SharePoint is a great platform for workflows.  Many people view the Workflow Foundation features that SharePoint provides out of the box as starting points to a full-blown workflow solution.  There are some excellent features that SharePoint Provides, which adequately contribute to successful business processes.

• Email Notification
• Document Routing
• Approval / Rejection Functionality
• Multi-Stage and/or Parallel and Serial Workflows
• File Storage, tracking, and records management capabilities
• And much more.

This makes SharePoint a great “jumping off” point for Business Process Management Solutions.

• SharePoint is flexible
  • Excellent document management capabilities
  • Integrates with relevant business data
  • Reaches a broad audience across the enterprise
  • Integrates seamlessly with end user tools, such as Microsoft Office
• SharePoint is Familiar
  • Browser-based UI
  • Teams are comfortable using collaborative sites now (11 years)
  • Integrated Search (Federation and FAST)
• SharePoint has workflow capability
  • SharePoint has the Windows Workflow Foundation
  • You can use SharePoint Designer or other 3rd party tools, to build more robust workflows with no code.

All of the above “platform” talk aside – do NOT discount SharePoint’s ability to provide robust business solutions, using only native functionality.   The SharePoint 2010 platform has many features and integration components that can be used to build excellent business processes on their own.

However, through the leverage of many available 3rd party tools and applications, SharePoint workflows can become part of an even larger, more robust, or specific business process.   Success in this area is “relatively” simple:

1. Provide a rich and intuitive end-user experience – if users can’t use it, then they won’t.
2. Make sure the system can do everything the users need it to do (functionally and technically).  Otherwise, see #1 above.
3. Leverage your existing system data – don’t try to reinvent the wheel.   We are all aware that a “single source of the truth” is the best means to an end.

Because BPM can include one or more workflows, you can assume that a BPM Solution can do anything that can be done with a workflow.   That said, BPM is capable of much more than merely workflows.

At times, BPM solutions use multiple workflows or systems of record in succession, in order to carry out a set of repetitive tasks (such as processing loans) that, together, produce a comment result.

Each workflow is created to do a specific, repetitive task.  Each workflow is also designed to perform that repetitive task more quickly, efficiently, and accurately than if we were to do it manually.   Because the business processes are based on logic, similar workflows used in different times and places may have been created independently.

Creating Art – Workflow and BPM Together:

Business Process Management is the “Art” of bringing them all together, in the right order, such that the outcome is dramatically improved over the previous method of production.  This dramatic improvement, and the process of re-arranging the solution components to attain the right combination is a great example of “agility”.

Example – Patient Intake Process

Patient Intake Process:

1. Patient walks into office (manual – just checking! <G>)
2. Data is entered into the systems (workflow – scan, or fill out form)
3. System determines which room to assign (workflow)
4. Doctor is notified that a patient is waiting in that room (Workflow)
5. Patient is treated by doctor (Manual)
6. Prescription recommended by doctor (or not) – (manual)
   1. Prescription is entered into system (Manual)
   2. Prescription is submitted to pharmacy for patient pickup (workflow)
   3. Patient is scheduled for follow-up appointment (Workflow)
   4. Email reminder sent to patient (workflow)
   5. Patient is released.

Team Members involved:

• Business Analyst works with doctor’s office and staff to determine what happens at each step of the process.
• Business Analyst documents the process accordingly
• Business Analyst runs simulations on the process to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies
• Business Analyst, IT, and Subject Matter Experts (SME) Produce “to-be” process diagram
• IT builds, integrates, and deploys the process
• Doctors, Nurses, Staff, and Patients use the system
• Business Analyst and key stakeholders monitor the process
• Business Analyst, SMEs, and Stakeholders optimize the process and the cycle continues

Culture “Cultivation”:

Business Process management is “cultural”, in many ways.   It’s about the way you design, deploy, use, and improve business processes within your organization.  Your entire organization has to see the value with, and get on-board with a new way of working.

You need to set policies and standard operating procedures that determine how your business will develop work, as well as how work actually gets done.  Most importantly, you need to manage those processes and strive to systematically, and consistently improve upon those business processes.   This ability to affect small areas quickly and provide huge impact is what is commonly referred to as “agility”.   Getting good at BPM is a sign of an Agile business.

In business, “Agility” is the ability to make positive changes efficiently, with calculated, isolated movements, which take advantage of your company’s coordination, skills, strength, and culture.  If your business is, “light on its feet”, you can move quickly when the market demands change, or when adversity strikes.  You can be the first to meet demands (such as an increase in volumes, decrease in headcount, or keeping production up when supplies are down).

Since I’m having so much fun, let’s go back to the musical analogy to explain the power of BPM.  We’ve just entertained the concepts of Workflow as an instrument and have discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the workflow “instrument” on its own.

What we have not yet discussed, however, is what happens when our workflow, “instruments” are harnessed together and used for creating powerful, complex, and impressive business processes.

Earlier in this chapter, we explored the definition of BPM and some of its key characteristics.  In that definition, we mentioned that a BPM Process could consist of one or more “workflows” and may also integrate with one or more “systems of record”.

That said, let’s think of BPM as a Symphony Conductor.

They Symphony Conductor is adept at coordinating the strengths and weaknesses of all of the instruments in his Orchestra.  Sometimes, he may use them all at once, to produce powerful, complex, and impressive works of art.   Sometimes, he may only enlist a single section – or even feature a soloist.

In either case, the Conductor has the ability to leverage any resource available.  He can make ad-hoc decisions to change the speed or volume of a performance (or even specific performers) at his own discretion.  However, there is still a common set of musical instructions that the instruments are set to follow. The Conductor has the capability of being flexible or sticking to a rigid plan.

BPM solutions, by nature, place many more resources, tools, and workflow “instruments” at your disposal then are possible with workflow alone.   Unlike workflows, BPM processes can span multiple systems of record, or include multiple workflows.  They can work across Site Collections and other system “boundaries”.  With BPM, you have the ability to gracefully handle exceptions and gather artifacts from all across the enterprise.  Traversing workflows and allowing ad-hoc human decisions to be made, which may affect the direction of the process, are common in BPM Solutions.

BPM Processes can be, but do not have to be, clearly defined.  As a result, process participants will have greater flexibility in the types of user interface artifacts that can be used with BPM processes.   This translates to a more “useable” application that functions in a way that’s natural to the end user, and in context with their role.

Often, one of the drawbacks often experienced with a pure workflow process, is the fact that users may need to navigate to where the piece of work (document or list item) resides.  With BPM, those artifacts can be brought to the end-user “just in time”, and in context with that user’s role in the process -  regardless of where that piece of work is located.

The following are some common examples of productive BPM Processes:

• On-boarding (employees, patients, accounts, etc.)
• Processing Applications (Mortgages, Investments, Job Opportunities)
• Complex Transactions (Accounts Payable, Insurance Claims, Loss Mitigation)
• Case Management (Records Management, Document Management, Customer Service)

In our next post, we will discuss how SharePoint 2010 workflows can be used, in conjunction with BPM processes.

Now that we’ve thoroughly defined both, workflow and BPM, let’s compare and contrast the two types of business processes.

The “Value” of Workflow

To use an analogy, let’s think of workflow as if it were a musical instrument.

For example, a saxophone, by itself, sounds great!  So does a guitar, a drum, and singer.   Each instrument has a specific purpose.  Anyone “familiar” with how to play these instruments can pick one up and make music (some people better than others, of course!).   Each instrument can make specific types of sounds.   Yet alone, they are strangely limited, despite each of their impressive qualities.

Workflows are “instruments” of productivity.  They typically have a specific purpose, and provide tremendous value to our organizations in their own way.  Anyone “familiar” with the process can use this workflow and be productive, just as with the musical instruments.  However, despite the impressive qualities of some workflows, alone, they can be strangely limited as well.

Knowing these limitations is a good thing, as it allows you to take advantage of SharePoint to increase productivity on those lower-level, repetitive tasks and streamline decision making in many instances.  There is significant value in speeding up repetitive tasks, not the least of which are decreased costs of doing business, and increases in productivity!

The following are some common examples of how workflows can be used effectively:

• Multi-Stage Document Approval
• Requesting Paid Time Off
• Submitting an Expense Report
• Change Management

Similarities of Workflow and BPM

Switching gears, for just a moment, there are many similarities between workflow and BPM as well.   Specifically, both workflow and BPM are used as somewhat of a “jig” at their respective cores.  Let’s look at this concept more closely.

Wikipedia defines “jig” in the following way:

In Woodworking, metalworking, and mechanical engineering, a jig is a type of tool used to control the location and/or motion of another tool.  A jig’s primary purpose is to provide repeatability, accuracy, and interchangeability in the manufacturing of products.

Some Jigs are used to increase productivity, to do repetitious activities and to do a job more precisely. Because a jig design is fundamentally based on logic, similar jigs used in different times and places may have been created independently.

In the above context, you can easily see how the traits of both, Workflow and BPM, contribute to the concepts of a “jig”.  Both are capable of controlling the location and/or motion of another tool (such as a status change, or file location).  Both also provide repeatability (through the use of workflow), accuracy (through defined paths, business decision logic, and inherent consistency), and interchangeability (re-use and distribution).

You can draw these same similarities in another context of the word, “Jig” – the dance!   While this one would be much fun to carry on about, I’ll let you draw your own correlations as to how Workflow and BPM “dance” together harmoniously to the “productivity waltz”.

How, then, do we know when to transition from a “robust” workflow to a “full-blown” business process management solution?   We will explore that in the next section!

Hi all.

Just about to head down to Austin for the InnoTech Austin conference on Oct. 20, 2011.    The event will be at the Austin Convention Center on October 20th, and is one of the largest Technology events in the region.

I’ll be presenting a sesson on The PORTAL Method – 6 Steps to a successful portal.  My session will be from 11am-11:50am, in Room 11.  We will be discussing how to successfuly plan, design, deploy, and maintain a world-class corporate intranet portal with SharePoint – no matter what your company size or available resources.

Planning is key, scalability is everything!

Come on out and say, “hello”!