Process orchestration became pivotal to building a foundation for business agility, speed, and innovation. A process that is orchestrated end-to-end can integrate existing systems, human work, and the latest technologies like AI. It is the basis to understand how your business operates, how to improve processes, and how to innovate your business model. But how to adopt process orchestration successfully on an enterprise level?
Enterprise Process Orchestration equips you with hands-on guidance on how to successfully deploy process orchestration in your organization - from anchoring the vision in company strategy, over the selection of the right use cases, technologies, and people, through the completion of the first project, to a truly transformed enterprise that is ready for a digital future.
Inside the book: - Understand the transformative potential of process orchestration and create a compelling vision for your enterprise - Explore how to establish the right team structure and enable your employees for your initiative - Identify the right technology, define a business and enterprise architecture, and provide a process orchestration platform to accelerate time to value - Best practices on implementing use cases and solution architecture - How to measure and monitor the value you're achieving with your use cases
Perfect for IT and business leaders, business and enterprise architects, CoE leaders, business analysts as well as everyone who is aspiring to change their organization through broadscale automation and process orchestration
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Rob Koplowitz (Former Principal Analyst at Forrester and Cofounder of Analysis.tech) xi
Preface xiii
Why Automation xvi
Avoid the Value Trap of Local Automations xviii
Focus on Processes xix
The Methodology Behind This Book xx
How to Read This Book xxiv
Who Should Read This Book xxv
About the Authors xxvii
Introduction 1
Process Orchestration in the Context of Automation 1
Process Automation = Process Orchestration + Task Automation 2
Challenges Process Orchestration Solves 4
Taming Process Complexity 5
Process Orchestration Engines and Executable Process Models 6
The Benefits of Process Orchestration 7
Better Customer Experience 8
Operational Efficiency 10
Risk Mitigation and Compliance 11
Faster Time to Value and Greater Business Agility 12
Enabling Artificial Intelligence 14
Avoiding Technical Debt and Accidental Complexity 15
Understanding Process Types That Can Be Orchestrated 16
Tailor-Made Digital Processes 16
Diversity of Business Processes 18
A Useful Categorization of Use Cases 19
Tailoring Your Process Automation Approach 20
Avoiding the Danger Zone Around Vendor Rationalization and Tool Harmonization 22
Typical Business Processes to Be Orchestrated 23
Financial Services 23
Insurance 25
Telecommunications 26
Public Sector 26
Retail 27
Other Industries 28
Technical Use Cases of Process Orchestration 28
Takeaways 29
Chapter 1: Vision 31
Strategic Alignment: Bridging Vision, Strategy, and Stakeholders 32
Scoping Your Transformation Journey 33
Defining Your Vision 34
Aligning Your Stakeholders 35
Building a Business Architecture to Realize Digitalization and Automation Benefits 38
The Business Architecture in a Nutshell 38
Customer Journeys and Value Streams 41
Strategic End-to-End Processes 42
Business Capabilities 44
The Role of Executable Processes 48
Avoid Lengthy Discussions About Process Hierarchies 50
Advantages of This Business Architecture 52
Making Informed Decisions About Where to Invest 53
Strategically Improving Your End-to-End Processes 54
Defining Clear Ownership 55
Composing Processes Out of Business Capabilities 55
Enabling Organizational Redesign 56
Establishing a Process-First Mindset 58
Building Your Transformation Roadmap and Implementing Change 59
Adoption Governance (aka Who Owns the Business Architecture?) 60
Understanding Process Orchestration Work Streams 62
Building and Prioritizing Business Cases 65
Amplifying Organic Bottom-Up Initiatives 69
Getting Started on Your Adoption Journey 72
Following a Wave Pattern on Your Journey 72
Enterprise Adoption Phases 73
Questions to Assess Your Maturity 75
Takeaways 77
Chapter 2: People 79
How Software Is Being Built Today 80
Focused Components That Implement Capabilities 80
Agile and DevOps 81
Product Thinking 82
Process Ownership 83
Team Topologies 84
Diversity of Roles 84
A Healthy Level of Centralization 86
Centralized Teams to Facilitate Process Orchestration 88
The Business Process Optimization Group (POG) 89
The Adoption Acceleration Team (AAT) 90
The Relationship Between the POG and AAT 92
Delivery Models 92
Federated Solution Delivery with the AAT as an Enabler 93
Fully Decentralized Delivery 95
Fully Centralized Delivery 96
Roles 99
AAT Leader 99
Enterprise Architect 100
Rainmaker 101
Business Analyst 102
Solution or IT Architect 102
Software Developer 103
Low-Code Developer 104
Operations Engineer 105
Product Owner 105
Zooming in on the Adoption Acceleration Team 106
The Scope of Your AAT 106
What About Communities of Practice (CoPs) 107
What Should Your AAT Look Like 108
The Business Case for the AAT 110
Building Your AAT 113
AAT Tasks 114
Governance 121
AAT Anti-Patterns 123
Real-Life Examples 125
Defining Your Target Operating Model 126
Key Dimensions to Define Your Operating Model 127
Sketching Your Journey 130
Questions to Assess Your Maturity 134
Takeaways 135
Chapter 3: Technology 137
Implementing Your Business Architecture 137
Implementing Business Capabilities 138
Technical Capabilities, Platforms, and Enabling Technologies 140
Business Orchestration and Automation Technology 142
Composable vs. Monolithic Platforms 144
Components Required for Process Orchestration 145
Operationalizing AI for Autonomous Orchestration with Guardrails 157
Providing a Process Orchestration Capability to Your Organization 160
Enterprise vs. Solution Scope 160
Platform Thinking 162
Modern Process Orchestration Platforms Don’t Become a Bottleneck 165
Why Does This Work Now if SOA Failed a Decade Ago 165
Chargeback Models 168
Operating a Process Orchestration Platform 169
Running the Platform 169
Isolation Needs and Multitenancy 170
Staging Environments 172
Sizing and Scaling 173
Resilience and High Availability 173
Selecting the Right Process Orchestration Technology 174
Types of Processes: Standard vs. Tailor-Made 174
Scope: Task Automation and Simple Integrations vs. Processes 176
Process Complexity: Simple vs. Complex 177
Scale: Small vs. Big 179
Project Setup: Ad Hoc vs. Strategic 179
Contrasting Process Orchestration with Adjacent Technologies 180
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 180
Data Flow Engines and Data Streaming 181
Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) and Event Streaming 182
BPM Suites and Low-Code Application Platforms 182
Microservice Orchestrators 183
Tips on Evaluating Tools 183
Questions to Assess Your Maturity 186
Takeaways 187
Chapter 4: Delivery 189
Solution Creation Approach 189
Discover 190
Model 192
Develop 193
Run 194
Monitor 194
Being Agile Throughout the Solution Creation Lifecycle 195
Setting the Stage for Success: Your Early Projects 195
De-Risking Your Start with Process Tracking 197
Typical Delivery Teams and Roles 199
Solution Design 201
Greenfield Solution Architecture for Pro-Code Use Cases 202
The Software Development Lifecycle and Model Roundtrips 203
Simplified Solution Architecture for Low-Code Use Cases 205
Typical Questions Around the Development Lifecycle 206
Accelerating Solution Building 209
Questions to Assess Your Maturity 211
Takeaways 212
Chapter 5: Measurement 215
Why Metrics Matter 216
Value Drivers of Enterprise Process Orchestration 218
Understanding Metrics 221
Measurements, Metrics, Goals, KPIs, and SLAs 221
What Makes a Good KPI 223
Example Metrics and KPIs 225
Operationalizing Your Metric-Driven Approach 228
Metrics Are Not an Afterthought 228
Mapping Metrics and KPIs to Value Drivers 229
Mapping Value Flow Through Business Architecture Layers 231
Modeling for Measurement 233
Setting Up Continuous Measurements and Communication 235
Can’t We Just Delegate This to Our Existing Data Warehouse Folks 239
Questions to Assess Your Maturity 240
Takeaways 241
Closing Thoughts 243
List of Abbreviations 247
References 249
