What is the worst practice in BPM implementation?

Perhaps, one of the worst and most deeply rooted practices in BPM is doing it without established methodology.

On most primitive level, BPM often begins as a set of diagrams drawn in a standard office package. When there accumulates significant amount of diagrams and process descriptions, the magic word BPM comes in mind and a company begins thinking on the best BPM tool to choose for its process management.

But any most advanced tool, however rich in options it is, will never bring ready methodology, which de facto exists in an organization. As a result, a company in most cases sacrifices its already existing, although not well formalized, methodology for the sake of external, foreign and artificial methodologies offered by various tools.

Ironically, with nearly every BPM tool lion’s share of effort goes to tedious and often futile attempts of embedding existing business practices into ready modeling framework. Instead, implementation should pursue exactly opposite goal of easily adopting tool’s methodology and facilities to the existing business practice. Alas, not many tools have a goal of adopting to business.

Essentially, analysis of as-is methodology should precede the choice of BPM tool, not follow it. This is because every tool already has more or less pronounced association with an established methodology. Therefore, knowledge of preferred or basic methodology can be a guide in choosing the right tool.

BPM should always start with discovery of corporate methodology, not ending with it. This may save from many mistakes and failures in digital transformation of an organization.