February 2008 Archives

In the battle of the TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms to you non-geeks), there seems to a sharp change in the fortunes of the old warhorse BPM (normally Business Process Management) against the upstart SOA (Service Oriented Architecture).

Over the last five years, SOA has been thrusting its way up the agenda of the chattering IT classes as being the Next Big Thing (or NBT in TLA-speak) for IT analysts and vendors to sell to hard pressed CIOs and IT Directors.  The fact that none of the previous NBTs have made a significant difference to their organisations (except additional cost) hasn't deterred people from trumpeting SOA as the latest snake oil.

So it may come as a surprise to some (not me, obviously - see previous blogs) to read Gartner's 2008 CIO Business and Technical Priority lists.  Top of the Business priorities is BPM.   However, SOA comes a distant 10th (and last) in the Technical priorities list, down 4 places from last year.  Oh dear.  What has happened?  Just as all the IT vendors have finished rebranding their existing products as SOA compliant/enabling/focussed, etc., their customers have binned that part of their IT strategy in favour of two old favourites - BPM and BI (that annoyingly Two Letter Acronym, Business Intelligence), which came top of the Technical Priorities.

My reading of this is that IT has spectacularly failed to articulate the benefits of SOA to their business sponsors.  I also think that a sizeable minority of CIOs were never seduced by SOA, or never fully believed the hype.  The resurgence of BPM and BI seems to be an indication that the business has become impatient with IT and are looking for tangible and quicker returns on their investments.  Given that the second and third Business Priorities are Customer Relations and innovation, there is an obvious emphasis on delivering real business value through more and happier customers being sold better products brought to more markets sooner. 

But isn't that what business is all about anyway?

John Moe

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Sustainable Improvement

No-one likes change; real people prefer a simple life with few surprises.  Of course, there will always be thrill seekers and rogue French traders, but they tend to have a short existence.

There is a lot of consultant-speak around about doing Change as Continuous Improvement, using Lean Management and/or Six Sigma techniques.  What they don't tell you is how unappealing the whole idea of Continuous Improvement is to staff - who will hear:

1. You are no good at your job so we need to make you more effective (work harder) and efficient (sack you).
2. We are going to change what you do because you are doing it wrong.  Then we are going to keep changing it forever as we don't think you'll ever get it right.
3. Your life will be run by a spreadsheet and some advanced statistics made up by a clever young suit who has never done what you do.

Ask anyone you know in the NHS and ask them how they like 'continuous improvement'.  (Best strap yourself into some thick padding first and put some earplugs in.) 

Perhaps what we should be considering is an approach that gives Sustainable Improvement.  This isn't part of the 'Go Green' bandwagon but looks at how performance (individual, team, departmental and company) can be improved by finding ways to make change work for real people.  And for this change to continue to work after the consultants have gone off to cash their fat cheques and the managers have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

Sustainable Improvement works on the following principles:

• People have to want or accept the change as something that benefits them personally.
• If you understand the context of the work you do and what impact your actions or inactions have on other people you will take more care in what you do.
• By asking staff what issues stop them doing their tasks to their own satisfaction AND you then help them fix the issues they will feel very positively about the change.
• You can't force people to change their ways of working; change that comes from within (individual, team, departmental and company) will endure longer than enforced change.
• Sustainable Change isn't continuous - it is more effective if change is tried, tweaked, bedded down and becomes second nature before another potential improvement is tried.

I'm not saying that this approach is easy.  What is certain is that this approach will give lasting benefits for all involved.

John Moe