio importing has long been the “holy grail” for process modeling tools. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if a particular BPM product could import Visio models directly I would be rich! However, Visio import into a process execution environment isn’t always all its cracked up to be. Visio diagrams tend to be quite unstructured, whereas BPMN is very structured, and executable BPMN is even more structured in form. Moreover, Visio models don’t have enough information attached to them to be immediately executable. It is possible to run into issues of “who owns this model” once you import the Visio (the business may have the expectation that they can keep making modifications and “reimport” into Teamworks, for example). At some point, the implementors must take over the model and own it to produce something executable. I’ve been working on some models for OMG certification and I thought they would be a fun (albeit simple) set of examples to import into Blueprint for a test drive. Blueprint imports these easily and accurately. I went back to the archives and tried importing some really awful process diagrams circa 2004. The results weren’t pretty (the original wasn’t pretty), but Blueprint imported the models nicely (a visio diagram with 10 tabs and one process per tab). Going to the Diagram View I was able to sort out the diagram into swimlanes and go from there. Interestingly, when I imported a diagram WITH swimlanes defined, Blueprint created those swimlanes and participants for me.
But my favorite quote had to be:
I actually like the diagramming portion better than Teamworks! And collaborating on the same process isn’t just possible, its actually cool. You almost look for an excuse to try to be logged into the same process at the same time so you can try to step on each other. Blueprint handles all the conflicting edits really well. I’m impressed!
We’re very proud of Blueprint’s collaboration and diagramming capabilities as well because we believe that there’s no tool that’s easier to use or can make you more productive, online or off.
Take a look at Scott’s full review when you get a chance.
Today I’m proud to announce the availability of the Summer ’08 Update release of Blueprint! One of the great benefits of delivering Blueprint in SaaS model is that we’re able to stay nimble and quickly add functionality that improves the value of the product for everyone. So following shortly on the heels of our main Summer ’08 release, we’ve added features to address some of the most common requests we hear from our customers.
Let’s take a look at them in detail:
Microsoft Word Export: Blueprint now gives you the ability to automatically generate a Microsoft Word document containing all the details of your process. This is a great way to communicate your process to stakeholders that don’t have a Blueprint account. For example, we’ve been using this feature internally to generate “specifications” for our processes when we need to interact with outside vendors.
Ross Mayfield noted today that one of the biggest challenges with collaboration among distributed teams is actually agreeing on who is actually part of the team. Larry Irons quotes research from Distributed Work to that effect:
Of the twenty-four teams surveyed, not a single team was in complete agreement on its boundary: who was and who was not a member of the team. In fact, the average level of agreement within the sample was only 75 percent, such that any given team member was likely to disagree with the rest of his or her team on one-quarter of potential team members.
We see this all the time in real world BPM projects. Agreeing on what the process is is often the easy part. Identifying the who is can seem nearly impossible, especially if a single team is attempting to define a process that is executed in many different locales all over the world.
A distributed, collaborative environment such as Lombardi Blueprint is key to solving this challenge. Having a structured repository to identify and maintain the players and relationships involved in a business process promotes visibility and knowledge sharing among those involved. Discovering the who in a process becomes far easier when all those that are involved can both document their own role and see how where they fit inside the grand scheme of things regardless of what office or time zone they happen to be working in at the particular moment.
Today I’m proud to announce the availability of the Summer ’08 release of Blueprint! In the Spring ’08 release, we delivered what we feel is the best process diagramming tool on the market, online or off. Over the last two months we’ve focused on improving the “other half” of process documentation — the standards and procedures, narratives, and data that make up the details that live behind the picture of the process. Let’s take a look at the improvements in depth:
Rich Wiki Editing Of Process Documentation: Blueprint now provides a rich, wiki-style experience for filling out the details of your process. You can link to external documents, embed images, and format your documentation any way you please. Already have something written up in Microsoft Word? No problem. Just paste it in and we’ll leverage what you’ve already done.
By now, you’ve probably experienced how simple it is to document a process with Blueprint. But we know creating detailed diagrams takes a significant portion of your time. So, we made Blueprint even better! The Spring ’08 Release of Blueprint is here and it is the next evolution of diagramming. Based on user feedback, we’ve streamlined diagramming and added many requested features to make it even easier & simpler to document your process.
Effective utilization of the process map for simplicity and clarity
Fast and efficient techniques for diagramming
Using subprocesses to reduce complexity and encourage reuse
Leveraging existing work that you’ve done in Microsoft Visio
Update: The webinar is now available on demand. Check it out now. For the Blueprint veterans out there, the webinar focuses on the features we just introduced and I’ll think you’ll find it very informative. But if you don’t have an account yet, don’t feel left out! Sign up for one now and join us on Tuesday.
When you’re tasked with documenting your department’s processes, it can be overwhelming. Often times the project is so hard to approach that the gut reaction is to rely on everyone’s favorite method for doing anything: start at the beginning, and take it one step at a time.
Unfortunately, this approach just doesn’t work when documenting business processes. It’s not the processes themselves that present a problem — it’s the people. When you try to document each step chronologically, the inevitable result is a trip down rat-hole lane. Rat-holing is when you get caught up with the minor details and exceptions that occur in any process. I’ve seen documentation sessions go on for hours with little to show for the effort because each stakeholder in the room was preoccupied with the subtle exceptions to the steps that they themselves were most passionate about.
Unfortunately, this approach just doesn’t work when documenting business processes. It’s not the processes themselves that present a problem — it’s the people. When you try to document each step chronologically, the inevitable result is a trip down rat-hole lane. Rat-holing is when you get caught up with the minor details and exceptions that occur in any process. I’ve seen documentation sessions go on for hours with little to show for the effort because each stakeholder in the room was preoccupied with the subtle exceptions to the steps that they themselves were most passionate about. 
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