About

About the Blog

BPMS Watch is one analyst’s view of business process management technology - the tools and standards, methodologies and best practices, industry issues and emerging trends, and the seemingly aimless wanderings of the BPMS vendors and standards organization.  BPMS Watch is written by Bruce Silver, an independent industry analyst and consultant focused exclusively since 1994 on BPM and content management software. 

The blog is intended to work at two levels.  The first is analytical and opinionated: What is BPM really about, and how do the various modeling tool and BPM Suite vendor offerings fulfill that vision, or work at cross-purposes to it?  Why are the standards so controversial and sometimes so completely misguided?  Among the vendors, who’s doing really cool things right now that make a difference?  The goal is thought leadership and spirited debate, mostly among current inhabitants of the still-small BPM blogosphere.

The second is education and advocacy, aimed at those trying to learn how to do process modeling.  I have become an advocate for BPMN - the one true standard in BPM - and like to discuss its role in BPM’s promise of business-empowered implementation, and best practices in employing it effectively.  I also like to write about BPM Suites (BPMS), and how to pick the right one.  I write the BPMS Report series on BPMInstitute.org, free in-depth reports on the leading BPMS offerings.

About Bruce Silver Associates and BPMessentials.com

People say to me all the time, I like your blog, but do you actually have, umm, a business?  I do. Two, actually.

Bruce Silver Associates has been in business since 1994.  I work with both users and vendors who have an interest in business process management.  User consulting focuses on technology acquisition — matching appropriate offerings to the business need, RFP development, vendor selection, and post-acquisition support.  Vendor consulting is more diverse: product evaluation, product strategy, white papers and reports, analyst presentations, competitive analysis, speaking at company events and sales presentations.  Also some “tweener” work: application vendors and service providers looking to acquire (or develop) BPM technology to incorporate into their own offerings.

BPMessentials.com, a joint venture of Bruce Silver Associates and ITP Commerce Ltd of Bern, Switzerland, offers BPMN training online and in the classroom.  Bruce Silver Associates owns the intellectual property of the training content, and ITP provides use of its software, Process Modeler for Visio.

My Bio

I am an independent industry analyst and consultant focused on business process management and content management technologies.  I am founder and principal of BPMessentials.com, the leading provider of training on BPMN modeling.  I am also the author of the BPMS Report series, in-depth evaluations of leading BPMS offerings, and the monthly BPMS Watch column, both available for free through BPMInstitute.org.  I am BPMS Track chair at the Brainstorm BPM Conferences, and speak on BPMN at the Gartner BPM and AADI conferences as well. 

I have been an independent analyst since 1994.  Prior to that, I directed workflow and document management research at BIS Strategic Decisions (which became Giga Information Group, now part of Forrester Research).  In the 1980s, I was a principal developer of Wang’s WIIS document imaging system.  Until 2006 I served on the board of directors of Captiva Software, when it was acquired by EMC. I hold Physics degrees from Princeton (AB, Phi Beta Kappa) and MIT (PhD), and four patents in electronic imaging.

My hobbies are cycling, gardening, and photography.  I have a Specialized Roubaix and I ride 40-50 miles a week around the hills of Santa Cruz.  I live in the foothills around 3 miles from Monterey Bay, and tend 3 acres of roses, Mediterraneans, and redwood forest native plants.  That’s a lot of irrigation.  I have been an avid photographer for 35 years.  I studied under Minor White at MIT in the 1970s, and at Polaroid helped manage the Polaroid Collection and attended the Ansel Adams workshop in Yosemite (which Polaroid sponsored).  No longer lugging that 4×5 view camera, I work now with a Canon DSLR and Picture Window Pro software - the best!

I’ve managed to stay married to my first wife Junell for 25 years.  We have son and daughter in LA, and a 2-year old granddaughter Maia, who dominates my Flickr page for obvious reasons.  My wife and I are big-time Boston sports fans - Red Sox, Pats, Celtics - and equally devoted to the local Pinot (Santa Lucia Highlands AVA!)