For CIOs

CIOs: Business Alignment And BT Enablement Require Business Capability Maps

At Your Level, You Can't Rely On Any Other Single IT Business Model

by Bobby Cameron, October 30, 2009

CIOs are aggressively tackling their planning and management challenges, deploying tools and building models to address a wide variety of functions like asset management, IT services management, application rationalization, business process efficiencies, . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Economic Forces Drive Lean BPM Trends And Adoption  (631 KB PPT)

by Clay Richardson, September 18, 2009

Data chart with key findings from the April 2009 Global Lean BPM Online Survey. Results include data on BPM initiative ownership, budgets, tools, and SaaS.

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Software AG Acquires IDS Scheer To Finalize Its Five-Year Restructuring Plan

Software AG Will Pass The €1 Billion Revenue Mark Once It Closes The Deal

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 15, 2009

Software AG continues to stay the course on its five-year turnaround plan. After stabilizing its legacy application business — mostly by replacing its former integration offering with the webMethods technology stack it acquired in 2007 and successfully . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Use EA Assessment And Maturity Models To Guide Your EA Program Next Steps

by Henry Peyret, July 2, 2009

A recent survey revealed that a minority of enterprise architects perform regular EA assessments. While a wide range of assessment methodologies are available to EA organizations, none of them are widely recognized or complete in scope — which is why . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Use TOGAF 9 As Your Next EA Framework

TOGAF V9 Complements Your Existing EA Framework With Methodology And Templates

by Henry Peyret, July 1, 2009

An enterprise architecture (EA) framework describes the deliverables an EA function should produce as well as how to create these deliverables. A framework helps EA leaders organize their efforts as they work with their teams to fulfill the EA objectives . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Help Yourself Make Tomorrow's IT Decisions

Tools For IT Planning

by Simon Yates, June 23, 2009

Flexibility and quick thinking are vital when planning for IT, so go ahead and arm yourself with the best weapons: You're going to need them. Volatility in the marketplace and an increased reliance on IT across all business sectors have forced IT managers . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Enterprise Architecture Tool Trends: Slow Adoption But Expanding Usage

by Henry Peyret, April 7, 2009

The December 2008 Global EA Toolbox Online Survey shows slow progress of enterprise architecture (EA) tools adoption. Given the growth of EA as a practice, the slow adoption belies a change in how these tools are used. While the perception that EA tools . . .

For CIOs

Tools For IT Planning

by Sharyn Leaver, March 23, 2009

Strategic planning is more difficult than ever. Today's volatile economic environment means that IT must plan quickly, more flexibly, and more thoroughly. Plans that don't follow this path quickly become obsolete — sometimes even before they're completed. . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Topic Overview: How BPM Can Help The Bottom Line In Difficult Financial Times

BPM-Enabled Improvements In Business Agility Flow To The Bottom Line

by Ken Vollmer, March 17, 2009

The current global economic crisis is putting increasing pressure on enterprise architects to find new — and more cost-effective — ways of meeting business needs. One software category in particular offers proven solutions to help increase operational . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Vendor Snapshot: Lombardi Blueprint Bridges Gap Between Process Discovery And Execution

by Clay Richardson, February 6, 2009

Austin-based Lombardi Software's latest offering, Blueprint, positions the vendor to extend its leadership in human-centric business process management (BPM) and takes direct aim at Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Visio as the tools of choice for process . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Choose From Five Basic Approaches To Business Architecture Based On Your Context And Goals

by Jeff Scott, January 7, 2009

As interest in business architecture grows, multiple approaches are evolving. Architects are blending a wide variety of generic models to develop business architectures that are specific to their environment and organizational context. Organizational . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Business Process Analysis, EA Tools, And IT Planning, Q1 2009

IDS Scheer, Casewise, MEGA, Metastorm, And Troux Technologies Lead The EA Tools Category

by Henry Peyret, January 7, 2009

In this second release of Forrester's assessment of enterprise architecture and business process analysis (BPA) tools, Forrester assessed nine leading vendors in a 93-criteria evaluation. We found that IDS Scheer, Casewise, MEGA, Metastorm, and Troux . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Are Open Source And Low-Priced Solutions Available For Tooling EA?

by Henry Peyret, July 23, 2008

Justifying an enterprise architecture (EA) tools investment continues to be a problem — particularly when compared with just using Microsoft Visio. So what are the alternatives for inexpensive EA tooling? We investigated five scenarios that can provide . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Some EA And BPA Tools Support Enterprise Quality Initiatives

by Henry Peyret, July 17, 2008

Many commercial organizations first captured business processes as part of enterprisewide quality initiatives. But now that multiple tools — such as business process analysis (BPA) tools as well as business process management (BPM) and enterprise architecture . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

BPM Tool Usage Varies By Sector

Manufacturing And Financial Services Sectors Highlight Key Differences

by Ken Vollmer, April 4, 2008

Forrester's October 2007 US And UK Enterprise Architecture And Business Process Management Online Survey indicates that the most widely used business process management (BPM) tools fall into the integration-centric business process management suite (IC-BPMS) . . .

For CIOs

Applying Lean Thinking To IT

CIOs Must Change IT's Workaround Culture To Stimulate Innovation

by Alexander Peters, Ph.D., January 4, 2008

Lean thinking is a powerful methodology that can help IT maximize the real value from technology spending. Lean is both a process improvement tool and a means to transition an IT culture from one of workaround and ambiguity to one of continuous improvement, . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Making The Marriage Work: Lean, Six Sigma, And The Business Process Maturity Model

by Andy Salunga, November 21, 2007

Traditionally, Lean and Six Sigma have been viewed and utilized as distinctly separate methodologies to analyze and improve processes. Rather than employing them separately, many process gurus now advocate a marriage of the two for more dramatic process . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The IC-BPMS Reference Architecture Model

Choosing A Comprehensive SOA-Based Framework For BPM And Integration

by Ken Vollmer, October 2, 2007

Integration-centric business process management suites (IC-BPMSes) have become the leading alternative for organizations seeking to implement combined business process management and integration capability that is based on a service-oriented architecture . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Business Modeling For CxOs

by Henry Peyret, August 21, 2007

The recently published Forrester Wave™ on enterprise architecture (EA) tools demonstrates that the real benefit of these tools is not in the modeling itself but in the modeling that supports real EA objectives — such as knowledge sharing, collaboration . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

BPM Best Practices For Process Professionals

Use BPM As A Methodology For Business Transformation

by Colin Teubner, January 12, 2007

Forrester interviewed 15 user companies with experience in business process management suite (BPMS) implementations, and we uncovered vital best practices for any organization embarking on a BPM initiative. Our advice falls into three major categories: . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Navigating The BxM Acronym Maze

by Ken Vollmer, Peter O'Neill, November 22, 2006

Vendors and analyst firms love to create three-letter acronyms to refer to the latest products or strategies in the marketplace. The "BxM" string is particularly confusing because it includes BPM, which has multiple meanings in its own right. It is therefore . . .

EMC Buys ProActivity And Becomes A Strong Performer In Business Process Modeling

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2006

by Henry Peyret, Colin Teubner, Daniel Krauss, September 29, 2006

EMC, historically a hardware storage company, has diversified into software over the past several years by acquiring — among many others — Documentum in 2003 and ProActivity in June 2006. Before its acquisition, ProActivity was a small, private, but rapidly . . .

Casewise Turns BP Modeling Into Flexible Metadata Management

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2006

by Henry Peyret, Colin Teubner, Daniel Krauss, September 29, 2006

Casewise is a Strong Performer in the BP modeling tools market, shining particularly with life-cycle management capabilities and the support of multiple templates. But the lack of design usability and an older product architecture prevent Casewise from . . .

MEGA's Solid BP Modeling Suite Is Boosted By Strong Service Support

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2006

by Henry Peyret, Colin Teubner, Reedwan Iqbal, September 29, 2006

MEGA, a Leader, offers a comprehensive module-based business process modeling tool set enhanced by strong simulation functionality and usability. The company's well-staffed consulting arm makes its offering ideal for enterprises not wanting to be left . . .

IBM Is A Strong Performer With Its Execution-Oriented Process Modeling Tool

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2006

by Henry Peyret, Colin Teubner, Daniel Krauss, September 29, 2006

IBM is a Strong Performer in the business process modeling tools space, based on the strength of a product acquired with Holosofx in 2002. These tools have been rolled into IBM's WebSphere product line as WebSphere Business Modeler, part of the company's . . .