Consultancy
10 Business Process Management Trends Voor 2024The field of Business Process Management (BPM) is undergoing rapid change in 2024. Experts from BPM Consult share ten trends that will have a major impact on the future direction of the discipline in the coming year.
1: Workplace happiness becomes a design criterion
Where ‘lean’ was long the ultimate hallmark of good processes, ‘happiness at work’ is becoming the new benchmark. Organisations are discovering how process-oriented working allows factors such as meaning, autonomy, talents and relationships to flourish. Lean Belts are surrendering their popularity badge to workplace happiness facilitators, and business metrics are giving way to social factors.
The new reverse-engineering test is: how can I design processes in such a way that people become unhappy? So goodbye Six Sigma charts, welcome emoticons and happiness officers. Processes gain real meaning in how people connect with others and experience a sense of purpose.
2: Do-it-yourself automation is accelerating
Workflow management and the automation of work processes are taking on new forms. Where process owners once depended heavily on IT specialists and software experts to deliver the much‑desired automated workflows, low‑code platforms, RPA solutions, and no‑code apps and tools are now enabling them to do it themselves. Easier and faster, in other words.
Process owners are taking control of automation and making use of user‑friendly and accessible tools. This reduces frustration caused by misunderstandings and translation issues, while increasing flexibility and speed in workflow automation. No more lengthy programmes, but solutions delivered within the same afternoon.
3: Access for everyone
People who are blind or visually impaired, non-native speakers, those who are deaf or hard of hearing, individuals with low literacy skills, and everyone from Generation A to Z gain access to process designs. Texts and diagrams are relinquishing their entrenched position in the world of documentation in favour of appealing images and visuals, as employees want to understand at a glance how something works.
Effective visualisation and accessibility are the new direction. So, goodbye to dry procedural texts and technically incomprehensible diagrams, and welcome cheerful process cartoons. Farewell static diagrams, welcome process videos. QR codes and audio files help new employees navigate work processes quickly and effectively. Augmented reality is becoming the new technology for process stewards.
4: Architecture becomes a differentiating factor
Organisations that remain hesitant to design their value streams should fear for their very survival. Technological complexity benefits greatly from architecture in order to maintain control over value streams, but beware of drowning in an overly heavyweight enterprise architecture.
Leaders in enterprise architecture steer process and data hand in hand. They design their processes holistically, connect operational domains, and keep architecture lightweight and simple.
Enterprise architects are stepping out of their IT silos and merging business, information, and application architectures into practical tools. Process architecture is becoming the organisation’s operational conscience, the driving force behind innovation and connection. Pragmatists and connectors shape it into effective forms. Process and IT converge, collaborate, understand each other’s language, and position themselves at the heart of everyday practice.
5: Implementation becomes an immersive spectacle
The new credo for implementation is “experiencing the new together”. Truly understanding something means being able to see it, to be part of it, to feel and experience it, and to be inspired by it. Process simulations and process games are making a strong comeback as popular ways to engage people in process renewal.
Pilot set‑ups, scale models, games, playback theatre and actors all become part of the process improver’s toolkit. And there is room for humour. Change management becomes an experiential spectacle. You no longer have to change, you want to. Push turns into pull in process renewal. No more change fatigue, but something that is enjoyable and full of energy instead.
6: Data maturity determines the pace
The pace of process improvement will depend on data maturity. Real-time insight into process performance, quality, first-time-right rates and rework is becoming a key differentiating success factor. Without data, there is no insight, no business case and no risk-based working. Data hidden away in PDFs or scribbled on paper is of no use; data quality must be in order.
Data availability, data security and privacy are becoming essential prerequisites for the application of AI and will shape the direction of improvement.
7: BPMN is gaining ground as a global language
In a world where supply chains are becoming ever more integrated, language barriers are undesirable. Proper connections in process flows rely on consistent terminology. Open exchange standards are gaining further ground, as is Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) as a uniform design pattern and standard for understanding processes.
However, the specific business still needs to be modelled in the right dialect. A good design should not require a manual. In the coming year, many companies will switch to BPMN as their modelling language. They are developing policies for process architecture, bringing it into good order and thereby finding it easier to align both within and beyond the organisation.
8: Robots and AI become co-players
The traditional allies in the value stream, business and IT, are now joined by a third party. Hybrid players such as robots and AI are offering their services and taking on a larger role in key processes. They will take over or support existing activities.
Software robots will play a role in order processing. For organisations, the challenge is to integrate interactions with digital assistants naturally into work processes.
A popular process-tuning exercise will be mapping ChatGPT as an available actor within the functional flow, or making the use of AI mandatory for all decisions in knowledge-intensive processes. Yet even a robot waits for instructions. Harnessing AI potential means embedding it within work processes.
9: Controls become intelligent
With the rise of AI, not only is part of the operational work being taken over, but the control of execution is also being fully handled by AI. Process and data mining currently still require human analysis, but this will soon become fully automated. So no more hours spent collecting, cleaning and interpreting data and writing reports, but instead a real-time, fully automated, proactive check on how the organisation is functioning.
And not only for what is actually happening within the organisation, such as achieving strategic objectives, but also for the potential impact of laws and regulations, changes in industry agreements, and new developments within the sector.
An AI controller ensures that people gain insight into everything they want to know and everything they should know about the performance of their organisation.
10: Some improvements happen automatically
The tight labour market will help drive more efficient processes. People increasingly want to do only meaningful work; anything that lacks purpose will simply fail to attract staff. “Bullshit jobs” will remain unfilled, and scarce labour capacity will naturally shift towards value‑adding activities. In this way, waste will gradually disappear on its own.
There are additional tailwinds for process improvement in 2024: an economy geared towards “getting better every day”, the drive for lifelong learning, and the growing call for a future‑proof world.
