Governance? What the heck is that?

The Spring ‘08 release of Blueprint is now live & kickin’. You might think Blueprint is a cool process modeler, but there’s much more to it. There is no better BPM governance tool on the market.

Governance? What the heck is that?

Isn’t this just another buzzword? And how does something like Blueprint help with governance?

The term “governance” is often used but little understood. And yet if we think about our customers’ successful BPM projects, they always succeed because of tangible leadership from somewhere in the business. A BPM project is not application development, it is a different type of technology-based project. One that is not aligned with the business, but instead one that is integrated into the business. The foundation for business integration isn’t a shared model, it’s a shared understanding.

If we see projects fail because of mis-alignment, it is because of a lack of shared understanding. They may not use those words, but that’s what is happening every time a decision-maker or process-owner steps in and things “go quiet” for a few weeks. Or new people need to be “brought up to speed.” All of these are signs that there is a lack of “buy-in” which is to say a lack of a shared understanding. This is the result of immature or uncertain governance at it’s most granular level. And what we saw pre-Blueprint was that none of the BPM tools in the marketplace foster shared understanding. Some at least let you integrate development, but this is way too late in the BPM lifecycle.

Governance begins well before implementation. It is the planning, not just the plan. Any worthwhile modeling effort has to understand this.

The goal is to speed understanding of BPM and to speed alignment around the business case for a specific BPM project so that it is accessible to everyone, from the decision-maker to the process-owner and right on down the line.

If you’re an existing customer and begin to use Blueprint, you will more effectively lead – that is, govern – your process improvement program. If you’re a prospect and begin to use Blueprint, you’ll find it easier to build the internal understanding of BPM and share it across all the stakeholders – which is a struggle even if you’re inside a “structured buying process.”

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