Gartner, Inc. : Gartner Says Organizational Politics Will Prevent at Least One-Third of BPM Efforts Through 2016

Gartner Says Organizational Politics Will Prevent at Least One-Third of BPM Efforts Through 2016

Analysts to Discuss the Next Generation of BPM at the Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2012, March 14-15 in London, and April 25-27 in Baltimore

STAMFORD, Conn., February 6, 2012-  

               Organizational politics are emerging as a challenge, and through 2016 they will prevent at least one-third of business process management (BPM) efforts progressing from one-off projects to enterprisewide adoption, according to Gartner, Inc. 

Gartner analysts revealed some of their key predictions for BPM in advance of the Gartner Business Process Management Summits, taking place March 14-15 in London, and April 25-27 in Baltimore. A Gartner survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011 among 157 BPM professionals revealed that the main obstacle preventing further adoption of BPM was organizational politics (53 percent of respondents).

"BPM as a discipline requires an organization to change its culture and its work practices," said Elise Olding, research director at Gartner. "However, very often, this change can lead to power struggles between functional units or an unwillingness to adopt new ways of working, sometimes from senior individuals. These organizational politics can kill a BPM initiative if they are not managed effectively.

"BPM is frequently successful when applied to one-off projects at a departmental level with significant benefits. However, when it comes to scaling this success up to cross-departmental programs that require collaboration and shared metrics, or that institutionalize BPM throughout the organization, efforts often stall."

For any BPM initiative to progress beyond simple process improvement projects of limited scope, efforts must be made to understand the organization's politics, and disciplined efforts undertaken to address them.

"It's up to the business process champion, sponsor or business process director to talk to stakeholders in order to understand and document their thoughts and positions, and so determine the best way of adapting the program," said Ms. Olding.

Although organizational politics look set to hamper some BPM efforts, Gartner predicts that gamification - the broad trend of applying game mechanics to non-game environments to motivate people and change behavior - will stimulate BPM adoption during the next few years. Gartner predicts that, by 2015, 25 percent of all redesigned processes will include one or more gamified engagement practices.

Although business processes are not games, they can benefit from a focus on more engaging process designs that deliver immediate feedback and encourage continuous improvement. For example, organizations can achieve better results from their process redesign efforts by increasing participant satisfaction with new processes, connecting participants to common goals, and providing immediate feedback on progress.

Gartner also predicts that, by 2016, 20 percent of "shadow business processes" will be supported by BPM cloud platforms. Shadow business processes are hidden, informal work practices, often supported under the IT radar by secret spreadsheets, emails, phone calls and face-to-face collaboration.

Shadow processes can involve unstructured processes - that is, nonroutine work. Gartner expects that, by 2015, 40 percent or more of enterprise work will be nonroutine, up from 25 percent in 2010.

"BPM cloud platforms are a better and more cost-effective way to automate hidden processes than secret spreadsheets or uncoordinated email threads," said Michele Cantara, research vice president at Gartner. "A BPM cloud platform - BPM platform as a service (BPM PaaS) - can track process steps, provide insight into work item status and help manage the collaborative interactions involved in unstructured processes."

In particular, high-productivity BPM PaaS will provide shadow process owners with a more attractive and productive user experience, which will encourage them to share their shadow processes.

"To encourage shadow process owners to make their processes more visible, business process improvement leaders, application managers and enterprise architects should proactively suggest high-productivity BPM cloud platforms to their business process stakeholders," said Ms. Cantara.

During the next four years, process-related skills, particularly those related to tackling organizational challenges, will become an imperative for organizations as they move from individual projects to enterprisewide process transformation programs. "Politics will be a challenge that some will not overcome, but the good news is that many of this year's predictions point to a path that leads to BPM success," said Ms. Olding.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Predicts 2012: Organizational Politics Hampers, Gamification Motivates BPM Adoption." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1849717. This document is part of Gartner's overall 2012 Predicts coverage, which is available at www.gartner.com/predicts. The Gartner Predicts Special Report overview includes links to more than 70 Predicts reports, categorized by topic, industry and market.

About Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2012
BPM can be fraught with challenges, due to the scale and breadth of the skills, attributes and tools needed for success. The Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2012 will help organizations advance their BPM projects, improve their skills and deliver truly transformational BPM. Attendees will learn how to overcome barriers to BPM success, optimize business outcomes with BPM, and deepen their understanding of the next generation of BPM technologies.

For further information about the Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2012 taking place March 14-15 in London, please visit www.gartner.com/eu/bpm. Additional information from the event will be shared on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc and using #GartnerBPM.

The Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland will be held on April 25-27 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/us/bpm. Members of the media can register by contacting Christy Pettey at [e-mail].

Contacts:

Christy Pettey
Gartner
[phone]
[e-mail]

Laurence Goasduff
Gartner
+ 44 1784 267 195
[e-mail]

About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries.www.gartner.com.