The BPMS shibboleth, or hope undisturbed by reality
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Please believe me when I say, I am not trying to use $5.00 words just because I can.
But one I read recently in the paper that had me running for a dictionary– shibboleth — got me to thinking about one of the biggest, most often repeated fictions in BPM. What am I talking about? The idea that end users can, will and want to create their own executable process models.
Wiktionary defines shibboleth as “A common or longstanding belief, custom, or catchphrase associated with a particular group, especially one with little current meaning or truth.” WordNet at princeton.edu is even more blunt in defining shibboleth: “A favorite saying of a sect or political group.”
Both definitions capture the wishful thinking, IT-bashing and counter-organizational thinking inherent in the dogma that business process management suites (BPMS) will somehow “free” end users from the chains of IT and enable them to build enterprise-class, bet-your-entire-business processes by themselves. The WordNet definition, in particular, reminds me of the triumphalism one hears from some industry analysts who insist that this is really happening in the real world.
Uhhh, ’scuse us for interrupting the feedback loop, but we don’t think so.
We first debunked the BPMS-as-destroyer-of-IT-and-liberator-of-end-users idea with Sandy Kemsley in a webinar almost a year ago. Her “four myths,” stylized in the graphic in this post, remain the most perceptive distillation of what’s wrong with the idea. Her simple common sense (developing process applications is not in most end users’ skill sets) along with an understanding of what end users in business want to do (their jobs, not IT’s work) debunk the “world-as-we-want-it-to-be” thinkers who promote end user-driven BPM over collaboration with IT.
We think ActiveVOS BPMS has been growing rapidly because it strives to bring IT and the business together. We envision collaboration among an extended development team, using an architecturally-correct, standards-based BPM system. Yes, end users are involved. Yes, they “own” the process and the model. Yes, they use the BPMS. But, no, they don’t deploy, manage or operate the BPMS.
BPM has changed the way IT and business people work together. But it hasn’t — and won’t — replace IT.
