"Hammer"ing Out the BPM System

According to Michael Hammer, "Business Process Management (BPM) is a comprehensive system for managing and transforming organizational operations, based on what is arguably the first set of new ideas about organizational performance since the Industrial Revolution."  In his article, "What is Business Process Management?", he discusses topics such as it's origin and its development.  Hammer credits the work of Shewhart and Deming as the first to approach BPM with statistical analysis of problems occurred during production; this methodology was too generally defined for Hammer's taste.  His work then is the second definitive work on the subject matter.


Hammer then goes on to discuss the process management cycle, shown below, which was eventually developed by merging the two definitive methodologies of himself and Shewhart and Deming.  This cycle is derived from Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.  Hammer then goes on to discuss how "through process management, an enterprise can create high-performance processes, which operate with much lower costs, faster speeds, greater accuracy, reduced assets, and enhanced flexibility."  And he goes on into the operational benefits that might be realized through such as process.  But he also notes that this road is not always easy; there are certain processes that must be changed to allow BPM to flourish: process design, process metrics, process performers, process infrastructure, and the process owner.  Hammer then continues on to discuss the items that need to be able to change to be a success such as leadership, governance, culture, and the expertise.

[Figure 1. From "What is Business Process Management?" by Michael Hammer]

As a summary, Hammer reviews the main principles of process management: All work is a process.  Any process is better than no process.  A good process is better than a bad process.  One process version is better than many.  Even a good process must be performed effectively.  Even a good process can be made better.  Every good process eventually becomes a bad process.  After that Hammer begins to discuss how Enterprise Process Model (EPM) can be used a graphical tool to enhance BPMN.  An example is shown in the graphic below.  Lastly, Hammer gives his ideas on where BPM might be going in the future.

[Figure 2. From "What is Business Process Management?" by Michael Hammer]

In my opinion, Hammer definitely is one of the frontiersmen of BPM.  While his writing can be a little hard to follow, his methodology is not.  It's quite simple and has a bit of lean thinking's 'challenge everything' mantra.  He describes most things in three phases: what it was doing, what it is doing, what it will be doing.  Always a continuous improvement process.  It will definitely be interesting to see where the BPM methodology will go in the future and what it's adoption rates will be.