Volume 2: Governance
- The Governance of Business Processes
by M. Lynne Markus and Dax D. Jacobson - The Governance of Business Process Management
by Andrew Spanyi - The Process of Business Process Management
by August-Wilhelm Scheer and Michael Hoffmann - The Services Portfolio of a BPM Center of Excellence
by Michael Rosemann - BPM Center of Excellence. The Case of a Brazilian Company
by Leandro Jesus, André Macieira, Daniel Karrer and Heitor Caulliraux - Business Process Standardization
by Roger Tregear - Business Process Outsourcing: Learning from Cases of a Global Offshore Outsourcing Provider
by Jyoti M. Bhat, Jude Fernandez, Manish Kumar and Sukriti Goel - Towards a Global Process Management System. The Thyssen-Krupp Presta Case
by Stefan Novotny and Nicholas Rohmann - Business Process Maturity in Public Administrations
by Peter Fettke, Jörg Zwicker and Peter Loos
The often-dominant focus on the managerial challenges of process-related initiatives must be embedded in guiding principles that clearly define the roles and responsibilities in decision making for BPM on both the program level and the project management level that is, BPM governance. BPM governance addresses questions like who is responsible for which process, what decision rights rest with a process owner, what reporting structures in an organization can increase process orientation, what incentives can facilitate an efficient performance of processes, and what responsibilities are assigned to a central BPM Center of Excellence.
At least two dimensions of BPM governance can be differentiated: the governance of processes and the governance of process management itself. These two dimensions form part of the two opening chapters of this section. In the first chapter, M. Lynne Markus and Dax D. Jacobson introduce the domain of governing processes, pointing out various the mechanisms for designing a cost-effective governance structure. The chapter describes governance mechanisms, identifies their advantages and disadvantages, and provides examples that show how governance mechanisms can contribute to improved business process performance. In addition, the authors clarify the specific advantages and challenges of these mech- anisms by presenting real-life cases from US governmental organizations. In the second chapter, Andrew Spanyi takes the perspective of governing the management of business processes, reflecting on how successful companies sustain and optimize performance improvements. Presenting specific principles and practices for BPM governance, Spanyi provides sound guidelines for the practical deployment of performance improvements and a valuable point of reference for the remainder of this section.
After these two introductory articles, the remaining chapters in the section consider specific facets of BPM governance. First, August-Wilhelm Scheer and Michael Hoffmann focus on the process of BPM, taking a holistic, organization- wide perspective and identifying the phases, roles, and responsibilities that are required along the entire process of process management. Then Michael Rosemann describes the widely adopted concept of a so-called BPM Center of Excellence (CoE) as a major element of BPM governance. Rosemann concentrates on the typical set of services that is provided by such an organizational unit, elaborates on the idea of service portfolio management, and discusses the outcomes of an empirical study that shows the levels of popularity of various CoE services. The next chapter builds on the introduction of CoEs by showcasing the setup of a CoE in a Brazilian organization. Authors Leandro Jesus, André Macieira, Daniel Karrer, and Heitor Caulliraux also explain how the role of the CoE might change over time.
The subsequent chapters then address major challenges in BPM governance. The chapter by Roger Tregear on business process standardization looks at the balancing act between global and local BPM, an issue relevant to all companies operating on a global scale. The author describes a global BPM framework that facilitates the management of the conflicting demands of global efficiency and local effectiveness. Another topic of continuous global interest is the management of business process outsourcing (BPO), which is an essential element of future BPM governance. This is the focus of the chapter by Jyoti M. Bhat, Jude Fernancez, Manish Kumar, and Sukriti Goel, who present a framework for BPM analysis and report on experiences from practical cases gathered at Infosys BPO, a global offshore BPO provider.
We close this section with two practical cases on business process governance, which integrate the issues mentioned above. First, the case of ThyssenKruppPresta, presented by Stefan Novotny and Nicholas Rohmann, reports on results from implementing a global process management system. Then a chapter on experiences from implementing BPM in the public administration, presented by Peter Fettke, Jörg Zwicker, and Peter Loos, elaborates on the role of BPM maturity management.