Why Do Business Process Management Projects Fail?

I wrote previously that business process management (BPM) is very simple in the basics. That’s why I’ve been asked – if it really is so simple, then why do BPM projects fail? … let’s discuss it today

First of all, those are projects. A project by its definition means that you are doing something for the first time or you are doing it in another circumstances. In such case either the employees of a company are taking the first steps in the direction of BPM, or the invited consultant is working with a new organization, whose operation is influenced by completely different factors of internal or external environment if compared to the previous project. However, it characterizes only the general reasons why projects fail. Every project manager could tell you about it.

The main specific reasons of BPM project failure, which I have experienced myself, are the following:

• Overpraisal of BPM
• Passivity of top management
• Hyperactivity of top management
• The system development is carried out by an external consultant

Overpraisal of BPM

Here I recall a cartoon from my childhood – Как старик корову продавал. The story is very similar. Very often sales materials leave an impression that BPM is a panacea for all the problems of the company. Once it’s implemented, everything is going to be in order and the heads can stop thinking. Actually, BPM is only an instrument, such as, for instance, a ladder. It will help you to climb a wall. However, if, having climbed the wall, you realize that the ladder was leaned against the wrong wall – the goal is not reached. The time and energy are spent in vain. To avoid this mistake, try to peacefully look through the principles of BPM operation to form your opinion about what can and can’t be solved by BPM. If something sounds too good to be true, investigate the question more closely. And don’t believe in miracles.

Passivity of top management

“Top management shall provide evidence of its commitment…” It is a mandatory demand for implementing any management system, and in ISO 9000 series standard it is even formalized. Unfortunately, quite often also performance is formalized. What does the uninvolvement of top management mean for process management? First of all, via business process management certain work methods are determined (the process, forms and instructions), the implementation of tasks is monitored, and the results of the processes are measured, which usually serve as entrance data for planning. These are four out of five basic functions of top management. If the heads aren’t involved in the BPM, but they carry out their functions anyway, it means that they use alternative measures and methods, which will destroy BPM at the very beginning because lower-level management will follow the top. Second of all, the most direct BPM executors are middle-level managers, who only work in their own field of operation.

If there is no mediating power that creates a system and keeps it together as a whole, then it becomes fragmented, where the middle-level managers are like little kings – each of them with their own ambitions for power. Through their centralised view towards company goals and requirements for lower-level managers, top management is a natural mediating power that holds the system together. Quality manager is only an artificial formation which usually doesn’t have enough authority.

Hyperactivity of top management

There is a saying: ”Where business starts, art and science end.” My experience shows that this saying works also in the opposite direction, that is, where art or science start, business ends. BPM is often perceived not only as solutions, methods or management instruments, but also as methodology and new philosophy. Top management can get carried away by developing this methodology or philosophy so much that, forgetting about the reason of initiating a project, it becomes an end in itself. Inadequate amount of resources is spent on the development of philosophy; they are taken away from the basic activity of the company, but the majority of process goals is directed towards internal perfectionism instead of the client.

The system development is carried out by an external consultant

A successful consultant is the one who can gain a maximum income by spending a minimum of resources. That’s why there is always a clearly defined goal, what has to be achieved by the consultant so that the client could sign the acceptance certificate. The consultant indeed does his job with due diligence: writes a system policy and handbook himself/ herself, interviews the employees and prepares procedures, formally carries out training. All the tasks are done, and the client has no other choice than to sign the document. But in future the employees of the company don’t know how to use it all; they keep working the old way, and nothing has changed in the company.