X = ?

"...Have you read my blog today?  300 Million Little USA's.  Your doorstep is just a click away.  We'll get together one of these days"

These lyrics, from the Five for Fighting song "Slice", come to mind as I dare to write my first post on my first blog.  I have no delusions of 300 Million reading this, but I do hope that at least one non-family member and one person outside the USA read it.

The blog is titled Business Process Xcellence and the url is BPXscout.blogspot.com.  The common theme being X.  No, I'm not an X-Man, so there's no need to send the FBI over to round me up...but if I were an X-Man, I would have to be Wolverine, given that I'm from Michigan.  I know that the letter X can be scary; that elusive letter that we are trying to find what it is equal to, from the time we are first introduced to Algebra, to the time we conclude our math studies.  Unfortunately for me, that extended well into college as engineering school which was littered with that elusive X.

There is no need to fear the letter X in this case.  X can be whatever you want it to be.  Doesn't that feel great?  No need to figure it out!  There are so many acronyms in the Business Process community: BPM, BPA, BPI, PEX, LSS, ITIL, BPMS, BPMN, BPEL.  BPM has several different interpretations: business process management; business performance management; business process modeling; and even beats per minute.  Business Process Management doesn't seem to mean the same thing it did 5+ years ago, when it had mostly a workflow or process automation focus.  So really, what's the point in getting too caught up in acronyms?  Hence, BPX, where X can be: excellence; management; automation; improvement; analysis; monitoring; or another relevant word as things change.

So why BPXscout? (@BPXscout is my twitter name, just for consistency). The definition of scout is: person who is searching, investigating.  My team at work knows all too well that I am always searching for: a better way to do something; a better way to communicate a concept; or what may be "next" in our market.  In addition, I am a huge sports fan and feel that scouts are a very important part to any organization.  I also think of scouts as humble, which I try to be, but do not always succeed.

So, welcome to my blog.  Now you know what X equals.  The plan is for future posts to address relevant topics in the Business Process Community, and alternate between: serious industry observations and advice; and satire or sarcasm intended to make a point, while having a little fun.  Plans have a funny way of changing though, so we will just see...