- 21 January, 2009 11:18 AM EST
- Do You Have a BPCC? Mangling Cartoon Quotes to Make Point
Elise Olding has picked up some nice press in Computerworld UK for her prediction that 50% of BPM Programs will fail.
Interpretive notes:
1. The failure potential is at the program level and not at the project level.
2. The main cause of death will be failing to create a credible Business Process Competency Center (BPCC).
3. We published this research in our annual Gartner Predicts piece on BPM.
50% sounds scary, but it rings true. We all know of successful BPM projects - they're all around us. But a BPM PROGRAM is something much more. A program is the overlord of the projects; it is the unifying BPM effort for the entire enterprise and its full range of BPM interventions. A program is not just a single, isolated BPM intervention. A single program has many potential projects underneath it.
But 50% failure? Sure. Consider the following analogy. Many of you want to establish programs for better health. These programs would include lots of related "projects" - exercise, better eating habits, smoking cessation, etc. This is the program level concept - macro-thinking. Guess what? I'm willing to bet that most of you have tried these program-level activities before and most have failed. I know I've tried and failed. I bet the world-wide failure rate is greater than 50%, much to the chagrin of your doctors. While we can point to a few health-related project-level wins such as eating more broccoli, or drinking green tea, or taking brisk walks, our health programs as a whole have often failed. Programs are bigger than projects. A win at the project level does not mean your program is winning. To misuse an old cliche, "You can win the battle (project) and lose the war (program)."
So do you expect to be among the BPM dead and wounded? Is your BPM program going to make it? Do you have a BPCC? And, to be clear and fair, a BPCC is not Mary or Tom or Raj and their trial download of Microsoft Visio. To quote and completely mangle Dr. Seuss:
"Maybe a BPCC," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe, a BPCC…perhaps…means a little bit more!"
While on the subject of mangled cartoon quotes, Woody from Toy Story said it well, "If you don’t have one… GET ONE!" He was talking about moving buddies, but we know he really meant "a BPCC."
