What’s the Difference Between Workflow and BPM? March 19, 2007
Posted by workflow in workflow.trackback
In the following article a couple of guys discuss their reasons behind their view that Workflow and BPM are different.
http://www.transformmag.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16400140
I disagree with many of there arguments.
Nathaniel Palmer writes:
Workflow is concerned with the application-specific sequencing of activities via predefined instruction sets, involving either or both automated procedures (software-based) and manual activities (people work)…BPM is concerned with the definition, execution and management of business processes defined independently of any single application. BPM is a superset of workflow, further differentiated by the ability to coordinate activities across multiple applications with fine grain control.
First off I have not heard of a modern workflow system that did not control the definition, execution and management of business processes defined independently of any single application.
Second workflow systems coordinate activities across multiple applications.
Third the phrase fine grain control does not differential between anything. A bicycle is a bicycle whatever the size.
Palmer then writes: As workflow processes are tied to single applications, process flow is hardwired and does accommodate alternative means for reaching the same task or goal.
Again I have not come across any modern workflow system where this is the case, perhaps he is confusing a system with workflow and a workflow system.
Finally Palmer writes: Distilled into single-word definitions, workflow is about repetition and BPM is about coordination (also automation and orchestration, respectively)
So if workflow is not about coordination, automation and orchestration what is workflow about?
Next in the article Jim Sinur gives his definition:
BPM is supercharged workflow that has sophisticated flow design through process modeling and analysis. BPM supports hyper volumes of work and numbers of users with sophisticated event-state engines for long-running business events and transactions. It is user friendly, “insanely open,” has smart agility features supported by rules engines and utilizes commodity integration technologies.
OK I have highlighted all the rediculous sales adjectives here. What he is saying essentially is BPM is workflow with more adjectives. According to Sinur BPM is more supercharged, sophisticated, hyper, long-running, friendly, open, and smart workflow. So he is either saying BPM is workflow with more adjectives in front of it. A bicycle is a bicycle whatever the hyper-superchargedness it may have.
In summing Sinur declares:
Finally, BPM links to legacy composite components and applications, orchestrates Web services, measures business activity and optimizes processes for better business result and work throughput.
Again workflow systems have done all of the following for a long time now, except for web services which is a relatively new technology. In addition Business Activity Monitoring in someform has always been a part of some workflow systems it just didn’t have such a fancy title.
Now this may be an almost religious belief but to me it seems that workflow + marketing = BPM, and that is the only real difference.
PS let me apologize for the long delay between posts. I have been away alot.
Nice! You got the point. I’ve worked with workflow (Oracle Workflow to be more specific) and afet finish this project many people started to talk about BPM. So the doubt figured out: where is the difference? And just like you, i don’t believe in any difference. Both workflow and bpm have the same duties regardless de level of abstraction or wharever comercial claims.
Congratulations for your point of view!
Would love to see your comments for the below statements.
“Sandeep Arora writes: # ”
I am author of BPM book “Business Process Management.Process is the Enterprise” at http://www.bpm-strategy.com. Workflow is just a subset of BPM. Here are some of the differences between the two
1) Focus: Workflow-> focus is on Task Routing.
BPM-> focus is on Process Life Cycle Management.
2) Integration: Workflow-> Tight Coupling between Integrated Applications using custom API supplied by workflow vendor and Third party products.
BPM->EAI using standard adaptors and B2B integration using Open standards like HTTP, XML and Web Services.
3) Scope: Workflow -> Application/Department specific.
BPM-> Enterprise wide and across the value chain.
4) Process Modeling: Workflow ->Limited.
BPM->Advanced Process Modeling with essential features like Collaborative Process Design and process Simulation
5) Reporting: Workflow->Basic Reporting after the Fact.
BPM->Process metric reports and dashboard views.
6) Exception management: Workflow->very limited.
BPM->Live process update using In-flight process and data update.And also side-by-side process version features.
BPM truly creates the agile event driven enterprise business people have been dreaming of. But caution- implementing BPMS is touch and cannot be managed as a typical IT project.
Hi, I have worked for a company called Newgen Software Technologies Ltd., an Indian based BPM company. This was a debate that used to go on everyday over there. As far as my knowledge goes, the confusion that is arising in the mind is because we are not properly defining the context right. Newgen’s (www.newgensoft.com) product OmniFlow claims that it is a BMP product but most of us believe it is an advanced workflow. Having said that, it still has most of the features that a BPM system has described above by Sandeep.
In my opinion, the difference between a workflow system (of today’s time i.e. slightly advanced) and a BPM system is very shallow and is more in terms of the BI capability and the Rule Engine capability, which in case if a workflow system is very basic.
What I would like to know is that is there any difference between a Workflow Engone and a BPM Engine?