Gartner Guidelines to BPM Project Success

The Core driver of Business Process Management (BPM) projects is the delivery of enhanced business performance through cost reduction, increased productivity and the ability to easily change and adapt the business to any situation. It is primarily a business philosophy about people, the way they work together, their business processes, the technology they use, and the performance objectives that these processes underpin. At the same time, BPM technology delivers the ability to make this vision a reality with BPM projects now a competitive advantage. The vast majority of BPM technology projects are successful According to Gartner, who recently surveyed BPM projects, 95% of those questioned said that their BPM projects had been successful.

Gartner has identified seven key factors that organizations need to observe when selecting a BPM project to pursue:

1. 1.       Limited scope. For the best results, start small. This means a limited-scope project, not a major end-to-end process to improve, but perhaps a portion of one.
2. 2.       High value. The business performance improvement must be seen as having a high value towards attaining the desired business performance results.
3. 3.       Clear alignment to goals. The BPM-based performance improvement that is being pursued directly contributes to the attainment of a targeted goal and fulfils the corresponding strategy.
4. 4.       The right metrics. Only through measurement can companies get the necessary awareness and credibility regarding the value of the BPM-based improvement achieved.
5. 5.       Goal agreement. All the relevant process stakeholders must work together to agree on what is the desired performance improvement. 
6. 6.       Enthusiastic business sponsor. To get the project done promptly and well, and to spread the word across the organization, an enthusiastic business sponsor is essential.
7. 7.       Business user engagement. Getting the people who actually do the work of the process onboard can be an enormous help towards success. Getting them on board typically means offering a fresh perspective on how to look at what they do in their jobs, and making a process view easy to understand and intriguing.

Early, visible, concrete project success is especially important to the long-term acceptance of business process management as a valuable discipline. The Seven key factors above contribute to attaining the highest probability of immediate, and therefore long-term, success.  I think it’s important to have a guideline before deciding to start a BPM project as it helps the organisation to achieve its goals as well as avoiding failure. The key factors above are from Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company and the insight they have provided will help clients to make the right decisions.

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