Workflow Modeling: Tools for Process Improvement and Application Development

Customer Reviews:

Finally a How-To!.......2007-09-15

Good overall analysis and methodology for approaching process re-design projects. Very practical and well written. Includes strategies for avoiding common pitfalls.

Very good for newbies in process improvement field.......2007-08-16

I enjoyed this book because of:
1) clear, coherent logic
2) it's very practical from cover to cover - everything you need to know before modeling processes you can find here and use it in your work on the very next day
3) the language - it's plain and definitely supports better adoption of the tools described. I also like the authors' delicate humor :)

As a whole - two thumbs up, 5 stars.

Good Book for a Foundation.......2007-08-09

I was recommended this book from BPMN Essentials course I recently took and just finished the book. It has a great deal of examples and suggestions for how to perform process modelling, which I like.

Excellent Business Process Modeling Book.......2006-11-29

Everything started with the creation of a two days workshop: Workflow Process Modeling. The authors have continually improved the workshop with participants' feedback and ideas based on their own hands-on consulting work with many organizations. The book is very well structured and it is based on real world experience. The structure is simple with no unnecessary parts that usually fill other books with redundant content. The content is not a mere recount of personal experiences: there are plenty of references to other publications. Plus, you will find good humor in the book that makes it even more readable.

Although the authors declared their work aimed at application development work as a final outcome, the book is focused very much on the business side with emphasis on process workflow. Nowadays the specialization pushes further and further apart the role of a business analyst from the system analyst, while in the past some would refer to these roles as one. This book might not be very useful for a system analyst because it is not very technically oriented. You will not find yourself drown under zillions of diagrams created with a specific software package, but you will get instead a method of how to approach business analysis from a broad, yet practical, perspective. The book does not bother even to talk too much about UML. I found that refreshing and extremely useful. I have been searching for a book that is more like a thought provoking companion rather than a software tool manual and this book fits that description.

Workflow Modeling is a comprehensive book. It does not focus on a particular stage of business analysis. It provides an inventory of areas the professional business process consultant would have to consider and the rationale for each one of them. Some readers might not agree with the little amount of space dedicated to class modeling which is almost inexistent. On the plus side, the authors talk about approach in dealing with project stakeholders, pitfalls, team building and difficulties and what questions to ask in various situations. The authors appreciate the importance of the final delivery, how to map the road between the as-is process to to-be process and understand the structure of the organization. I found many things that were said here very realistic and valuable; I could relate them to my own experience. The book does not say much about class modeling, but it talks a lot about swimlane diagrams and use cases analysis.

You can use Workflow Modeling to design your own work template that suits your style and formation. You can come back , re-read some parts or the whole book (I have done that) and still get something out of it. I recommend the book as a good investment that will not go out of fashion very soon.

Workflow Modeling - This Book Flows..........2006-09-16

Workflow Modeling serves both as a primer to a process approach to management, and a step-by-step guide for modeling the workflow required to achieve the process goals. The skills it teaches are critical as modeling is often the first step within larger improvement projects of all kinds.

Beyond modelling itself, the authors provide the context for process issues by considering organisational mission, strategy, goals and culture within which design and improvement projects usually occur.

Readers will find lots of case studies and vignettes that clearly illustrate the points and enliven the book in no small way.

Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance

Average customer rating:

Ok...but no hurrahs here..
Still useful, but discretion needed
Where the knowledge economy meets Coasian Economics
Are you on the bench or the playing field?
This I/T technologist now thinks digital

Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance
Larry Downes , and Chunka Mui
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

MIS | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1578512611

Amazon.com

You don't have to look far to see that technology is driving today's economy. Turn on CNBC, open The Economist, scan the Wall Street Journal--you'll find that technology is the prime force creating growth in almost every industry. In Unleashing the Killer App, authors Larry Downes and Chunka Mui look at the dynamics of technological change and its potential to create "killer apps." The authors describe a killer app as a product or service that "wind up displacing unrelated older offerings, destroying and re-creating industries far from their immediate use, and throwing into disarray the complex relationships between business partners, competitors, customers, and regulators of markets." Examples of killer apps throughout history include the Welsh longbow, the pulley, the compass, moveable type, and the Apple Macintosh. And today, with our increasingly networked economy (for example, the World Wide Web), killer apps are appearing all around us.

Downes and Mui argue that the dominant trend behind the proliferation of killer apps is a combination of Moore's Law, which states that the processing power of the CPU doubles every 18 months, and Metcalfe's Law, which observes that the value of a network increases dramatically with each node that's added to it. These two laws are fundamentally changing how businesses interact with each other and with their customers. To exploit these changes, the authors outline 12 points for designing a digital strategy to help you identify and create killer apps in your own organization. The book includes dozens of examples of how killer apps were discovered and implemented.

Unleashing the Killer App provides an excellent framework for rethinking the nature of business in today's wired economy. No matter the size of your company or what it does--health care, publishing, or fast food--there's probably a killer app lurking somewhere. This book will help you find it. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

Now in Paperback--A Business Week Bestseller! Over 100,000 hardcover copies sold!

When technologies, products, and services converge in radical, creative new ways, a killer app can emerge--a new application so powerful that it transforms industries, redefines markets, and annihilates the competition. Companies large and are swiftly attempting to remake themselves into organizations that nurture killer apps and successfully translate their digital strategy into market dominance.

With Unleashing the Killer App, Downes and Mui offer a progressive guide to transforming your company into a place where killer apps are born. Drawing from their experience and research with leading global businesses, the authors:

Identify the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps

Illustrate these principles with classic stories from history and examples from a wide range of industries that have successfully developed killer apps

Examine the economic consequences of the diminishing transaction costs in cyberspace

Describe how to integrate digital strategy into an organization's planning process to create new markets, form new customer relationships, and change the product line.

Unleashing the Killer App provides the tools, the techniques, and the proof that you need to incubate--perhaps even release--the killer app within your organization. Also available in hardcover; ISBN 087584801X, $24.95.

Customer Reviews:

Ok...but no hurrahs here.........2007-01-07

I thought that this book would be a little more than what it ended up being. I don't recall it keeping my attention for long, as I bought it well over a year ago.

I think that the Blue Ocean Strategy book is what this book should have been and is a much better read regarding development for market segment domination.

Still useful, but discretion needed.......2006-11-13

Being written few years before the internet bubble burst, this books shares the optimism and the hype common in those days - along with belief in a revolution in which everything would change, when those awaken would prosper, an those unprepared would die.
Exaggerations aside, it describes some very interesting key concepts, some very well known by the average public (Moore's law), others not so well (Metcalfe's law) and others yet known mostly by economists only (transaction costs and they relation to corporate sizes), combines them and develops some ideas from them. You can disagree to the conclusions, and certainly some rosy predictions the book made were proved wrong, but many clever insights make worth the reading.

Where the knowledge economy meets Coasian Economics.......2006-01-27

A Killer App is an invention, product or service that changes the world dramatically and quickly. Today, killer applications seem to be coming at a remarkable rate, threatening to overwhelm and destroy entrenched companies in long-standing industries. You must learn how to design Killer Apps in your company, say the authors, and you must have the courage to implement them, even if they may destroy your current products and services.

The authors have outlined twelve principles of Killer App design:

Reshaping the Landscape
1. Outsource to the customer. The customer is the best customer service representative and the best product developer.
2. Cannabalize your markets, before your competitors do it for you. The Killer Apps your company designs may threaten your existing products and services. You must implement them before your competitors make you irrelevant.
3. Treat each customer as a market segment of one. Technology makes it possible to create a customer offering that is unique, every time.
4. Create communities of value. The internet creates communities of like-minded people. This creates an opportunity for effective, targeting marketing.
Building New Connections
5. Replace rude interfaces with learning interfaces.
6. Ensure continuity for the customer, not yourself.
7. Give away as much information as you can. Balance the value of proprietary value against the potential of business partners to add value by using it.
8. Structure every transaction as a joint venture. The better you are at forming, executing and completing joint ventures, the better positioned you will be to exploit new opportunities.
Redefining the Interior
9. Treat your assets as liabilities. The true value in your organization is its information, not its possessions.
10. Destroy your value chain, before your competitors do it for you.
11. Manage innovation as a portfolio of options. Redefine your risk assessment outside of the traditional ROI model.
12. Hire the children.

Are you on the bench or the playing field?.......2005-04-27

"Are you going to be part of creating the future or are you just going to be a spectator - the choice is yours." - Michael A. Davis

According to Bill Gates "Going digital will put you on the leading edge of a shock wave of change." Maybe you missed the dot-com boom. Are you going to miss the Wireless boom - which will change the world a thousand times over. The time is now to seize opportunity and the "Killer App" will help you do it.

What exactly is a killer app?

"Killer App - a new application so powerful that it transforms industries, redefines markets, and annihilates the competition." Not just a recent digital age phenomenon; inventions like the compass, moveable type, eyeglasses, the steam engine, and lightbulbs have impacted society in a huge way. Downes and Mui did a fantastic job of describing the characteristics of true killer apps and have aptly illustrated the degree of impact they can have on society.

You certainly don't have to look far to see that technology, particularly the Internet, is driving today's economy. Turn on CNBC, read Business Week or browse the Wall Street Journal - you'll find that technology is the prime force creating growth in almost every industry.

Downes and Mui argue that the dominant trend behind the proliferation of killer apps is a combination of Moore's Law (CPU processing power doubles every 18 months) and Metcalfe's Law (network value increases dramatically with each additional user.) These two laws are fundamentally changing how businesses interact with each other and with their customers. Owing to the today's rapidly changing business environment, business owners will inevitably lose out to competition if they're not utilizing the latest technology.

Unleashing the Killer App is divided into three parts:

Digital Strategy
Designing the Killer App
Unleashing the Killer App

In Part I, there is a brief discussion of one "killer app" in the Middle Ages, the stirrup, which added mounted cavalry to the battle equation. The "lowly stirrup" played a singular role in rearranging the political, social, and economic structure of medieval Europe.

In Part II, what they refer to as "a few rules of thumb." They suggest three stages of "killer app" design and carefully explain each. They identify 12 specific principles on which to base the design process.

In Part III, they shift their attention to "Unleashing the Killer App" and correctly stress the importance of communication, one which "speaks with the language of ideas, scenarios, options, and what-ifs."

Think of and measure your daily operations as a series of unique transactions. Then focus on how these transaction costs can approach zero. With technology allowing for greater interactivity, the ability exists to create online communities where people can share in ways never imagined.

Unleashing the Killer App is an awesome book that will certainly make you think about ways to ride the waves of technological change surrounding us. With that said, it is prudent to consider both traditional and digital strategy, particularly in light of the Dot Com Bust, when developing strategic plans. Two interesting concepts are illustrated in Table 3.1 "Strategic Planning vs Digital Strategy," p. 59 and Figure 3.1 "The New Forces," p. 65.

Michael Davis, President - Brencom Strategic Business Consulting

This I/T technologist now thinks digital.......2005-02-05

For technologists that have worked in the I/T field for twenty years or more, it is easy to find ourselves reacting poorly to technology changes and business opportunities due to a lack of clear understanding of how digital strategies are affecting business economics, lifestyles, and our jobs. "Unleasing the Killer App" is applicable to technologists, managers and business analysts alike; but reading it from the viewpoint of a technologist, it forced me to take an introspective look at how I provide service to my clients using the paradigm of "digital strategies for market dominance" as presented by the authors.

Part one introduces generation defining technologies, i.e. "Killer Apps", the new economics, and the "digital strategy". The theories of Gordon Moore (Moore's Law), Robert Metcalfe (Metcalfe's Law) and Ronald Coase (economist) are used by the authors to describe the "Law of Diminishing Firms". In short, my take on the matter is that businesses must create "flat" decentralized management support organizations to reduce transaction costs or risk being diminished; this includes I/T service organizations.

Part two presents twelve principles of "Killer App Design". Of major significance to technologists is the idea to "outsource to the customer". What better way to drive down the cost of transactions than to design systems that allow the customer to bypass customer representatives entirely. Another significant principle is to "give away as much information as you can" to open up interfaces that will create new markets and opportunities for integration. I believe one of the failures of I/T service organizations has been the propensity to create internal (closed system) applications, fostering proliferations of organizational silos.

Part three deals with implementing the "Killer App-digital strategy". I/T organizations are struggling to balance investments between new technology projects and growing operating costs. In almost all companies, those responsible for operations and maintenance are also responsible for strategizing new technology directions. As discussed in chapter 8, managing innovation requires observing technology trends and implementing practices that drive change based on the new technology. The author states, "Succeeding at these early stages of digital strategy development requires substantial changes to the organization" (p. 182). My perception is that I/T organizations should consider shifting experienced technology specialists from the operations areas into the strategic technology areas to stay ahead of the technology wave or risk being swept away by it.

Although "Unleashing the Killer App" was written in 1998, the principles are still applicable today. It is a must read for any technologist that cannot determine whether his I/T service organization is simply a provider of technology solutions designed to meet business requirements or an I/T organization that provides technology solutions that drive the business.

Information for Innovation: Managing Change from an Information Perspective

Average customer rating:

Information for Innovation: Managing Change from an Information Perspective
Stuart Macdonald
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Communications | Skills | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

MIS | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Manager's Guides to Computing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Innovations | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0198288255

Book Description

Information is not taken seriously. Much is said about the information age, the information economy, the information society, and particularly about information technology, but little about information itself. If these are important, then so is information. But information is not as other goods: it has some peculiar characteristics. It cannot be displayed for sale without giving it away in the process. Sold, it goes to the buyer but still remains with the seller. Buying entails expressing demand in ignorance for buyers who do not know just what it is that they do not know. Such characteristics have long been recognised by economists, but it is not generally economists who have most to say about the importance of information. This privilege is exercised by senior managers, who speak passionately about knowledge-based, learning organizations; by politicians and public servants, anxious to compensate with policy and programme for the information failure of organization and market; and by specialists in telecommunications and information technology, bent on adding value to what they treat as just a commodity. All are particularly enthusiastic about the innovation which springs from information. Information usually requires new information. Finding, acquiring, and mixing this new information with that already in use presents problems, not least because complex information transactions are required rather than simple information transfer. Solutions can be devised, but only by accommodating the characteristics of information. This book contrasts the way innovation is normally regarded in a variety of areas from eighteenth-century agriculture to high technology, from technology transfer to industrial espionage, from corporate strategy to patents and independent inventors with how it appears from what is termed an 'information perspective', that is one that puts information first. The results are intriguing, suggesting that radically different approaches to innovation (and organization) should be considered.

Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation: How Companies Can Seize Opportunities in the Face of Technological Change

Average customer rating:

Technological Change: Peril or Opportunity?
Untangles the Web of Confustion Surrounding Innovation
A worthwhile and important study on how corporations die.

Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation: How Companies Can Seize Opportunities in the Face of Technological Change
James M. Utterback
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0875843425

Book Description

In Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, Utterback presents a compelling book at how innovation transforms industries, raising the fortunes of some firms while destroying others. The book draws on the rich history of innovation by inventors and entrepreneurs-ranging from the birth of typewriters to the emergence of personal computer, gas lamps to fluorescent lighting, George Eastman's amateur photography to electronic imaging-to develop a practical model for how innovation enters an industry, how mainstream firms typically respond, and how-over time-new and old players wrestle for dominance.

Customer Reviews:

Technological Change: Peril or Opportunity?.......2000-08-30

Utterback explains "how companies can seize opportunities in the face of technological change." There are dozens (hundreds?) of other books on the same subject, notably those written by Geoffrey A. Moore. I rate this book so highly because it is exceptionally well-organized and well-written, because it examines several offbeat subjects (eg the development of the typewriter and the evolution of the typewriter industry, the development of the incandescent electric light), and because Utterback focuses so intensely -- and so effectively -- on real-world situations in which the "dynamics of innovation" are manifest. This book is very informative but also great fun to read. (Those who enjoy it as much as I did are urged to read both The History of Invention and The Lever of Riches.) Chapter 4 revisits the the dynamics of the innovation model (Figure 1-1) and then in Chapter 5, Utterback shifts his attention to developments within the plate glass manufacturing industry. In Chapter 6, he examines the innovation differences between assembled and nonassembled products. Subsequent chapters sustain the discussion of "the power of innovation in the creation of an industry" and then, in Chapter 9, Utterback "draws together some of the lessons of earlier chapters and academic research to consider the relationship between the behaviors and strategies of firms with respect to technological innovation and long-term survival." He concludes his book (in Chapter 10) by addressing "the perennial management issue of how corporations can renew their technology, products, and processes as a basis for continued competitive vitality." It is obvious to all of us that even the strongest product and business strategy will eventually be overturned by technological change. Ours is an age in which change is the only constant. Therefore, as Utterbach explains so carefully and so eloquently, the challenge is to accept the inevitability of change which results from technological innovation ("discontinuities") and to sustain a commitment to cope effectively with such change. Only such a commitment "will win the day."

Untangles the Web of Confustion Surrounding Innovation.......2000-04-19

Utterback does a superb job of providing real world examples of how innovation can change the landscape of your business. The book provides a clear understanding of the life cycle of innovation and the behaviors within a firm as they migrate from a focus on product innovation to a focus on process innovation.

The book provides a guide that can be applied to any industry, any product in any time. It gives the reader the ability to identify what phase of innovation their company is in and helps them predict how other companies are behaving today and how they might behave in the future in the face of direct competitive challenges.

The book also clearly demonstrates that innovation that can wipe you out will seldom come from the "Usual Suspects". Not those you see at your direct competitors, but from those companies that see the weaknesses and deficiencies in your products and redefine how they could be overcome with new technology.

I found this book to be a perfect balance of academic principles and cold hard business reality. A very enjoyable read that has provided me with yet another valuable tool to use in developing strategies to defend existing markets and tapping into new.

It focuses on how management must think about new innovations in technology and processes. Ultimately to survive they must not shrink away from a technological threat, but face it head on.

Most companies defend their position by intensely focusing on how to make their existing product, better, cheaper and faster. Ultimately they realize that as shinny, beautiful and cheap as they have made their latest buggy whip, their customer has lost interest in the face of some new technology.

Cheaper, faster, better, smarter will only keep your doors open for so long and microscopically staring down on both your customers needs and your products attributes, may leave you standing outside looking in.

Great read!

A worthwhile and important study on how corporations die........1996-09-22

I found Mr. Utterback's book to be an excellent book on the reasons for the inability of existing corporations to make the needed rapid adoption of changes necessary to compete in a world of punctuated technological changes. I found his editors lacking in their permitting too many academic attitudes filter through to the final version. Too many refereneces to "Utterback, our and my". Tiresome and pedantic in places. All in all an excellent peice of work though. Glad to have read it and I will undoubtedly read it again. Congratulations Mr. Utterback on an important piece of work. Dan Taylor dtaylor@io.org

Automating Business Process Reengineering: Breaking the Tqm Barrier/Book and Disk

Average customer rating:

Automating Business Process Reengineering: Breaking the Tqm Barrier/Book and Disk
Gregory A. Hansen
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Quality Control | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0130791792

Catching the Wave: Workplace Reform in Australia (Cornell International Industrial and Labor Relations Report)

Average customer rating:

Catching the Wave: Workplace Reform in Australia (Cornell International Industrial and Labor Relations Report)
John Mathews
Manufacturer: Ilr Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0875467075

Champions of Technological Change: How Organizations can Successfully Implement New Technology (Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity)

Average customer rating:

Champions of Technological Change: How Organizations can Successfully Implement New Technology (Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity)
Theres Szarmach
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0815315791

Organizational Change: Techniques and Applications

Average customer rating:

Organizational Change: Techniques and Applications
Newton and John Wallace Margulies
Manufacturer: Scott, Foresman and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K07VWK

Local Government Architecture (Openframework)

Average customer rating:

Local Government Architecture (Openframework)
OPENframework
Manufacturer: Prentice-Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Government | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Hardware | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Urban, State & Local Government | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0131508067

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books