To help understand the areas of coverage in this Blog I will define my perception of Business Performance Management. All too often people assume Performance Management is Business Intelligence (BI). This is not the case, BI is one of the legs on the stool and as the diagram shows there two more legs and a framework within which it is defined and implemented.

The diagram highlights the three main areas which are:

·         Corporate Performance Management

·         Business Intelligence

·         Business Process Management

The framework within which the solution is built is usually part of an Enterprise Architecture (EA). As to what EA framework is used is very much down to the preference of the EA Team. During the course of this Blog I will endeavour to cover all these areas based on my experience and preferences. There is another important factor to cover which is Programme Management since implementing Performance Management comprises of multiple complex projects. The projects have many interdependencies that need to be tied together to ensure the sequence and priorities in which deliverables are made are consistent and do not impact adversely pervious deliverables.

In the centre of the diagram there is a red box called “Assigned Accountability”. One of the most difficult parts of a Performance Management project is assigning ownership of performance metrics, especially at the operational levels within a business. This has a major impact on the existing culture within and often involves assigning performance related incentives to individuals and groups who are responsible for the management of the activities that impact the performance metrics. Since activities are part of a process and processes are affected by upstream and downstream processes difficulties can arise from poor performance that has an impact on the achievements and aspirations of dependent performance metrics owners. Managing these changes is a difficult task and needs a strong management team to mitigating the risk associated with delivering a successful Performance Management Programme.

Performance Management is a top down driven programme that becomes embedded in the culture of an organisation. It is a continuous process that enables an organisation to respond to change quickly and adjust to the changing economic and market dynamics as they occur. Technology plays a large part in the delivery of a successful programme expanding its reach and response to an ever changing business environment. Performance Management projects rely heavily on applications and tools to document and deliver a successful outcome. I will expand on this in future Blogs.

It helps when implementing a BPM project to have a delivery framework; it accelerates the planning phase and serves as a checklist to make sure nothing is missing. The framework I have used is shown below. It has eight distinct phases with deliverables defined in each phase. You notice also the deliverables are colour coded to indicate responsibilities within the project team. The eight phases are depicted in the insert as a continuous cycle with the output of the Improve phase feeding the Stimulate phase. 

There are essentially three major terms used when engaging on a Business Process Project and these are:

·         Deliverables - The diagram above lists the deliverables in each phase with falling four categories;

o   Process Management

o   Information Management

o   Change Management

o   Human Resources

·         Techniques – These are methods used to achieve the deliverables an example is the Business Entity Diagram and Value Chain, discussed in an earlier Blog, to define the Holistic Business Model)

·         Achievements – This is the final goal or completion of the defined Milestones.

The Purpose of the Eight BPM Phases:

1.       Stimulate – Used to Kick Off the project and for the Management Team explain motivate the team by explaining the reason for investing in the project and their expectations .

2.       Imagine – Provides the means to develop a common content and understanding (between CEO, senior management and the consultant) of the organisation, its current challenges and its future direction.

3.       Focus - Identify the major opportunities for performance improvement that are associated with existing processes, technology and human resources.

4.       High Level Design - Develop a portrait of how the client organization will conduct business in the future

5.       Detail Design - Design the details and understand the consequences to the organisation of implementing the preferred “To-Be” business solution.

6.       Build - Construct and test all outputs of key components of the business solution.  To build an infrastructure capable of supporting the “To-Be”  processes

7.       Implement - Set in motion across the company the newly built processes, technological and social changes that have been designed and built.

8.       Improve - To establish mechanisms to ensure that performance improvements resulting from the BPM programme are sustained over time and ultimately lend to opportunities for additional performance gains.

I want to stress this is only a framework and although I use this as starting point depending on the organisation and the project scope I will vary the sequence and eliminate some deliverables.  I have attached a list of possible BPM deliverables as a reference.

High Level BPM Deliverables.pdf (506.58 kb)