The following link is a spot that Dave Dantus (Director of Serena Software Federal Sales) and I did with WFED in DC. The discussion is around a survey that Serena sponsored to see how Federal Agencies were doing with respect to meeting new mandates for efficiency and transparencies as laid out by Vivek Kundra. We also talk about how BPM/Lean BPM helps these agencies meet these mandates.
WFED Interview.
So how is your agency meeting these mandates? Or not?
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Getting Started: Automating Your Business Process
Here is a link to a li'l animated short I created to help our customers understand how to think about automating their business process. No tools are mentioned; this is just a very very high level "getting started" thingy.
Getting Started: Automating Your Business Process
Getting Started: Automating Your Business Process
The Accidental Analyst
The job title "Business Analyst" (BA) has been around for a while, though recently its usage seems to have surged in popularity. It's a common and useful enough job that you can even get certification and join the International Institute of Business Analysts. But from what I've seen, folks don't start their careers thinking they want to be a BA, they kind of happen upon it accidentally.
Nearly every Business Mashups Designer or TeamTrack administrator I've ever met (including myself) did not consider themselves a BA, yet if you ask them what their day to day activities are, more often than not they will correspond to those of a BA. These "Accidental Analysts" are often IT types in the right place at the right time, and just happen to be next in line when they are tasked with administering a new installation of Business Mashups or TeamTrack. Most soon discover that this tool can do more than what it was originally intended for, which was usually automating their Issue/Defect Tracking process.
Automating processes in these tools is quick and easy, so these Accidental Analysts often seek out new business processes to automate, including those outside the traditional ALM and IT spaces. As they work with different departments on these various processes, Accidental Analysts continued to hone their BA skills, which include interpersonal communication, requirements gathering, and general problem solving. Before long, any of these Accidental Analysts can market themselves as full-fledged card-carrying BAs. Because the tools are so easy to use (can you say "drag and drop"?), power business users outside of IT are often recruited to solve and automate their own business problems, adding even more Accidental Analysts to the pool.
Forrester has seen the same pattern of spontaneous emergence of BAs. In the 2008 report "The New Business Analyst" Forrester states that BAs often receive no formalized training but rather "Most business analysts learn instead by doing, getting on-the-job training from their peers, managers, and mentors." They also advise that one should "Look for potential business analysts in all walks of life" and what makes a good BA successful "is their ability to communicate, facilitate, and analyze". BAs appear to be born rather than made. Of course, a little formalized training never hurt anyone, and while about half of BAs eventually get BA-specific training, it usually occurs well after they've been engaged in BA activities.
So TeamTrack and Business Mashups administrators and all you other Accidental Analysts, I hereby dub thee "Business Analyst". Live long and prosper.
Nearly every Business Mashups Designer or TeamTrack administrator I've ever met (including myself) did not consider themselves a BA, yet if you ask them what their day to day activities are, more often than not they will correspond to those of a BA. These "Accidental Analysts" are often IT types in the right place at the right time, and just happen to be next in line when they are tasked with administering a new installation of Business Mashups or TeamTrack. Most soon discover that this tool can do more than what it was originally intended for, which was usually automating their Issue/Defect Tracking process.
Automating processes in these tools is quick and easy, so these Accidental Analysts often seek out new business processes to automate, including those outside the traditional ALM and IT spaces. As they work with different departments on these various processes, Accidental Analysts continued to hone their BA skills, which include interpersonal communication, requirements gathering, and general problem solving. Before long, any of these Accidental Analysts can market themselves as full-fledged card-carrying BAs. Because the tools are so easy to use (can you say "drag and drop"?), power business users outside of IT are often recruited to solve and automate their own business problems, adding even more Accidental Analysts to the pool.
Forrester has seen the same pattern of spontaneous emergence of BAs. In the 2008 report "The New Business Analyst" Forrester states that BAs often receive no formalized training but rather "Most business analysts learn instead by doing, getting on-the-job training from their peers, managers, and mentors." They also advise that one should "Look for potential business analysts in all walks of life" and what makes a good BA successful "is their ability to communicate, facilitate, and analyze". BAs appear to be born rather than made. Of course, a little formalized training never hurt anyone, and while about half of BAs eventually get BA-specific training, it usually occurs well after they've been engaged in BA activities.
So TeamTrack and Business Mashups administrators and all you other Accidental Analysts, I hereby dub thee "Business Analyst". Live long and prosper.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
The following is a true story, perhaps embellished with the passage of time (read: fading memory) but I think you'll get the point that just having a process isn't good enough.
My son Tony is a good boy. He loves his mother. I'm rather fond of him myself, especially since every Mother's day and on my birthday he makes me - from scratch- oatmeal raisin cookies. Oatmeal raisin cookies, my absoute favorite, hot from the oven and filling the air with smells of cinnamon and sugar. Ummm. They're really the only reason I still celebrate my birthday; otherwise it would be way too depressing.
So a few years back Tony, on my birthday, was hard at work in the kitchen. Beating eggs, softening butter (real butter - only the best for Mom. Like I said, Tony is a good boy), mixing it all together. Tony had it down - he'd been doing this for years. I watched (drooling of course) as he dolloped spoonfuls of batter onto the cookie sheet. Into the oven, timer set, nothing left but the waiting.
Twenty minutes later, out came those warm, cinnamony cookies. Tony proudly brought me the first one (yes, I'll be having more than one) wrapped in a paper napkin so I wouldn't burn my fingers. The first bite. Ah, melting in my mouth. Uh, wait - hold on; this isn't right. The taste isn't quite what I expected. Neither is the texture. Hm. Got it. No oatmeal. Tony, having made me oatmeal raisin cookies countless times, was so sure he had the process down that he didn't pay close attention to the recipe, and he forgot the oatmeal.
Now, as I stated earlier, I'm quite fond of my son so I smiled and ate my cookie and gushed about how wonderful it was. But it was not what I expected, and to be honest it's not what I wanted - sugar raisin cookies just don't hack it.
So, what went wrong? There was most certainly a process in place. It was even Tony's intention to follow said process. However, since there was no automated enforcement of the process, there was room for error and Murphy's law stepped in.
When you deliver something different to your customers than what they expected, what happens? I bet they don't smile and tell you how wonderful you are. If you work in a government regulated industry, this can be death. Even in non-regulated industries, not giving your customers what they expect means you're not likely to remain in business very long.
What's the answer? Seek out every opportunity to automate each of your processes to the fullest extent possible - don't wait until you bite into the cookie to fix it.
My son Tony is a good boy. He loves his mother. I'm rather fond of him myself, especially since every Mother's day and on my birthday he makes me - from scratch- oatmeal raisin cookies. Oatmeal raisin cookies, my absoute favorite, hot from the oven and filling the air with smells of cinnamon and sugar. Ummm. They're really the only reason I still celebrate my birthday; otherwise it would be way too depressing.
So a few years back Tony, on my birthday, was hard at work in the kitchen. Beating eggs, softening butter (real butter - only the best for Mom. Like I said, Tony is a good boy), mixing it all together. Tony had it down - he'd been doing this for years. I watched (drooling of course) as he dolloped spoonfuls of batter onto the cookie sheet. Into the oven, timer set, nothing left but the waiting.
Twenty minutes later, out came those warm, cinnamony cookies. Tony proudly brought me the first one (yes, I'll be having more than one) wrapped in a paper napkin so I wouldn't burn my fingers. The first bite. Ah, melting in my mouth. Uh, wait - hold on; this isn't right. The taste isn't quite what I expected. Neither is the texture. Hm. Got it. No oatmeal. Tony, having made me oatmeal raisin cookies countless times, was so sure he had the process down that he didn't pay close attention to the recipe, and he forgot the oatmeal.
Now, as I stated earlier, I'm quite fond of my son so I smiled and ate my cookie and gushed about how wonderful it was. But it was not what I expected, and to be honest it's not what I wanted - sugar raisin cookies just don't hack it.
So, what went wrong? There was most certainly a process in place. It was even Tony's intention to follow said process. However, since there was no automated enforcement of the process, there was room for error and Murphy's law stepped in.
When you deliver something different to your customers than what they expected, what happens? I bet they don't smile and tell you how wonderful you are. If you work in a government regulated industry, this can be death. Even in non-regulated industries, not giving your customers what they expect means you're not likely to remain in business very long.
What's the answer? Seek out every opportunity to automate each of your processes to the fullest extent possible - don't wait until you bite into the cookie to fix it.
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