Business Process Management: Profiting From Process

Roger Burlton

1 A Business Process Management toolkit must have.
Rogers new book is notable for a number of reasons. It presents the subject of Business Process Management with a practical 'can do' approach that will appeal to organisation leaders and practitioners alike. It's direct style is accessible and provides a framework which leads both the reader and the BPM implementer through a tried and tested approach harnessing people, process and technology.

This is a definite must have in your BPM toolkit.

2 Best in class book with a full view of the subject
Among the stack of business process and process design books I've read this one stands out as the best. The reason for this bold statement is this is the only one that carefully examines business processes from the four dimensions of (1)Business, (2) Process, (3) Knowledge and (4)Business Rules. Contrast the four-dimensional view this book provides with the two-dimensional view most business process books take (business and process), and you'll begin to see why I like it so much and how this book is a good fit for process analysts and engineers who are faced with aligning business processes to e-commerce initiatives, or aligning IT to business.

What I like most is the book is divided into a management guide and a practitioner's guide. This is a unique approach that has a significant benefit: it aligns the sponsors and business process owners (managers) and the design and implementation teams (practitioners) into a unified team by giving each group the necessary information for business process management in their own language and from their own points of view. Among the "necessary information" are" ten guiding principles, a common framework and project management essentials.

I also like the way knowledge management is included, the clear focus on end results and the fact that the processes are designed for contemporary business (e-commerce, supply chain management, etc.), and incorporation of business rules. Combined, these make this book stand out as the best on the topic (in my opinion).

This book blends the no-nonsense process approach of pure process books with the fresh views of the current flood of "e" books, and does so without hype or gushing promises. It's down-to-earth, copiously illustrated and methodical. I strongly recommend this as the primary book on business process management and give it 5 stars.