BPMS Watch

Back From Brainstorm

April 21st, 2006

I’m back from the Brainstorm BPM and SOA Conference in Chicago this week, where I spoke on Selecting a BPMS to the BPM crowd and tried to explain BPEL to the SOA crowd.  In an event like that my presentations stick out like a sore thumb, as the typical conference attendee is really trying to learn “how to do BPM,” which in that context means documenting the as-is process and modeling an better way to do it against the backdrop of a traditionally stovepiped organization.  At that point they’re not usually thinking about BPMS, and that’s fine.

But the annoying thing about conferences like this, and I saw it a DCI too when I was allowed to go there, is a subtle bias on the part of confeence keynoters against BPMS or any other form of “vendor technology” used to automate and monitor process execution.  They don’t come out and say “that stuff is useless, stay away!” but instead give the impression that BPM is simply cross-functional “process thinking” and modeling as a “requirements-gathering” technique.  Definitely NOT BPM 2.0!  I don’t understand why the BPMS vendors, who basically fund events like this through their mini-trade show tables and meal sponsorships, put up with it.

In any event, there was a definite uptick in energy this year, compared to the past two, and enthusiasm for the BPM message, and greater interest in BPMS.  I was very encouraged.

Entry Filed under: BPM