How do I get started? What is the first thing that I look at? Who will be my allies? What do I need to put in place? When you are tasked to build a brand new Business Architecture practice in an organization that has not had one before is a challenging task. When you have to do this in a 60-year old organization in a field that is relatively unique on the market, that might be even more challenging.

Our guest in this episode is Breanne Casteel, a catalyst for change enablement through collaboration and connections to drive empathetic business solutions.

She is a passionate advocate with 20+ years experience bringing awareness of Business Architecture and Business Analysis skills and mindset to numerous roles in the organization with an emphasis on communication, transparency, and collaboration across silos.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Breanne’s background
• The case for Business Architecture
• Finding sponsorship and allies
• Creating and showing the value of Business Architecture day-by-day
• (Lack of) Reference models
• How to get started without a BPM tool first – and then choosing one after the start
• Planning and building a roadmap – for the organization and the business architecture team as well
• Setting up a strategic project portfolio for the organization

You can find Breanne on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/breannecasteel/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

"I just bought your tool, now you have to tell me what I can do with it".
No kidding, that is what one client to said to me once. Well, here is a starter for you - in our latest episodes we are talking about the use cases for Business Process Management (not all of them, because we have that self-imposed limit of an hour-ish length for each episode).

In this episode of the What's Your Baseline Podcast we talk about:

• Short review of the Process Lifecycle
• (Process) Documentation, publishing, and standardization
• (Process) Inventory and analysis
• Process improvement
• System implementation
• Roll-out support
• Perishable insights response (BI and PI)
• Execution monitoring
• Customer experience design
• Risk mgmt and regulatory compliance
• Digital twin of an organization
• Quality management (Enterprise Mgmt System)

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

Why do some applications have a large following and their revenues soar, while others are struggling with making a sale and are virtually unknown? Or why do you struggle with building internal acceptance for your program?

One reason might be that the former companies were able to build a community that includes not only users (and ends up being a glorified help desk), but also people who are convinced that your program is the best in its market ("superfans" - there is a whole concept around this, but I don't want to go too far here). But now the question is: How do you build such a community?

The guest in this episode is Heather Wendt, the community manager for Gain, Grow, Retain, and she has a lot of experience in customer success and community building. She also worked extensively in the learning field, which is another area to increase adoption in organizations

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Heather’s background
• How “community” goes hand-in-hand with customer success
• Functions of communities - help, concepts, nerding out, learning/teaching
• Why should an organization stand up a community? How to pitch the idea to senior management?
• Find and involve super users
• Where to find “your people” - examples of good community
• How to stand up and manage a community
• Measuring the success

Heather can be reached via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hmwendt/, and her community can be found here: https://gaingrowretain.com/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

AI is *the* hot thing these days and you cannot pass any tool that does not have these two characters attached to it.

That is also true for the BPM space, and this week we have the pleasure to speak with a person who is working in this space for over 20 years and his tool has built in AI already, while other vendors are still thinking about how to integrate it in their stack.

The guest in this episode is Scott Armstrong, CEO of Interfacing, a BPM tool provider. He is a entrepreneur and investor at heart and also a partner in various consulting groups. In addition to this he is an avid skier.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Scott's background (and a lot of Canadian geography ;-)
• The evolution of BPM and the AI hype cycle
• How AI is currently implemented in tools and where things will go
• How to implement AI in your program
• Ethical concerns and other potential drawbacks

Scott can be reached via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/solution/ or via email at scott.armstrong@interfacing.com.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

The age old question: how do you make your processes "evergreen". Well, one way is to update your models on a regular basis (for example to comply with regulations), but is that really "the process" or is it just a picture of it? Your processes come to life when someone performs them and for this you need to be able measure them.

To support the process execution you can use an automation tool (a "heavy" BPMS, RPA, etc.) or you can use a lightweight low-code/no-code tool for this that business units can use themselves to solve their automation needs.

Our guest in this episode is Maximilian Neumaier, who is leading the Professional Services group at TIM Solutions and is implementing their low-code/no-code automation platform for over a decade now - starting as a working student and growing into his current leadership role.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Maximilian's background
• Workflow philosophy and some examples
• Benefits of automating things in a dedicated workflow tool
• Process as the starting point for every automation initiative
• How to implement a process using low-code/no-code automation
• General recommendations for your project

You can reach Maximilian via LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximilian-neumaier/) or TIM's website at https://tim-solutions.de.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

You have chosen to start your BPM journey and are now asking yourself the question "how *DO* I get started?".

Well, one way is to look at a BPM Adoption Framework, the other is to ask someone who has done that before.

We are lucky to speak with someone who fulfills both criteria - our guest today is Caspar Jans, who also already has been a guest in an earlier episode on the show before :-)

Since then he has raised his profile in the BPM space and was recognized as a thought leader and Top 50 voice in operational excellence by the PEX / Process Excellence Network in 2023. In this year he not only continuous to publish his thoughts in his newsletter, but also starts a podcast in which he and his co-host look at BPM from a holistic perspective / from every angle.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• The evolution of Caspar's thinking about BPM since the first episode we had him as a guest
• The origins of his BPM Adoption Framework
• Where it can be used (green-field or brown-field BPM implementations)
• The areas of the framework

Caspar is easy to reach on LinkedIn and also has a website that contains his writings (and his newsletter "Process Extraordinaire Weekly" on LinkedIn here). He also starts a new podcast BPM360 which you can find here: https://www.bpm360podcast.com/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

This episode closes out the mini series about data, and this time we talk about data modeling. Data models are some of the things that I have seen the least often in projects over the last two decades. Why is that? Is it because it is too geeky, or not interesting enough compared to, say, a process model in BPMN?

But being clear about data is important when it comes to designing solution architectures (and in other use cases, such as regulatory compliance), and the three questions that you have to answer are:

• What is the data that we are talking about?
• Where do I store data and how is it transformed?
• Where do I ask for the data?

In this episode of the What's Your Baseline Podcast we talk about:

• Conceptual / logical data modeling
• Canonical data models versus information asset views
• Application and data (from a logical perspective) - interface designs
• Data used in the context of processes
• Application diagrams and physical data models
• Data mapping in screen diagrams (wireframes)
• Screen navigation models for context

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

A lot of projects are just looking at processes and applications. One thing that typically does not get the limelight is the data that is needed to empower these two things. But why is that? Is it because data is "invisible" and cannot be touched or felt?

Our guest today is Wiebke Apitzsch, who is working in "data" for over 15 years with companies like the Boston Consulting Group. Currently she is working in a small organization named "Datahearts" that focusses on the combination of business, data, and change expertise.
Her role is the head of data strategy, in which she defines the use cases (that match the client strategy), looks at the systems that support the data strategy, and set up project and change management to make the project a success.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Wiebke's background
• Why you should focus on data in your projects
• Data as solid basis for discussions
• Change management as key for data project success
• Data strategy
• How to implement data (the example of a brick wall)
• How to manage stakeholders and their potential objections

Wiebke is very active on LinkeIn and you can contact her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wiebke-apitzsch/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.