Blog : Comparing Traditional Management vs Business Process Management

Because we build our process-based management systems that improve organization outcomes, we are often asked to compare business process management, BPM, to more traditional - vertical and hierarchical - organization structures. Here is the comparison between business management versus traditional management within ten key organizational characteristics

Structure - Traditionally, the company structure is followed by departments, tasks, and jobs at the desk level. By BPM, the company is aligning around business systems, business processes, functions, and knowledge. By structuring around work, the organization can execute optimally, match responsibilities directly to the workflow, and hold people accountable for meaningful work-based results.

Workflow - In a traditional organization, the workflow is usually undefined or sometimes defined only through IT architecture. Under BPM, workflows are specifically ordering through employee established business systems and business processes. By involving those who operate directly in fixing and developing work, the company is taking account of individual assets that are capable of contributing far more value than is commonly seen.

Accountability - The BPM structure has very few layers of accountability and is defined by the owner of the enterprise, the owner of the business system, and the owner of the process. By cleaning up the extra layers, the organization can save costly overhead costs and assign responsibilities directly to task-based business systems and processes.

Measurement - Performance measurement is traditionally collected and usually managed at the department level as key performance indicators. These measures are sluggish and reactive. With business process management, the organization performance measures are captured and monitored at the business process level, providing leading, proactive, and actionable indicators in the business.

Strategy - Through BPM, the execution of strategy becomes much easier as organizational leadership fully understands the capacity and cause-and-effect relationships between business systems and business processes, and the workflow improvements required to make strategic intent a reality.

Conclusion - By actively documenting, examining, developing, and managing business systems and methods, the company is in an excellent spot to orderly increase both productivity and effectiveness while implementing an exceptional customer experience.