I work as a content writer at Process Street, which is a piece of business process management (BPM) software. As such, it’s fair to say that I’m a tad BPM obsessed; when I’m not writing about business process management, I spend a considerably large chunk of my time reading up on it.
As you might have expected, not all of the texts I read were good.
Luckily for you, I’m here to provide you with insider recommendations regarding the best business process management books – the ones that will help you transform ineffective, inefficient processes into ones your business simply cannot function without.
So, if you’re interested in bolstering your knowledge of what BPM is, how to use BPM to your advantage, and how to implement BPM successfully, you’ve clicked on the right post.
Let’s delve into some stellar reads.
Table of Contents
- 1. Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations by John Jeston
- 2. The Power of Business Process Improvement: 10 Simple Steps to Increase Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Adaptability by Susan Page
- 3. Business Process Change: A Guide for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals by Paul Harmon
- 4. Successful Business Process Management: What You Need to Know to Get Results by Paula K. Berman
- 5. BPM Boots on the Ground: How to Implement Strategic Business Process Management by Jim Boots
- 6. Reimagining Management by Roger Tregear
- 7. The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Management: Everything You Need to Know and How to Apply It to Your Organization by Theodore Panagacos
- 8. Handbook on Business Process Management 1: Introduction, Methods, and Information Systems by Jan vom Brocke, Michael Rosemann
- 9. Questioning BPM? by Paul Harmon, Roger Tregear
- 10. Business Process Management: The Next Wave by Peter Fingar, James J. Odell, Jim Sinur
- 11. Digital Transformation: A Brief Guide for Game Changers by Peter Fingar, Jim Sinur
The first book on this list is Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations by John Jeston. And there’s a good reason why this book is at the top of the list.
Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations was one of the first books I read on BPM. It gave me a thorough understanding of BPM, its history, and its applicability to contemporary businesses.
The publishers, Routledge, say this book has helped thousands of BPM practitioners. Considering how it also provides actionable guidelines for implementing BPM, it’s not hard to see why so many people benefitted from this text, just as I have.
I read the 4th edition, and believe it to be essential reading for everyone – from undergraduate students to entrepreneurs to CFOs.
Business process improvement falls under the large umbrella of business process management. After all, for a process to be improved, it needs to be managed correctly.
This particular book, penned by systems expert Susan Page, tells you how to do just that.
By following Page’s method, you can identify processes that need improvement, utilize technology to reduce human error, and implement processes that will boost business efficiency.
Helpfully, this book also includes quizzes, ensuring that the knowledge Page provides sticks with you for a long time.
Paul Harmon, co-founder and executive editor of the website Business Process Trends, has written this all-encompassing guide on process improvement.
It’s a particularly hefty book – 520 pages in total – but it’s an excellent reference text, making it a valuable addition to your bookshelf and your business.
With multiple editions of this book being released, it includes up-to-date information on business process architecture, decision management models, and business process management systems.
Those who already have some experience in making, creating, and establishing processes will benefit the most from this book.
The tagline of Successful Business Process Management, written by Paula K. Berman, is “What You Need to Know to Get Results”. And by reading this book, results are exactly what you’ll get.
Not only is it easy-to-read and easy-to-follow, but Berman also supplies step-by-step instructions on how to get your business – and those who work for it – interested in business process management.
If you’ve ever faced resistance from colleagues or higher-ups who don’t yet know the wonders of BPM, this is the book you need to help you change their minds.
One of the best ways to be successful is by listening to those who have already achieved success.
Related: 55 Characteristics of Highly Successful People
And with this text, written by Jim Boots, you’ll gain real-world insight into how BPM can be used at large, complex organizations.
I found this text to be fascinating. We often hear about how small companies are improved with BPM, but not necessarily big, multinational corporations like Chevron. With this in mind, it was certainly an eye-opener.
Considering that Roger Tregear, the author of this book, is the BPM Practice Director at Australian firm Leonardo Consulting, it’s fair to assume that Tregear knows a great deal about business process management.
And he does.
With this text, Tregear asks business managers the following question: Is your organization as effective as it can be? Are there areas in which slight improvements can result in considerable benefits?
For many managers across the globe, the answer is “yes”. Luckily for readers of this book, Tregear provides solid tips and methods for implementing and sustaining BPM successfully.
For BPM novices and masters alike, this is a great book to jump straight into. The writing is clear and succinct, and there’s additional visual material like tables and charts to help you get to grips with ideas, information, and insights.
Although a guide with the word “ultimate” in the title may dissuade potential readers due to its high-reaching claim, I strongly suggest picking up and following this guide.
Written by Theodore Panagacos, a change management expert and former management consultant, the book guides readers from the absolute beginning – creating a process – all the way through to the final stages of process optimization, and leaves no stone unturned.
Suffice to say, it is the ultimate guide. This is a book that I’d whole-heartedly recommend to any burgeoning students of BPM.
This handbook was released by the science publisher Springer, whose readership is mainly composed of professionals and researchers. The book helped me when researching the fundamentals of business process management, and it will surely help you, too.
It’s an informative, academia-leaning text that includes contributions from lauded thinkers such as Paul Harmon (who wrote book #3 in this list), Wil van der Aalst, and Michael Hammer.
This is a text to pre-order and peruse if you’re looking to take BPM seriously.
With this book, we take a little detour from the BPM guides and handbooks.
Simply put, Questioning BPM? contains 15 common questions regarding BPM. 109 answers are supplied by 13 authors – all of whom are well-respected in the BPM industry.
It’s a compendium of useful, practical knowledge regarding how to best facilitate, sustain, and oversee BPM. Considering the wide variety of answers, this book is valuable for everyone.
Let’s not beat around the bush: It isn’t always easy to understand the intricacies of BPM, especially when BPM continues to change and grow alongside technological advances.
But with Business Process Management: The Next Wave, readers can easily understand how BPM is used and how it’ll be used in the future.
Considering this book was written by Peter Fingar, James J. Odell, and Jim Sinur – all of whom are well-respected authors who’ve written extensively on BPM, processes, and object-oriented systems – those with previous knowledge of processes and BPM will benefit greatly.
If you’ve read and enjoyed the Business Process Management: The Next Wave, then Digital Transformation: A Brief Guide for Game Changers will surely be a hit as well – it’s written by Jim Sinur and Peter Fingar.
This book, again, has a forward-looking focus: It discusses how the world – and businesses at large – are transforming digitally. The text then goes into detail and explains how BPM + digitization = better businesses.
If you’re interested in how BPM can be used innovatively, try this book.
There you have it.
11 of the best business process management books – all penned by great writers – that will help your business become more productive, efficient, and organized.
Here’s to managing processes properly.