IT should not manage BPM projects says Gartner

Analyst Gartner says that IT departments are not always best placed to manage BPM rollouts

IT leaders should not necessarily assume responsibility for business process management projects (BPM), Gartner said in a report.

IT management is often chosen to lead BPM projects because of its experience in delivering transformational change but Gartner analyst Elise Olding said this is the reason for many BPM projects failing. IT management have a different skill set to that needed to implement BPM projects, with BPM projects requiring more “impact analysis” than application development projects, Olding said.

Rather than focussing on process, IT 'types' drive a solution and concentrate on the four steps of analysis, design, development and implementation and “to the IT mind-set, it seems logical that the BPM project can be squished nicely into these steps,” Olding explained. However, instead a BPM project needs detailed analysis and best-practice research in order to arrive at the right process design, she added.

Also if BPM projects are treated as IT projects, they will not be properly tied to the business strategy and the business need, which needs to be addressed, said Olding. IT people tend to focus on the outcome rather than performing analysis on the current state. “This leap to automation can result in very little change to the process and a diminished return on investment,” Olding warned.

The focus project leaders give to the current state of a problem is what Olding calls “as is analysis.”

“In this phase, planners review the way work is currently performed and identify specific pain points. Team leaders should represent the analysis graphically and validate it with subject matter experts,” Olding said.

If IT managers guide the BPM strategy, Olding concluded the outcome will be political feuds or the project team regrouping or bailing on the project. “Either option reflects badly on the team, particularly with first efforts,” Olding said.

Another reason given in the report for BPM projects failing was management assigning a project to their employees without allocating them enough time to fulfil it until its completion.