In this month’s Column, Paul advocates the use of process mining tools for the day-to-day work of process analysts trying to analyze the effectiveness of existing processes and identifying opportunities for incremental improvement. Read Paul’s take on these helpful tools and his assessment of how they can help save your organization time and money.
Paul Harmon
Executive Editor and Founder, Business Process Trends
In addition to his role as Executive Editor and Founder of Business Process Trends, Paul Harmon is Chief Consultant and Founder of BPTrends Associates, a professional services company providing educational and consulting services to managers interested in understanding and implementing business process change.
Paul is a noted consultant, author and analyst concerned with applying new technologies to real-world business problems. He is the author of Business Process Change: A Manager's Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes (2003). He has previously co-authored Developing E-business Systems and Architectures (2001), Understanding UML (1998), and Intelligent Software Systems Development (1993). Mr. Harmon has served as a senior consultant and head of Cutter Consortium's Distributed Architecture practice. Between 1985 and 2000 Mr. Harmon wrote Cutter newsletters, including Expert Systems Strategies, CASE Strategies, and Component Development Strategies.
Paul has worked on major process redesign projects with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Security Pacific, Prudential, and Citibank, among others. He is a member of ISPI and a Certified Performance Technologist. Paul is a widely respected keynote speaker and has developed and delivered workshops and seminars on a wide variety of topics to conferences and major corporations through out the world.
Paul lives in Las Vegas.
Paul can be reached at pharmon@bptrends.com
Harmon on BPM: The One Best Way to Play Baseball
May 6, 2019 , By
Paul recently read an article on how the Houston Astros are winning by using advanced analytics. The article describes how the Astros General Manager, Jeff Luhnow, applies (AI) data and analytics to examine and improve the Astros performance.
Harmon on BPM: The Varieties of BPM
April 1, 2019 , By
Paul recently got into a discussion about BPM with a group of practitioners and discovered that each was doing something rather different. From that discussion, he was reminded of the variety of perspectives that a really comprehensive approach to business process management, process improvement or business transformation must embrace. In this column, he provides a brief summary of those perspectives.
Harmon on BPM: BPM in 2005 and 2019
March 4, 2019 , By
As the title suggests, Paul looks at BPM activity in organizations in 2005 and 2019. What’s changed? Are there more or fewer projects underway? Have BPM methodologies kept pace with advances in technology? Read Paul’s Column to learn his take on the questions.
Book Review: Bank of the Future: Minimise Technology Risk, Maximise Business Return
February 4, 2019 , By
This is not, strictly speaking, a book on business process change. It is, however, a book on how technologies are changing the banking industry, and thus, indirectly, a repository of ideas about the kinds of changes in banking that will lead to new banking processes in the near future. A major focus of the book […]
Harmon on BPM: Keeping Track of New Developments
February 4, 2019 , By
One of the roles of any good process analyst at any organization is to keep track of new technologies, new methods, and new approaches that might allow for the development of better processes at his or her company. In his Column this month Paul discusses how a process group might organize to facilitate keeping track of what’s new.
Harmon on BPM: Personal Workflow Systems
January 7, 2019 , By
Paul discusses “job aids,” a device that prompts human performance as a critical support element to training. Read why as he explains job aids and their function in the organization.
Harmon on BPM: Process Improvement–The Perennial Concern
December 3, 2018 , By
While process perspective has always been important, it has become ever more important as organizations become more automated and as software systems link automated activities into automated processes. Read Paul’s take on what will be the next driver of a surge in process improvement enthusiasm in 2019.
Harmon on BPM: BPM and Employment
November 5, 2018 , By
Business Process Management is about increasing productivity, and the process analyst’s job is to help companies create more and better products, faster, using the minimum labor possible. So what impact does a successful Process Improvement project have on employment? Read Paul’s Column to get his take on the issue.
Harmon on BPM: Process Mining Grows Up
October 1, 2018 , By
Any conventional business process improvement book provides many examples of incremental process improvement techniques. Paul suggests, however, that the more automated the process is, the more process mining deserves your attention. Read his reasons for this conclusion.
