Consultancy
Tien Business Process Management Trends Voor 2020Each year, BPM Consult conducts research into trends in the business process management (BPM) domain. Experts from the process management consultancy highlight the ten most important BPM trends for 2020.
1. Processes are becoming a platform for talent development
The focus of process improvement is expanding from the prevention of waste to the utilisation of human talent. Making the most of people’s talents is becoming a design criterion. Multidisciplinary process design will become the platform for managing talent. Roles are being redistributed and aligned with each individual’s strengths. Away with “people follow the process”, and welcome “the process follows people’s talents”.
2. Window-dressing sustainability is on its way out
More and more fruit is appearing on the shame tree: alongside financial-focus shame and positional power shame, there is now also the shame of ‘ignoring Mother Earth’. It is now clearly unacceptable to measure process performance using only financial indicators.
Processes are being assessed for sustainability. Emissions, consumption, waste, defects, inefficiencies, fair trading, circularity and sustainable growth are becoming the new design criteria and performance indicators.
3. Process management is taking on elements of mindfulness
We will stop letting ourselves be driven mad by fragmentation and piecemeal improvement. We will accept that cycles of renewal are accelerating. Welcome, focus. Use your processes as the foundation for both control and innovation at the same time. That creates clarity and provides room to move.
4. Process owners are now moving from shepherds to becoming beekeepers
Where a shepherd commands, instructs and exercises tight control, the beekeeper’s approach is more appropriate. The bees know best how to make honey, and the beekeeper does not get in their way. But when the hive is full and the bees stop, the beekeeper facilitates and motivates; he removes the honey and creates optimal conditions for renewed improvement. Process owners can learn from this and will follow the beekeeper’s example.
5. Process knowledge has deepened
Technology such as process mining helps to deepen process knowledge. Software that uses event analysis to visualise the network function and process flow presents the facts and eliminates subjectivity. This enriches the validation of process designs and enables the prediction of bottlenecks well before they arise.
However, be careful: it does not replace the traditional brown paper session. Processes are collaborations between people, in which subjectivity often represents the most meaningful truth and dynamics can be managed. Good process managers know how to combine these approaches.
6. Data literacy is becoming a critical life skill
The gap between companies with and without a data policy is widening. A strategic vision for the use and development of data is becoming vital.
Reliance on instinct and entrepreneurial flair is decreasing. The direction of the business is determined in a validated way. Data literacy is becoming a core skill. Organisations that derive value from data and are in the midst of digital transformation will make significant strides in data literacy.
7. Process design as the single source of truth
The insatiable urge for process modelling by various parallel staff and support functions is coming to an end. It only creates ambiguity and wastes time.
Process design is being set up as a platform, with each perspective having its own layer. Working from the same foundation – the technology is ready for it.
8. The gemba walk is becoming virtual
Want to review and improve your process? The Gemba walk remains valuable and now has a virtual counterpart. Walk through your process using augmented reality; put on your glasses and carry out a process walk. Gain new visual insights into waste and experience how disruptions interfere with your organisation’s workflow.
Experience virtually how proposed changes will play out. Long live the experience economy: the processes with the highest Return on Experience per cent will win.
9. Equality and inclusion as a design criterium
Business is being connected to higher purposes than merely serving internal stakeholders. Processes are expected to contribute to a more inclusive society. The strengths of diversity will be harnessed to create better processes.
The Social Sustainable Development Goals are being mapped onto process design. Process managers are focused on removing barriers that prevent employees from reaching their full potential. Work will be better aligned with the diverse talents, needs and capabilities of all employees. In this way, employees are engaged and inspired by contributing to a better world.
10. Agile is shifting from chess to poker
Process managers will become more adept at ‘planning poker’. They recognise that people struggle to estimate complexity and workload.
They will pull the plug on long-running improvement projects and move towards short-cycle improvement. In a more complex environment, there is far less that can be planned and programmed, but far more that can be learned by doing. Process managers pick up their chips and join the game. They stay in motion and check their direction quickly and regularly. They use the vision as a guiding magnet.
