At bpmCamp we had a great session on BPM Requirements led by Zelda Durden.  Often the answer to the question “How much is enough?” is “I know it when I see it” – but we wanted to go deeper, and Zelda offered to help shape the discussion. How can we tee things up so that we know how much is enough as part of our requirements process?

She broke things up into two phases for consideration:

1. Exploring – no budget approved yet, no Project Manager either.
   1. Strategy – what needs to be improved from 50,000 feet, and what are the business priorities and goals.
   2. People – who and how much commitment from the business?
   3. Process- scope, SIPOC
   4. System – What is the current system?  Current state of the process?
   5. Discussion:
      • getting people commitments is difficult at this stage
      • using this information to help prioritize projects – along with ROI and other tools
      • scope management is difficult once users see what is possible.
2. Discovery – a real project is on the books, with budget.
   1. Strategy – Critical Success Factors (CSFs), ROI calculations if necessary, alignment with corporate objectives
   2. People – current skill set of process users versus new required skill set?  Change management: figure out the influential people and engage with them.
   3. Process – full process audit/investigation.
   4. System – plan for legacy systems, determine the extent of Teamworks (BPMS) in the solution.
3. Development Starts

First playback drives a lot of requirements changes.  Not planning for that level of change is just kidding yourself.

• Iterative development – iterations range from 3 weeks to quarterly – which keeps the lifespan of requirements to some reasonable level.
• Initial “onboarding” of process focussed on keeping it very simple (no integrations, or as few as possible) – get the process right first.
• Best process information comes from the end users – have to get in front of them and get feedback.
• Blueprint could be used for initial process modeling / analysis – but has the disadvantage of forcing you to consider licensing issues (unless you have a site license, etc. )
• Some people don’t get flowcharts: figure out the tools that work to communicate with them.  Draw on the whiteboard, for example.
• Teamworks as a process document repository (even for processes that are never intended to be TW apps).  While this isn’t the primary use of Teamworks, there was general support for this idea.
• “BPM Document” like a mini-BRD
• BRD still developed for interfaces / web services, etc
• Plan to develop process for project selection/kickoff

There was much more discussion than what we’ve captured here – but that is the nature of these things – you get into the conversation and you forget to take notes!  A few related thoughts come to mind for me, which I’ll share here.  Our CEO, Lance Gibbs, has some great common sense yardsticks that he often communicates to people on BPM projects who aren’t familiar with how to think of requirements:

• Does it affect ROI?
• Does it impact business objectives?
• Does it impact customer service?
• Does it impact throughput?
• Does it impact quality in a measurable way?

You can think of similar questions.  If a requirement doesn’t address any of these concerns, it should probably go in a secondary bucket to “come back to later” after you’ve first dealt with requirements that DO affect these criteria.

We applied a similar approach to documentation:

• Does it reduce work?
• Does it reduce waste?
• Does it reduce risk?
• Is it required for regulatory or other legal reasons?

It turns out we as an industry turn out a lot of doc that does none of these things.

More to come from bpmCamp 2010 @ Stanford…

Interesting developments in the land of “tablets” and “netbooks”.

It isn’t really my area of primary interest but because I like following Apple’s product direction I follow the news.

First, there’s this article from the day after the keynote, in which Andy Ihnatko goes into great detail with his iPad experience.  I like that he took the time to actually use the device rather than rushing to get a story out and cutting short his time to experience the device.  I’ll note that most of the journalists who stayed and laid hands on it actually had a more positive impression than those that didn’t.  That’s surprising (usually expectations meeting reality is a set up for disappointment).  And it says something about Apple’s attention to detail.

Some of the comments that jumped out from Andy’s review were that it “felt right”.  The “rightness” of products is something Apple has really been excelling at in the last few years.  Another was his commentary on its speed – that it actually feels like you are moving something – not just gesturing and waiting for the phone to move it – a much more complete experience, if you will.

The implications for the iPhone are that Apple may be able to squeeze its A4 (or similar) design into an iPhone and offer this kind of speed in the smaller form factor.  I think there’s limited runway for SPEED to differentiate with phones – and we’ll hit those diminishing returns faster than the 20 years or so it took with PCs -  but right now there’s a lot of room for improvement over my iPhone 3G, and it sounds like Apple has a chance to do that – and still preserve battery life.  That’s impressive.

The truly impressive thing Apple did was leverage the App Store to make the iPad instantly relevant instead of making it a platform in search of applications and utility.  The Kindle and other single-purposes devices suddenly pale in comparison.

Also, regarding the most oft-reported shortcoming (no Flash support):

Months ago, I installed a browser plugin for Safari called “ClickToFlash.” It blocks all Flash content. You’ll see a placeholder image in the webpage and if you want to view the content, give it a click and it’ll load in. I have not noticed any drop in my ability to enjoy the Web. What I have noticed is that my browser is faster and more responsive, and that I can leave a couple of dozen tabs and windows up for weeks without having to force-restart my Mac.

Interestingly, I do this as well, and it doesn’t diminish my experience one bit – in fact it enhances it.  Granted, I do like the option of turning on flash for, say, streaming stock quotes.  But HTML5 can handle that level of animation and is “more standard” than Flash… I think Apple has done the smart thing here by protecting their platform and brand image, and putting pressure on Adobe to step up and make Flash a better product, or get out of the way and make way for HTML 5.

Next, the North Temple blog has an interesting post: On iPads, Grandmas and GameChanging, but I would have called it, so a Grandma, a Technophobe, and a Luddite meet in a bar… The short point here: people he never expected to be interested in a computing device are interested in the iPad.  I had a similar experience when my parents told me they were “buying each other iPhones for Christmas.” And then they asked me if they should get the 3G or 3GS… seriously?  I was tempted to tell them 3G just so they wouldn’t leap frog me technologically.  Then, I find out they’re Netflix subscribers.  When my parents start buying something technical – it is going to be big – because they are NOT early adopters anymore by any stretch.  But they are influencers.  My dad proudly tells of all the guys at the golf club who now have gone out and gotten iPhones to keep up.  And hey, they like the big numbers on the phone.

On a surprising, but I think intelligent response to the advent of the iPad, Acer says it will not release a competing device per se.  I think it is refreshing that Acer is sticking to what it does best.  Honestly, I think this is what RIM should do – make the keyboard experience better and better, rather than try to be a touchscreen phone company.  Acer understands that if they make a tablet it will lack the advantages of Apple’s iPad, but it will have all the same disadvantages.  So they’re punting (for now). Smart move, in my opinion.

Many pundits surmise that Apple won’t have a 2 year lead this time… but I think they will have at least 1 year before a competing system (an Android tablet?) will come along that can leverage apps (android apps?) that even come close to putting it in the same league.  And Apple is also adding pressure by having what looks to be better performance that will be tricky to match in the short-term. The key points from Lin of Acer:

Lin pointed out that designing an iPad-like device would not pose any technical challenges for Acer, but said such a product does not fit into Acer’s business model.

Apple is able to support the iPad through its iTunes ecosystem, while few other makers, including Acer, have comparable experience in operating an online store, Lin noted.

Astute analysis.

Now, StevenF argues that the iPad is a signal of the New World, versus the Old World.  Gen X being smack in the middle of old world computing, and the New World being targeted at those both older and younger than Gen X.  I’m not a big fan of generational themes like Gen X, but he has a point.  If computers in the future will “just work” and reduce the expertise required to use them, they become accessible to more people, and become more important to our society.  I’m constantly trying to get people (rather, the people who ask me IT questions) to switch to Macs because the number of IT-related issues is so much less (as judged by how often they ask me for help).  But an iPhone? I never get questions about how to get some driver installed or printer to work with it… !

I especially enjoyed reading how stevenf railed against the iPhone’s closed system at first -but a month later came back and used it full time.  Because it is just a better phone / smartphone experience, and the open/closed argument doesn’t really matter outside of technophiles like me.  And even I can see that it shouldn’t matter to 99% of the world’s population.  When it is your phone, or your car, you just want it to work. Period. No BSOD. No crashing.  To that end, foursquare can you please fix your app? It crashes more than any other 3 apps I use combined.

So how are things going elsewhere in smartphone land?  Jay Yarrow of the Insider says that the Google Android app store is a joke… You don’t often hear Google described as “sloppy”.  The fact that Android developers feel they can make more money on the Apple App Store is not a good sign for Google/Android. And it is an indication that doing this stuff right is harder than many of us assumed.  From Skyhook Wireless:

In December, wireless firm Skyhook Wireless produced a report about developer frustration with Android. Skyhook interviewed 30 mobile application developers and concluded, “developers are not generating real revenue via Android apps.” As a result “developers are becoming hesitant to invest more time and effort into apps that do not pay off.”

Ouch.

Finally, some would argue that the iPad is a sign of the third revolution…

I’m looking forward to laying hands on the iPad. But more than that, I’m looking forward to iPhone 4.0 – I want to see if it is worth upgrading!

Well, after much celebration before announcing the details, we now have some (just some) facts about Appian’s 2009.

It sounds like it was a good year – as MWD reports, its license revenue was up 59% (but we don’t know from what base, much like Lombardi’s reported numbers before it was purchased), and customers doubled.  Of course, another way to phrase this is that ASP declined by 20% (if my math is right), or that revenue mix has shifted from prepay (enterprise license revenue) to either post-pay or subscription revenue.

MWD’s assessment is that international revenue will grow faster than domestic revenue.  And while this argument makes sense, having worked at more than one company Appian’s size in my career, I can attest that international revenue can be very erratic.  For a few reasons:

1. When starting from a small base, a single deal (or two deals) can dramatically affect the percentage growth internationally or in a region.  However, with so few data points, it may say next-to-nothing about going forward revenue.
2. Even off of a bigger base, international revenue has so much to do with your sales operation, and so little to do with your product.  There are other products out there.  There are big consulting shops out there. Whether you capture the money (revenue) that is being spent to solve the problems your software solves depends almost entirely on your sales and marketing operation.
3. American companies of this size rarely understand the international markets well enough, and make mistakes which cause big revenue swings up and down.  This is true because the executives usually lack field operational experience overseas, and though they may hire that experience, they may not be able to successfully evaluate those international experts and may end up throwing good money after bad.
4. I’ve seen a single sales rep bring in 30% or more of a small company’s revenue for a single year, only to bring in zero revenue the following year.  Individual sales rep performance is crucial to small enterprise software companies.

Appian may well overcome all of these pitfalls.  But revenue in both the US and Internationally is coming off of a small enough base that we should expect to see high beta for any of the smaller vendors.

The conclusions that Appian’s results really drive home:

• BPM is growing, not dying.  And growing faster than enterprise software generally. (Not just from this datapoint, but from Lombardi, IBM, Savvion, Pega reported results)
• The BPM pure plays were doing well in 2009.
• The remaining pure plays may still have legs and room to run while Lombardi and Savvion acquisitions are digested – even if those acquisitions are quite successful.

Great piece by Kasparov on the combination of human process and machine computation to allow amateur chess players to beat some of the world’s best chess masters.  This is a darn good read – and though not really a BPM article, it should inspire us all to improve with the aid of process and computation.

bpmCamp's patio

Last week Stanford hosted the first “bpmCamp” for Lombardi Teamworks and Blueprint practitioners.  By all accounts the event was a success – sold out at 40 participants – and with some truly great interactive sessions and discussion that is hard to have at a bigger forum.  Our Stanford hosts did a wonderful job hosting, including all of the little details like name badges and maps, but also helping organize logistics around lodging, transportation, parking, and providing an excellent facility in which to have our meetings.  Encina Commons is one of the older buildings at Stanford – sandstone and arches and wide covered patios, surrounded by lots of green – a perfect atmosphere for sharing.  We were lucky to get a reprieve from the rain for 2 days so that we could really enjoy the surroundings (and make the occasional trip for espresso).  Thank you to Lombardi, and Apex (and bp3) for sponsoring the dinner on Thursday night at Pampas – an all-you-can-eat Brazilian feast.

The lawn outside Encina Commons / bpmCamp

And thanks most of all to everyone who came and led a session, contributed their opinions, reached out to their colleagues and made new friends and contacts.  What a great experience.

We’ll follow-up with a series of blog posts based on bpmCamp to share some of the content with a chance to step back and editorialize a bit. The biggest takeaway that I had was that the community needed an event like this to step out of the daily grind of delivering processes and process improvement – to see what others are doing, to see the forest for the trees.  Sessions ranged in size from 5 people to 40, and discussions were often lively…

bpmCamp in Session

Meanwhile, we’ll start with a short session from Friday morning, when we had a cameo appearance from Phil Gilbert, giving his impressions of the acquisition and the plans for Lombardi products for the next 6 months.  There’s a clear focus on proving that they can deliver and innovate “even faster” after the acquisition, as Phil put it.  And they have set themselves some very high, but relevant goals.  In particular, making it as easy to install Teamworks on Websphere as it is to install Teamworks on JBoss today (cur

Phil Gilbert holds forth @ bpmCamp

rently JBoss is your option if you want an embedded appserver), and making upgrades to Teamworks 7 a truly good experience.  The goal is to bring the ease of use of Teamworks to IBM’s customers, and to leverage key IBM technologies but expose them in ways that let you cut through the noise and focus on delivery. It was a motivating message for our bpmCamp crowd because clearly Phil’s attention is still on the BPM game, and this prioritization will keep Teamworks relevant for the audience.  Knowing the developers that IBM/Lombardi are putting on this project and upgrade paths, I also know that this is a crack team of some of the best engineers at Lombardi, which says something about the commitment from the executive team.

Someone in the audience noted afterward that this was a more tactical set of goals than they expected to hear from Phil- who usually talks in terms such as “the Second Decade of BPM“… but if the focus on the tactical reveals that they believe the tactical may BE the strategic right now, I think its a welcome shift-  because truly, what’s holding people back from BPM is not the knowledge that it has value – the press and blogs are full of information on that score – but rather, its the “getting started” effort required that slows things down.  The easier a software company can make the transition from “business problem conceived” to “BPM project underway” the more likely it is that BPM software is applied to that problem instead of sticky notes and a change order on an ERP system scheduled for 2 years out.

There were so many more great sessions to report on, so there will be more posts here about the sessions.  One thing anyone reading this can do for me that will help – is let us know if you’d be interested in attending a future bpmCamp, and if you would travel to attend, or if not, where you’re located so we can judge where we have critical mass for another event.

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and watch this space for more information!

Also, lest you think that BPM was the only educational opportunity at Stanford last week, I stopped by the Cantor Museum for Visual Arts and took a few photos of Rodin sculptures – the collection is the second largest in the world and nearly every piece was on display:

the infamous "Gates of Hell"