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Agile BPM: A Complete Guide to Agile BPM Methodology and its Benefits

15.06.2023

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One major aspect of BPM is speed. You want your processes completed quicker, and that’s a major reason of why people choose to invest in BPM software and automate processes. But there’s a problem. Processes are only as fast as the people who are feeding them information. How can you make sure there’s enough data funneling into your processes to make them move as quickly as possible? That’s where agile business process management comes in.

What is Agile BPM?

Traditionally, business process management is a way of automating and managing structured processes that can be repeated over a long period of time.

However, processes aren’t always designed to react in real time. They’re created to follow the pattern given to them earlier, but aren’t often reactive to instant feedback.

Agile BPM provides automated structures for business processes that also allow the process to act to new data inputs in real time. This is particularly useful when you cannot foresee future circumstances in the process.

In short, the difference between regular BPM and agile BPM is that agile business process management can not only respond to data inputs in real time, but also move away from the box of predictable and clearly defined processes that traditional processes are limited to.

How Does Agile BPM Work?

Agile BPM thrives on the fact that traditional BPM is rigid and unwavering in nature. For Agile process management to work, there has to be an ability with the system and its participants to deal with unstructured or ad-hoc work requests.

But at the same time, the unstructured work and participants must be able to respond without changing the overall design of the process.

To drive this, there are two cause-and-effect models that Agile business process management works on.

Case 1

Cause: Routine-based work is continuously replaced by work that requires knowledge more than a tried-and-tested routine.

Effect: Traditional BPM systems respond to this by becoming faster to adopt to changes and inputs in data. This also allows processes to be modified on the fly to meet current requirements.

Case 2

Cause: Collaboration is being recognized as more of a necessity to get input on how processes need to change.

Effect: Traditional BPM systems allow more and more collaboration features that let multiple users to collaborate simultaneously on a project.

⋙ Thinking of BPM, but unsure which way to use it? We’ve written about choosing the right BPM methodology here.

Where Can I Apply Agile BPM With the Best Effect?

Surprisingly, agile process management isn’t the exception anymore. It’s becoming adopted more as the norm among businesses. This holds especially true for enterprises where there can be dozens, if not hundreds of processes.

But, agile process management can be applied to business processes that meet the following criteria.

  • Unpredictability is a common factor
  • Processes that aren’t quick enough to adapt to your business needs
  • Highly qualified staff working on repetitive tasks they shouldn’t be doing

How Does Agile BPM Benefit Me?

If you’re using a rigid and inflexible process model, you’ll find that agile BPM will ensure that your business is a lot more open to unpredictable changes and instant inputs to data. As a business owner and participant in the office, here are some of the benefits that you stand to gain.

  • More focused team members doing important work
  • A more flexible and competent attitude towards unexpected circumstances
  • A more collaborative environment with data easily moving between people

Conclusion

Agile BPM Methodology is a great way to move away from the regular structure and rigidity of traditional BPM and allow your organization to be more flexible. Moreover, your staff can pool their intellectual resources together on the same problem without needing to wait for someone to finish a task and then receive it. This way, they’re not waiting around to see who finishes what first. If there’s a task that needs to be done, even if it’s in another person’s queue, then they’re free to open it up as well. Platforms like Kissflow BPM make this much easier by providing pre-built apps that are ready to work out of the box, or be customized according to your requirements.

⋙ Check out why these 6 BPM Software are at the top of the competition!