The new Business Process Management Common Body of Knowledge (BPM CBOK 4) is essential for every company. Fundamental knowledge has been updated for business areas, skills and competencies that are usually recognized as best practices. This helps business stakeholders and employees to become proficient in business practices.
The BPM CBOK 4 comprehensively covers the most common issues in BPM. However, it does not touch on advanced topics and the discussions currently happening in the industry, so in this article we want to give you a clear idea of points from the previous version that deserve attention.
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This edition provides more solid concepts involving technologies that have been under development over the last 6 years, since version 3. It closely aligns the BPM competency model with various knowledge areas and places them within a lifecycle framework.
It offers new perspectives for technicians, managers and those at the leadership level regarding how to build a career path focused on skills and competencies for digital transformation. This is mainly focused on staff development in areas that probably won’t be automated as soon, such as critical thinking, problem-solving and communication related to:
- Business knowledge areas
- Strategic alignment and execution
- Business process architecture
- Leadership & people management
- Design & creativity
- Change management
- Project management
- Financial management
- Risk management
- Impact measurement
- Technology analysis
Competency
This new edition features a competency framework to determine the responsibilities for analysts, managers and senior leaders. It also provides a general idea of how many years of work experience those holding a Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree must have to attain a given spectrum of decision-making.
This period of experience is directly connected to the process methodology, modeling, measurement, management and technology that people must know to advance in a business career. The framework is intended to help the organization as whole to visualize and project the paths of jobs/roles through the company’s functions and departments, along with employee management skills and pay grades.
Life Cycle
This new edition contains a lifecycle model focused on strategy execution of the business model, considering the ever-changing digital transformation and customer experience. The phases below contain some of the topics that were added and revised according to current practices.
Phase 1 – Alignment with strategy and goals:
Identify and align the primary processes that are connected to the customer’s value perception. Internal and external factors influencing business change.
Phase 2 -Architect technology transformation:
Analyze AS-IS/TO-BE process and assess performance, determine priorities, validate design and identify gaps, adding process repository & tools along with business maturity. Enable technology and digital transformation, determining the Chief Digital Officer, Business Model Canvas, and Porter’s competitive strategy model. Enterprise content for ERP, CRM, SCM, BPMS, Big Data, Dynamic Case Management and process mining. New technologies like RPA, Blockchain, AI, Machine/Deep Learning.
Phase 3 – Initiative development:
This encompass processes and culture creation, leadership development, culture change, process-driven teams, organization change/design, project/change management and Financial/Risk management.
Phase 4 – Change implementation:
Training and courses, stabilization of processes/technology issues, changes in job roles/responsibilities and monitoring of process performance.
Phase 5 – Measure:
Process management indicators to set success thresholds, collaboration evaluation, customer-centered measurement, process repository management, process maturity measurement, achievements of benefits, balanced scorecard and transformation as a journey, not a destination.
BPM CBOK 4 in a nutshell
The BPM CBOK Guide must be used to allow the organization to seamlessly execute strategy while creating value for business improvement. It sums up the standard ideas for processes that at the same time create value for the customer and for employees. It also guides businesses to a more digital transformation, focusing more on the customer journey and the constant cycle of improvement and analysis.
