Last week, I wrote about the importance of understanding user roles and how a successful UI allows each user to focus on what s/he does best, especially with regards cross-functional process teams (Rule #1).

It’s crucial to get these groups aligned from the very outset of a project, to get them walking lock-step with each other as soon as possible. This is Rule #2.

But how is this accomplished through the UI?

The most important thing we’ve learned about aligning cross-functional interests from a UI perspective has to do with the early discovery and documentation phases of the project. This is the first (and potentially only) opportunity to get everyone’s interests on the same page, and is exactly why we created Lombardi Blueprint.

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It is tempting to go on and on about the relationship between business and IT. Here at Lombardi we like to instead talk about effective cross-functional teams that can build the end-to-end process together. And we practice what we preach - this is why we have BPM Analysts, Consultants and Developers on our delivery teams. Note this does not mean companies have to fundamentally re-organize, but they do need to be able to create dedicated cross-functional teams if they are going to be successful.

That being said, I think that user interfaces are key to how these cross-functional teams can work together effectively. This is something that I touched on briefly in my previous post about Web2.0 and “making BPM cool again.”

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A few weeks ago we were having a conversation at SXSW here in Austin that is worth relaying.

There has been a good deal of talk about making BPM more engaging to users via Web 2.0 and Ajax, which is ultimately part of the whole Enterprise2.0 conversation. It makes me laugh, though, because Ismael Ghalimi was talking about making BPM cool again way back in 2006 – was it ever cool?

Well, anyway, we’ve obviously come a long way since then, and certainly Lombardi has been at the forefront of the UI/UE innovation since the very beginning. We recently announced the Spring 2008 release of Lombardi Blueprint, which incorporates our most evolved thinking about usability and experience.

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One of the best parts about working on an application such as Blueprint is the ability to continuously improve the product based on real customer feedback (a usability engineer’s dream). That said, we’ve got some GREAT things queued up for release this year - so keep posted here for updates. As always, we welcome your comments & feedback on how you’re using Blueprint and what we can do to help make you more successful.

Also, in case you missed it, Blueprint is featured on Google’s GWT blog. Make sure you check it out & tell your friends!