BPTrends released its sixth Business Process Management (BPM) market survey report in 2016, continuing a tradition that began in 2005. Each iteration of this survey offers valuable insights into the BPM landscape, serving as a bench marking tool for the BPM community. The 2016 survey report was no different.
BPTrends’ surveys attract a diverse pool of respondents, including BPM consultants, practitioners, business managers, and business analysts from international organizations interested in BPM. The 2016 survey analyzed information from over 100 participants, comparing this with data from previous surveys to provide a longitudinal perspective on the evolution of BPM.
The report emphasizes that BPM has been an essential business topic since the early 2000s. Many view it as a natural progression from the business process interest that originated in the 1980s and gained momentum in the mid-1990s with concepts like Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering, Workflow, and ERP software. However, defining BPM can be challenging due to its broad applicability and the varied interpretations among diverse communities, such as executives, business process consultants, business analysts, Six Sigma and Lean practitioners, business architects, CIOs, and software developers.
To offer an accurate understanding of the current state of BPM, the report explores a range of topics, including:
- The contemporary understanding of BPM and its business drivers.
- The state of process maturity in organizations. This section investigates the extent to which work processes are documented, standardized, and supported by automated applications. It also looks at the training provided to managers for process redesign and the implementation of process improvement programs.
- The expenditure on BPM by companies.
- The existence, location, and activities of BPM groups in organizations, including the use of BPM strategy and planning consultants and enterprise-wide business process methodologies.
- The adoption and value of different BPM products and services, with a particular focus on Business Process Management System (BPMS) applications.
- The impact of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing on BPM.
- The main challenges faced in gaining acceptance for business process efforts within organizations.
- Future plans regarding the adoption of new BPM products and services.
The 2016 report was conducted using the same questions from previous iterations, allowing BPTrends to track the evolving landscape of the BPM market effectively. It assumes reader familiarity with concepts such as the BPTrends BPM Pyramid, Carnegie Mellon University’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and BPTrends’ classification of business process software products.
In conclusion, BPTrends’ 2016 report on the state of Business Process Management provides a comprehensive overview of the BPM market, its challenges, and future trends. The insights derived from the report serve to inform and guide organizations as they navigate the complexities of BPM implementation and optimization.