Agility: Wreaking Havoc on Corporate IT
The promise of agility isn't being delivered in too many cases. There is hope in BPM, if it is used as a new way for IT to partner with business teams to deliver agile process applications.
The pressure is on for IT to deliver applications that can change on a dime—evolving as quickly as the business, even in the face of uncertain requirements. To address these challenges, new programming models (such as extreme programming and iterative development) have emerged. The goal is the same: shorten development cycles with more constrained requirements, and then enhance under the same model. At the same time, new technology architectures are emerging around the ideas of services and processes. And service- oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) are gaining momentum because they too hold the promise of increased agility.
Unfortunately, in many cases, the promise of agility isn't being delivered. In the face of reduced resources and an everincreasing backlog of requests, many IT organizations are struggling to keep their heads above water, let alone deliver agility. The problem is not that developers aren't up to the task technically; it is that the most common application development (and enhancement) models don't work in the modern business environment.
Think about it. Traditional application models are built around gathering requirements from users, finalizing those requirements, implementing them and then using a structured change-order approach with structured release cycles to make adjustments. These models fly in the face of business users who:
- Cannot define their requirements concretely— they change at a moment's notice (not because the business user wants to change them, but because the business environment is forcing the change);
- Want to change the system even before it's deployed;
- Request that things be changed out of regular cycles because of urgency; and
- Cannot afford the extra design time and planning to create more parameter-driven systems that would enable them to tweak the systems without requiring help from IT.
In fact, the biggest source of this tension is the increasing focus on processes. Everyone seems to want systems that automate and improve business processes, whether that is embedded in traditional applications or is a custom system focused on one process area.
Processes are inherently volatile. Most processes became part of the business environment not through careful planning, but in reaction to a need to get things done. Processes typically flow across systems, filling the gaps between them and the people in the company. And they change on a regular basis to address new customers and new business situations.
Tackling the TLA
BPM is one of those TLAs (three-letter acronyms) that mean different things to different people. Some people consider BPM to be purely a business approach—it's all about the business organizing around their key processes. Others consider it technology— software that enables processes to be modeled, automated, managed and optimized. The reality is that BPM is actually a combination of both of these areas. BPM represents a new way for IT to partner with business teams to deliver agile process applications. This last point is the key to broad BPM success. And it's a key that has been largely ignored to date.
Ultimus (www.ultimus.com) was founded in 1994 with a clear goal: make it easy for customers to automate business or organizational processes without requiring lots of programming or assistance from IT. Today, Ultimus is recognized as a leading provider of business process management (BPM) and workflow automation software and services. Drawing on Ultimus' experience and philosophy, customers are using Ultimus as a platform for automating many business processes throughout their organization and across other organizations. To learn more about BPM and Ultimus powered by Adaptive Discovery™, visit www.ultimus.com. VIDEO Learn how the largest beverage can manufacturer in the world is using the Ultimus BPM Suite to address business needs and alleviate pressures on IT. www.ultimus.com/rexam.htm