Traditionally, process automation projects involving business process management (BPM) systems are conducted in a waterfall style. Therefore, such projects are plagued by the shortcomings of that approach, including requirements creep, long delays before working software is available to show to end users, and missed opportunities. To overcome these limitations, the authors of this paper propose applying the same remedies as those developed for classical software engineering, namely agile development methodologies.

After a short explanation of the two methodologies chosen--integrated BPM project methodology (IBPM) [1] and Scrum--the authors focus on the foundations of agile BPM projects, specified in the form of six principles and two best practices. These range from fairly simple, well-known observations from Scrum (“Welcome changing requirements, even late in development”) to utterly nontrivial suggestions (one needs five to ten sprints for a working BPMS release). Other principles include the importance of the process model as the leading artifact and the necessary focus on architecture first (for example, by using the BPM system (BPMS) architecture itself as a reference).

Almost a third of the paper is devoted to a lucid introduction of the methodology itself. The authors present a thorough meta-model of methods (such as the process backlog), roles (such as the agile BPM master), and artifacts (such as the “definition of ready”). This section focuses especially on the differences between the proposed approach and standard Scrum. With six additional best practices derived from several projects, any reader sufficiently proficient in Scrum and a BPMS implementation methodology should be able to apply the results.

I especially liked the lessons learned, including: not all BPMS projects are equally suited for this approach (the authors provide a checklist); one should choose small scopes for first projects; and, in many cases, business departments are not ready to think and act in short, quick iterations. I recommend this timely paper as required reading for any BPM professional, as well as related technologists.