Don’t miss the Top BPM Topics for 2024!
#042 Let’s recap 2023 together and explore what the top topics for 2024 are.
In this episode, I’m looking back on 2023 and provide an outlook on the top topics for the year 2024.
Therefore, I’m not only sharing the results of the New Process Survey with your topics for 2024, I’m also exploring the topics of a number of BPM thought leaders. To do this, I asked them for their recommendations, which topics the New Process Community should focus on in 2024.
Finally, I provide my own outlook to 2024 and share with you, what I’m planning to work on to rethink processes and to find new ways to inspire people for processes.
Today’s Guests:
Caspar Jans
Caspar is Senior Director Transformation Solutions EMEA at Software AG and has been one of my guests of the New Process Podcast before to talk about ARIS.
Wil van der Aalst
Wil is the godfather of process mining, Professor at RWTH Aachen, and Chief Scientist at Celonis. Check out this episode with him.
Gia Thi Nguyen
is currently working at SAP in Singapur as VP for SAP Signavio’s Market Impact in Asia. He also has a really cool LinkedIn video series called “Tea with Thi” about digital transformation. I recorded an episode about change and transformation in complex organizations.
Martin Holling
Martin Holling is Head of Process Management at KEMNA BAU, one of the largest road construction companies and street infrastructure providers in Germany a real BPM enthusiast. I recorded a recap of my tool interviews with him
Seyed Ahmad Daliri
Seyed is probably THE process thought leader and BPM Consultant from Iran.
Christoph Piller
Christoph is a freelance expert and innovator with a focus on BPM, hyper-automation, the Process Sprint method and AI as BPM assistant. He is also known as the “Process Wizard”. I recorded an episode about how the notation PASS supports a human-centric BPM approach.
You’ll learn:
- What the recommendations of the BPM thought leaders on LinkedIn for 2024 are
- What the top topics of the New Process Community for 2024 are
- What is coming for the New Process Community in 2024 to support you best in rethinking processes and inspiring people for processes
Resources
- Caspar’s LinkedIn Profile
- Wil’s LinkedIn Profile
- Thi’s LinkedIn Profile
- Martin’s LinkedIn Profile
- Christoph’s LinkedIn Profile
- Ahmad’s LinkedIn Profile
- New Process Pro
- Episode: Gia-Thi Nguyen
- Episode: Caspar Jans
- Episode: Martin Holling
- Episode: Christoph Piller
- Episode: Wil van der Aalst
Get notified about new episodes:
Transcript
Please note that the transcript was generated automatically and only slightly adjusted. It does not claim to be a perfect transcription.
Mirko00:19
Yeah, welcome to episode 42 of the New Process Podcast. Today it’s all about the top BPM topics for 2024. Therefore, I’ve invited you to contribute your topics a few weeks ago by participating in the survey. Today I’m going to share the results with you. A big thank you to all of you who have filled out the survey. But I will not only share the results of the survey with you. I’ve also asked some specific people to share their top BPM topics for 2024 with you in the episode. So in this episode you’ll learn what the top BPM topics for 2024 are and what you can do about them. If you haven’t had these topics on your radar yet, you should definitely double check whether they are relevant to you or not. So it’s a must listen to episode to prepare for 2024.
Mirko01:17
Yeah, let’s do this. But before we look into the future, let’s quickly recap 2023. For me, it was an amazing year, with so many fascinating new and old contacts via the podcast, via LinkedIn or even in real life. I had the chance to work with great companies to help them inspire people for processes, and I started to build up the new process team, and I really enjoyed all the interactions with the new process community. Not all my plans have worked out the way I thought, but with the start of new process pro the community for process enthusiasts like you and me I fulfilled one of my long time dreams.
01:59
It’s super cool that new process pro is now online and so many of you already signed up. And there is another highlight coming up the new process conference will take place in April 2024. And I’d love to meet you there in person. So I have a real need to meeting people in person and it’s great that so many of you already registered for the conference. So I’m super happy for all these developments and I’m super grateful for all your support and feedback. But now it’s time to point our thoughts into the future. Let’s see which topics you don’t want to miss for 2024. We’re going to kick it off with Gia-Thi Nguyen, who has been my in episode 33, where we talked about change in transformation in complex organization, and maybe you also know Thi from his fantastic Tea with Thi series where also had the honor of being his this year.
Thi03:01
Hi there, this is Thi from Tea with Thi, and my top BPM topic for 2024 is to focus on convergence. Convergence of existing technologies, convergence of new technologies and established ones, convergence of simplicity and complexity to create competitive advantage. In specific, this can mean to converge AI technology with process modeling capabilities in order to generate a contextualized best process model for an organization, to receive recommendations on how to adjust certain process flows while receiving decision support on what to be aware of, like impeding shortages in our supply chain, impacting delivery capability. I believe we still have enough old problems to tackle and do not need to create new problems yet. Life will supply us with new challenges anyhow. However, many old problems can be addressed by using new technologies or, as I mentioned earlier, combining existing and new technologies. Often, the new is not the creation only, but in the change of perspective to achieve something new. I guess you can call this a process, not necessarily a new process, maybe a differentiated process, but one that is always created by humans for humans.
Mirko04:22
Yeah, thank you very much, Thi, and I would say focus on convergence. That’s exactly what I’m doing with new process, so bringing together new work on the one hand side with BPM on the other side to rethink processes. I also explored other ways in the new process podcast this year to converge, for example, ai with BPM, gamification or story listening with BPM, and much more is to come. I received another interesting input from Casper Jans, who has also been my in the new process podcast before. Casper is Senior Director of Transformation Solutions in MEA at Software AG and his top BPM topic for 2024 perfectly supports Thi’s perspective.
Casper05:06
Hi, this is Casper Jans from Software AG, and my BPM topic for 2024 would be the combination of AI and BPM, and how can AI enable, facilitate, accelerate the adoption of BPM within organizations? And I think that would be one of the topics to look for and work on in 2024. Have a good one, cheers.
Mirko05:31
Yeah, ai and BPM. I love it. Thank you, Casper. There has already been a new process podcast episode with Benjamin Duand at the beginning of this year. I’ll include the link into the show notes. So Benjamin and I talked about how to use AI as co-pilot for BPM and we’re going to push this even further at the new process conference next year where we’re going to have a 90 minute slot with chat GPT expert Mathieu Saboreux. He will show us how to leverage chat GPT for our work as BPM guys. The next topic comes from the process wizard, christoph Piller. He was my on the new process podcast to discuss subject oriented BPM and I had the honor of being his in his podcast. On a melange with the process wizard on his podcast. That sounds like vodka, no, but it’s not the video podcast.
06:29
So here comes the topic from Christoph Piller.
Christoph06:35
Hey, Mirko, this is Christoph, the process wizard, responding to your question about the top BPM topics in 2024 for the new process community. I think in the upcoming year, my primary focus will be on two crucial areas that I believe should be at the forefront of our discussions Firstly, how artificial intelligence, so AI, is set to transform business process management, making it more effective than ever before. I really think the integration of AI brings forth innovative solutions, from intelligent automation to predictive analytics, shaping the future landscape of BPM actually. And secondly, the evolving roles of process actors due to the pervasive use of AI. So understanding how human machine collaboration is reshaping responsibilities is, in my opinion, key to navigating the dynamic changes in the BPM arena. This topics, I believe, are paramount for the new process community in 2024. So I look forward to a year of insightful discussions, collaborative exploration within the new process community. All the best, your process wizard.
Mirko08:01
Thank you much, Christoph. Two topics also related to AI and the consequences for us as humans. That’s why it’s, from my point of view, so important to deep dive into AI and BPM for a human centric perspective, to understand the new discipline and to up skill yourself to use it and I love this word up skill, which I learned from Nico Bitzel this year. Thank you much, nico. And here comes another interesting contribution which I’m very proud of of having in this episode. It is coming from Seyed Ahmad Daliri, probably the BPM thought leader from Iran.
Seyed Ahmad08:42
Hello this is Seyed Ahmad Daliri and I’m truly to share my perspective on the top BPM topic for 2024. Let me provide you with the first and brief summary of my achievement. I train more than 50 organizations. I work in more than 20 companies, especially a huge company, as a consultant and project manager. In the love of business process management and process mining, I wrote and published 9 Persian books around the BPM and English book and paper about how to establish business management with your employees. At NeoMetalogy and in my hometown I organize and execute an speech in the first and second most significant BPM conference that dedicate a world in our country.
09:30
In my view, the most critical focus of 2024 should be in three parts First, leveraging AI and advanced analytics in business process management. Second, human centering. And third, object centering. Let me provide a bit more detail. Leveraging AI and advanced analytics in business process management AI and analytics have a power organization to extract meaningful insight from what data state, optimized the decision making processes and enhanced overhaul operational efficiency. This strategic integration not only streamline workflow but also prioritizing businesses to be more adaptive and competitive in an ever evolving market place. Let’s unlock the full potential of data driven decision, the data driven decision making and proposed BPM initiative into a new era of innovation.
10:30
Second, I set the human centering. In an era dominated by technology, it’s imperative not to lose sight of human elements with processes. The future of BPM lies in creation workflows. That’s, portizing the user experience, employees satisfaction and customer engagement. Weipers in people at the heart of process design. Organization can thrive greater in collaboration, innovation and over success. Let’s explore how we can integrate user feedback, embarrassed design thinking and faster culture that value the well-being of those involved in our processes.
11:13
The human centric BPM approach not only enhance productivity but also contribute to a positive workplace environment and serve object centered as organization navigating increasingly complex processes, it’s vital to shift our perspective toward the object and entity involved, whether it’s document, products or data. Placing a strike emphasize and object centered BPM allow for a more comprehensive and efficient management of resource. In the coming year, let’s dive into how we can leverage technologies and advanced data modeling to enhance the tracking, handling and optimizing of these critical objects. By adopting an object centered by set, we empower our processes to be more adaptive, realistic and aligned with the organization object. Then I should say please don’t skip BPM methodology among those. We need BPM roadmap in this journey and we should throw it step by step. All others like AI, process mining, va, rc, etc. All tools and techniques that we can help in BPM establishment. I hope you enjoy BPM journey the same as me.
Mirko12:32
Thank you, Ahmad. I find it super interesting to have this exchange with people from all around the world, and it’s great to have your insights from around here as well. So, obviously, leveraging AI and advanced analytics are also topics over there. Great that you have pointed out the importance of human centric BPM and finally, pushing the object centric BPM for an end-to-end perspective of an organization head is also an essential point. This leads us to a person whose opinion cannot be missing. It’s the godfather of process mining. He has also been my in 2024, one of the most listened to episodes, and here comes Will van der Aal’s BPM topic for 2024.
Wil13:23
Hi, here is Will van der Aal’s BPM topic for 2024 is rainbow spaghetti. We all have this experience that when we mine a process, we find spaghetti models. This is partly due to real variability. However, also due to the fact that we are color blind and do not see the different objects involved in processes Think of customers, suppliers, orders and items as different object types. They together create the so-called rainbow spaghetti. Object-cycric Process. Mining helps us to see the different object types, disentangle the spaghetti and really improve the operational processes.
Mirko14:11
Thank you, will. I love rainbows and I love spaghetti, so I’ll definitely take a closer look at rainbow spaghetti in 2024. Thank you very much. Finally, I asked one of my power listeners and two-times podcast , martin Hohling, for his topics for 2024.
Martin14:32
Hi, here’s Martin, Head of Process Management in KEMNA BAU. My top BPM topic for 2024 will be creating a strategy for business process management to get the people involved, establishing the roles and so on, and also diving into a culture to inspire people for processes. So it’s a more soft build topic but really important to have, I think, as a basis for the good foundation for establishing BPM by business process management in the company, not to talk about the IES, the fifth or fourth person that mentions this as for sure. I think artificial intelligence will play a bigger role in BPM in the future and you have to be ready for that. However, as I said, strategy and culture this is my top for BPM in 2024.
Mirko15:35
Love it, and I’m quite sure that it’s not only a topic at KEMNA BAU to create a strategy for BPM, to get people involved, to get people excited about process and to create a process culture. So I’m quite sure that also other people are working on that, so you’re not alone. Thank you also for pointing out the importance to keep an eye on AI Martin, and thank you guys for all your contributions. I’m very grateful to have you in this episode today, and now we’re coming to the results of the new process survey with the topics that are on the list of the new process community, so on your list. In total, 72 fellow BPM enthusiasts completed the survey. Thank you so much. That’s great to have all your topics in this episode, and 93.1% of you are with a true love for processes, and the rest is somewhere in between. 13% of the participants work as BPM consultants for other companies, 15% are responsible for the operations of the BPM system in their own organization. Also, 15% of the participants are BPM users, such as process owners, process architects or process manager, or however you call this role in your organization, and 35% are internal BPM consultants within their company. The other participants are researchers, tool vendors or a mix of all these roles, the majority of participants, with 72%, is coming from Germany, followed by 10% from Austria and 7% from Switzerland, but there are also participants from Greece, iran, the Netherlands, saudi Arabia, poland, australia and Brazil, and I really love this international new process community. So thank you very, very much.
17:38
And now what are the results? What are the topics to find out about the BPM system? To find out, I’ve read all your answers Truly. I’ve read every single answer. I grouped and categorized them to find the big topics for 2024. In total, more than 25 different categories were identified, but I will only point out the ones with more than 10 mentions. So whenever a person named a specific topic as a topic which is on his or her list for 2024, it was mentioned, and that’s how the top five came together. So let’s start with topic number five, and this is the massive topic of process mining. So, with more than 15%, the application of process mining is on the agenda of a lot of companies, but not too much and, to be honest, this really surprises me. Sure, it’s a topic for the more mature BPM implementations and you definitely need a certain level of process culture established, but, as discussed in the previous episode with Jean-Marc Iriot, you should start as early as possible with process mining. So 15%, it’s not that much and I thought it would be more, but yeah, that’s interesting to know.
19:02
So the fourth place, with 19%, goes to the implementation of BPM governance. What does implementation of governance mean? So this includes the definition of BPM roles. So how does the role like process owner look like? How is it defined, what are the tasks, how can we clearly differentiate this role from other roles and so on, and how to train these people, how to enable the people for the execution of BPM roles. That’s also part of the implementation of BPM governance. And, besides the roles, it’s also about the process of process management. So, like the new process lifecycle which you can find in the new process toolbox, which describes how roles such as process owners, process architects and so on should work on business processes, and there, very often there was the question regarding the strategy how to transfer the organizational strategy to processes, how to apply this organizational strategy to process, how to create and process strategy and so on. That was a topic which was quite often mentioned. There is already something about that, like the new process lifecycle, in the toolbox on newprocesslepcom and I’m going to put more information on that into the new process pro community in the future.
20:39
The third most named topic, named by 32 of all participants, is about modeling of processes and designing process architecture. So there are a lot of topics coming together or related to are we going to map these and that processes. But it was also about how to map processes. So the application of ppmn2.0 is definitely a topic. Is this the best human-centric notation to have a common picture to talk about processes with people out there? I really doubt that. You know, and I’m super happy that also a number of you named. Finding a simple to use notation is on the list for next year. So maybe we should set up a special interest group on new process pro for this topic.
21:36
Another part within this area is also how to design process architecture. So build up the process architecture, the repository of processes, but in a structured way, coming from the highest level process map and then going down to the single processes with activities, decisions, roles and so on how to get there, build up this process architecture and develop an end-to-end view, for example. So that’s also on the list of the new process community. I really love that. I can talk about it for hours. So if you would like to exchange on that, feel free to contact me at any time. I think I’m going to set up a special interest group for this in new process pro as well.
22:23
And the second most named topic named by 43% of all participants, so nearly half of the people out there working on processes it’s about process improvement and this covers a wide range. So, starting with continuous improvement of processes, that includes lean, six Sigma and so on. But also a lot of mentions were regarding to digitalization. That’s also part of improving process to digitalize processes, including automation of processes, for sure. And the third big topic within the area of process improvement was the application of artificial intelligence in processes or in BPM in general. So that perfectly fits to AI and BPM, as named by the s before, and that’s definitely a topic for next year. I think we’re going to have a think tank on that in the future as well. We’re going to communicate that via new process pro and new process updates. So just make sure that you are somehow part of new process pro and then you’ll definitely get an invitation to join the think tank or the special interest groups for these topics.
23:44
And finally, the challenge, which is on the list of 64% of all participants is how to inspire people for processes. Man, I was shocked, because this is the core of what I’m fighting for. Obviously, we’re not alone with this challenge, and this includes topics like how to implement process thinking, how to establish a process culture, how to get people excited about processes on all levels, so from the board, from the CEO, to the regular employee. There are different challenges which you named out there, but it all comes down to inspire people for processes, and that’s core of my activities, and this is exactly what we are putting at the core of the new process conference. So that’s what the new process conference is designed for, but more on that in the recap. So the survey participants also answered a number of questions to help me prioritize my activities for 2024. And I’d like to thank you for this as well. So, besides the podcast and for sure I’m going to continue this podcast besides the conference, and besides helping my customers to set up human-centric BPM framework and to get people excited about processes, I will direct most of my efforts into adding more and more content to the new process pro to support you with your challenges in 2024. So, first of all, a big thank you goes out to all of you, to all of you who participated in the survey and also to the BPM sort of leaders who are my s today.
25:29
Let’s start with the recap of the topics of my s. First there was Thi. He said as his topic for 2024, it’s to focus on convergence, so bringing BPM together with other disciplines, like new process. Then we had Casper and he pointed out AI and BPM as the top topic for 2024, same as Christoph. He also said we should have a closer look on to AI and BPM and that’s also a topic which Ahmad mentioned, so AI and advanced analytics. But he also named human-centric BPM and object-centric BPM. And we had Will van der Aalst who recommended to have a look at rainbow spaghetti and kind of object-centric process mining. And finally, martin pointed out that on his list and also, as we know from the results, setting up a strategy for BPM and culture is one of the major topics he’s working on and he also mentioned to have an eye on AI. So AI and BPM seems to be the hot topic for 2024. It was also part of what the community mentioned in the survey as part of process improvement and that’s why we’ll have a closer look very close, look at this at the new process conference and also in other ways, like in the podcast and the new process pro next year. And AI and BPM, as I said, is also already on the list of so many of you.
27:07
So here comes a brief recap of the top five topics from the community. Number five is applied process mining. Actually, 15% of you mentioned this as a topic for next year. As I said, I’ll see you guys next week. Quite nice number, not so much as I expected, but you definitely, if you haven’t had that on your list, should take that on your list and have a closer look on how to start with process mining as early as possible. And there is this episode with Jean-Marc Iriot, which was the episode before this episode. You can easily move back and listen to that as well to learn more about process mining.
27:49
Number four is to implement BPM governance with all aspects, ranging from BPM roles, like how to define a process owner, a process architect and so on how do they interact and the process of process management, which was in total name by 19% of the survey participants. So that’s definitely a topic and you can find more on that on newprocesslabcom in the toolbox or in the future, in New Process Pro. Then number three, named by 32%, is to model process and to design process architecture. So a lot of modeling, a lot of mentions regarding finding a human centric, easy to understand notation and how to design process architecture with an end-to-end view from the different levels top-down, and so on. So this is also on the list of many of the people out there.
28:46
Number one. Number two, named by 43%, is all around the improvement of processes. This contains not only continuous improvement, like Lean, six Sigma and so on. A lot of mentions were regarding the digitalization of processes, including automation, and also the application of AI in processes, as well as BPM in general. And finally, the top topic number one topic is to inspire people for processes. This was named by 64% of the survey participants and, to be honest, it’s a bit weird to see my own topic, which I’m so passionate about, as the topic that most of you have on your list as a challenge for 2024. So maybe I don’t know if you were influenced by new process, but of course, it also corresponds with what I keep hearing from you and what I experience within the different meetings which I had during the year.
29:57
It’s often the question how can I get my people and my organization excited about processes? So, in this respect, I’m very happy to support you with this challenge in 2024 as well, and in addition to the conference, which will definitely focus on this topic. So it’s designed around how to get people excited for processes and there’s also a 90 minute slot on BPM and AI. I would like to encourage you to sign up for the new process pro to become part of the community. So new process pro is the community to meet other BPM enthusiasts, to join forces to fight for BPM, to get new ideas, tools, methods to inspire people for processes, and way more. So it’s community To learn more. Just go to newproslapcom pro and sign up for free.
30:53
Yeah, that’s it for 2023. I’m really looking forward to all the cool things coming up in 2024 and I’d like to say thank you to all of you. The next episode, which will be released on January 10th so there is this short holiday break the next episode will be a real cracker episode to kick off the new year and to rethink processes. I don’t want to reveal too much, but it will be an interview with an expert who is really on fire, and there are more exciting episodes coming up in 2024. But for now, I wish you and your family Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you very much for listening. Have a great day. Bye, bye and auf wiedersehen in 2024.
Mirko31:58
Before you leave. I know the process. Journey is hard and it’s even harder if you go on your own. I know this from my very own experience. That’s why I founded New Process Pro as a community to join forces with fellow BPM enthusiasts. So make your life easier and become part of New Process Pro today. Sign up for free. Just go to newprocesslabcom. Thank you very much.
