What separates a good university masters degree program from a great one?  I believe it can be summed up in 3 key factors:

1. Expert instructors, who are actively working in their field.
2. A curriculum with a strong practical focus.
3. Perspectives drawn from a broad range of real world experience.

These same 3 key factors were core design principles for our Level 2 BPM Developer course – which takes good BPM Developers and helps them transform into master BPM Developers.

Most of our customers have learned how to build successful process applications, but they are still unclear on how to best leverage Teamworks to address their more complex application requirements.  They want to know how to design, architect and implement very robust process applications … how to master the use of Teamworks. 

That’s why Lombardi field mentors lead the instruction of our Level 2 class.  Lombardi mentors are highly experienced implementation consultants that work shoulder-to-shoulder with customers – but as mentors their focus is on teaching the customer how to build the solution, rather than building it for them.  Their mission is to build self-sufficiency in our customer teams and transfer knowledge about BPM best practices and implementation techniques.

Our mentors and consultants helped design a Level 2 BPM Developer curriculum with a strong practical focus.  Through 6 half day instructional modules, we teach the most common complex requirement patterns encountered in the field and the best practices for addressing those patterns.  The course topics and hands-on exercises are based on experience gained by Lombardi field delivery teams across hundreds of customer projects.

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This week, Phil mentioned some significant advances we’ve made to create what we consider to be the platform for BPM’s second decade.  We’re not only providing companies with the next generation of tools and technologies – we’re also enabling companies with the skills and experience they need to achieve their BPM program objectives.  That’s why we created Lombardi University.

I’m very excited about our recent launch of Lombardi University, because it provides a more mature and comprehensive kind of BPM education delivery and talent development program – one that is new to our current marketplace.

Now, we didn’t just add the word “University” to our existing training program (like so many other vendors have done).  Lombardi University reflects a fundamental change in the way BPM education is structured and delivered, and it was created based on the evolving demands of our market.

Over the last year, I have been visiting with dozens of companies undertaking BPM projects and programs.  Every company has a similar story – the “BPM journey” begins with some definite successes for the first few projects, but it is taking longer than desired for them to do BPM at scale with greater self-sufficiency.  When we researched what differentiated those customers and partners who are having the most success with adoption of BPM in their organization, it became clear it was a difference in their BPM talent – having the right number of people in the right roles with the right level of skills and experience.

So we created Lombardi University to help every Lombardi customer and partner fill the BPM talent gaps that they may encounter along their BPM journey.  There are a few key advancements that Lombardi University brings to the market that I’d like to highlight:

• Role-based Education Tracks – Enables all business and technical roles in your BPM project or program, not just yourdevelopers. This includes analysts, program managers, administrators – and executives.
• Multi-level Education - Provides a structured way to “graduate” fromfoundational to advancedto expert levels of maturity within each role.
• Certification of Skills – Utilizes exams to benchmark skill levels, annd practical skills must be demonstrated by completing actual projects.
• Mentoring – Provides hands-on guidance by a Lombardi expert to solidify practical education in the context of a real project at your company.
• Faculty Network -Expands educational offerings and expertise beyond Lombardi’s corporate boundaries through partnerships with well-known BPM experts such as Bruce Silver, Derek Miers, Andrew Spanyi and others.

Following a structured talent development program, provides the uniformity and consistency our customers require in their delivery – no matter where the resources come from; and that will reduce the risk of delivery problems.  Troy Hamlin, VP of Applications , Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America recently said, “I’m excited to see that TCS, our strategic partner, is working with Lombardi to certify their people in BPM. This helps me feel confident that when we source talent from them, we can expect those people to have a specific level of skills and those skills are easily measurable.”

We have many more details beyond what I’ve shared here on the Lombardi University website.  I hope you’ll take a moment and check it out.