Assembling the team
Behind every successful BPM initiative is a team of professionals with specialized and differing skills. BPM initiatives are not about communicating a change plan, or optimizing processes, or implementing an enterprise-wide technical solution; they’re about all these things, often at the same time! So, the makeup of your organization’s BPM team should reflect this, given that the skills required for a successful BPM project are constant.
You will undoubtedly find that job titles and definitions vary from organization to organization, and differences in industry, organizational structure, and working culture mean that the following 7 common roles needed for successful BPM may not be a one-size-fits-all prescription. However, regardless of titles, a genuinely successful BPM program will be carried out by a well-rounded team that features all of BPM’s skills.
The 7 common roles needed for successful BPM
Depending on the size of an organization, and indeed the complexity of the BPM initiative being carried out, teams will most likely feature all or a combination of the following 7 common roles needed for successful BPM.
Business Process Director
The Business Process Director is responsible for overseeing an organization’s entire process improvement program. They obviously play a vital part in managing the people beneath them in the organizational hierarchy, but they also are the source of vision and direction for their team. BPM projects that do not feature a clearly established leader lack the strategic thinking that is the backbone of organizational change. Even in smaller companies, one person should assume this leadership position.
Business Process Consultant
Business Process Consultants are the most advanced pure BPM experts of the bunch. Consultants and Directors are like two sides of the same coin, with the Consultant providing technical know-how to supplement the Director’s management skills. Consultants have a depth of knowledge about BPM systems and their implementation, from modeling software selection to process optimization to the creation of custom applications.
The Process Director and Process Consultants together form the foundation of a BPM project. For smaller organizations, adding a few less senior team members for hands-on work can be all that’s required to get a project off the ground. Even if they’re not making many high-level strategic decisions, these individuals are equally crucial to a program’s success.
Business Analyst
Business Analysts are responsible for identifying and suggesting improvements to existing processes, but they don’t always need great expertise in the transformational or technical aspects of BPM projects.
Project Manager
Project Managers ensure that work is delivered in a timely and effective manner. In tandem with the Process Director, they can help to define the scope of work required and develop a project plan.
Business Process Architect
For larger projects, you will often see the introduction of team members with skill levels in between that of director and analyst. These employees are particularly strong in one of the core competencies of BPM, allowing them to focus their energy on a single piece of the overall initiative.
For example, the Business Process Architect resembles a Director in that they must have a full understanding of business operations, with vast knowledge about end-to-end processes. This business strategy expertise is what truly differentiates Architects, but they are often also fluent in management methodologies such as Lean or Six Sigma.
Business Process Champion
BPM Champions are tasked with being the voice of continual improvement within an organization, ensuring that decisions are made with the future of the program in mind. Champions should be well-versed in techniques for achieving buy-in and communicating the value of BPM to the organization as a whole. It is their responsibility to help the Director in creating a culture that is accepting of—and excited about!—process thinking.
Solution Architect
Solution Architects provide technical support and offer a balance to the communications-oriented Process Champions. These individuals are well-versed in various BPM suites and can bring analytics and decision management into the fold. They also understand the link between BPM and any existing ERP systems, combining discipline with technology to maximize results.
Beyond the 7 common roles needed for successful BPM
As you consider how the 7 common roles needed for successful BPM may fit in your organization, it can be tempting to leave BPM to the “experts” and exclude the majority of employees within an organization. This is a mistake! The advent of cloud native BPM solutions and the ease of use of tools like the Signavio Process Transformation Suite means collaborative process management across an organization is easier than ever.
While transformational change cannot occur without a foundation of strong business knowledge, strong business knowledge should be supported by technical expertise, which then informs the accumulation of further knowledge, and so on. This self-sustaining approach, leveraging the wisdom of the crowd across an entire organization, is what leads to truly sustainable outcomes, and builds a process culture within an organization.
Next steps
If you’d like to find out more about the specific roles you need to advance your understanding of the way your business works, check out our guide to process mining project roles. Or, if you have your team in place and you’re ready to get started, why not sign up for a free 30-day trial with Signavio, today.