Leadership BPM

I have been trying hard to understand Gartner's Pattern-Based Strategies (PBS) and how it may impact BPM vendors and users. According to Gartner, PBS is an overarching strategy that brings together some key technologies including BPM, BI, Complex Event Processing and BRMS (see Learn about Pattern-Based Strategy). All these technologies require major involvement of IT and coordination with business people, which is probably one of the reasons why Gartner is pushing this topic. However, the more I dig in to PBS, the less convinced I become that Gartner is onto something concrete and tangible that can be effectively deployed and practiced using the technologies mentioned. My reservations about PBS are due to several factors:

i.                     Gartner's definition of PBS still is very confusing. This is probably because they are trying to come up with a grand strategy and approach which is complex.

ii.                   Complex problems are not easily resolved and solutions cannot be easily deployed, especially when they deal with "people, processes, data and technology" using Gartner's terms.

iii.                  The essence of PBS according to Gartner is to "seek, model and adapt" to leading indicators or weak signals, so that organizations can respond quickly to changing trends. However, the very complexity of PBS and the underlying technologies which are needed will make it difficult to adapt to change.

iv.                 The relationship between business and IT is already very complicated. Adopting an overarching strategy that is on the one hand deemed critical to the success of the business, but on the other hand relies on new and often misunderstood technologies such as BPM, is likely to create more friction between the two. This is even more significant because PBS is not a science but and art: its success depends a lot on identifying which weak signals inside or outside the organization must be measure and modeled.