Florian Imgrund, Christian Janiesch, Christoph Rosenkranz “Simply Modeling” – BPM for Everybody – Recommendations from the Viral Adoption of BPM at 1&1 Florian Imgrund, Christian Janiesch, Christoph Rosenkranz

INTRODUCTION

Viral Dissemination of Modeling “Processes are ubiquitous in meetings, working instructions, etc.” Key Facts: 1&1 is a German Internet service provider whose value creation almost entirely results from digitized and procedurally mapped services. In 2010, 1&1 embraced business process management (BPM) as a way to optimize its processes. Following a largely decentralized management approach, 1&1 experienced a strong encouragement and participation rate in BPM – especially in modeling business processes. However, numerous participants, only few modeling conventions and a lack of officially provided pragmatics resulted in many low-quality process models. Several targeted adjustments supported 1&1 to achieve a high-quality, mostly maintenance-free BPM approach based on a highly dynamic and innovative process-oriented environment.

SITUATION FACED

The “success disaster” 1&1 has an operational system architecture and a well-structured process architecture that carry the company’s vision.

The “success disaster” As a result of its bottom-up approach, 1&1 observed a rapid spread and popularity of process modeling in the enterprise shortly after it was introduced–BPM “went viral.” What at first seemed positive emerged as problematic, became a serious organizational and administrative challenge. The number of users–about 2,000 process modelers by 2016–and the approximately 12,000 shared process models were a main reason for the models’ erratic quality. The resulting viral spread of BPM led to a “success disaster” meaning it was not clear whether this was a success, a disaster, or both.

ACTION TAKEN

Identification of Issues An initial analysis showed that the key factors in the disastrous situation were insufficient training and the lack of modeling conventions. However, a detailed investigation of possible reasons revealed that the causes for the situation were more complex. Adjustments include, for example, ensuring a full interoperability of all software programs and tools or enterprise specific modeling conventions. Area System architecture Quality assurance BPM initiative & governance Knowledge management Adjustments Minor adjustments Major adjustments

Action Taken System Architecture: Minor adjustments including interface-connection optimizations to the applications of the system architecture E.g. the attachment of an extended glossary to reuse document templates or system-specific information Quality assurance: Quality-assurance measures included training and the nature and content of modeling conventions. E.g. 1&1 increased both the number of trainers and the frequency of training

Action Taken BPM initiative & governance Improvements to guide the development of BPM and process modeling to ensure transparent and high-quality processes with a focus on practicability. E.g. increasing the number of BPM coordinators, who act as multipliers in the enterprise by attending regular meetings and spreading news concerning BPM or modeling to their departments. Knowledge management Efforts in this area were accomplished to make knowledge centrally and transparently available. E.g. introducing a ranking algorithm for processes and an intelligent search function.

RESULTS ACHIEVED

Benefits of today’s situation “BPM became a highly valuable asset in creating a dynamic and innovative process environment.” The viral adoption of BPM at 1&1 enables continuous process adjustments triggered by any employee at any time and on every level. BPM at 1&1 promises short time-to-market cycles as well as the ability to make rapid changes in organizational processes. Thus, 1&1 is globally competitive and can adapt quickly to changing customer needs. Business knowledge and expertise is extracted from all of the company’s corporate levels and is merged and presented in the process models. Administrative effort is kept at a minimum.

LESSONS LEARNED

Lessons learned The case of 1&1 provides useful insights that can be summarized in recommendations for the adoption of BPM as a paradigm.

Lessons learned Selected recommendations: Create a working process-modeling environment. Provide a sound and integrated infrastructure that facilitates the creation, viewing, and sharing of the result. Provide a sound BPM modeling platform that is well integrated into the existing system infrastructure. Consider separating executable and non-executable processes. Provide differentiated training. Provide basic and advanced courses for those who are new to the company or unaccustomed to BPM and those who know their way around, respectively. Provide short, long, and intense courses. Every employee has a different time budget to spend on BPM. Empower employees to teach.

Lessons learned Selected recommendations (cont.): Regulate but do not overregulate modeling. Provide a high-level structure into which all models should fit, whether the five levels of modeling 1&1 used or another kind of structure. Anchor all models within this structure through naming and conventions on how to name and/or categorize/tag the models. Provide a managed glossary, rather than an open, wiki-like glossary. Do not force it. After experiencing the viral spread of BPM at 1&1, we are sure that a similar adoption elsewhere will work only if the employees see the benefits of process models for themselves.