Measuring Levels of Raw Intelligence in Your Processes

Jim   Sinur
Jim Sinur VP and Research Fellow, Aragon Research Read Author Bio || Read All Articles by Jim Sinur

As processes become more intelligent, we will likely want to measure the level of intelligence, as I discussed in "How Smart Is your Business?"  Doing this will give organizations an idea where they are in a continuum of trying to become a smarter business over time. This month I will cover the "I" portion of the "ISAA" [Intelligent, Social, Agile, Autonomous] framework described in that column.

I propose the following five levels of raw intelligence that build on each other.

1.  Handling Expected Business Logic

policies/rules of expected (traditional) conditions and actions, typically handled by a preplanned process that leverages sets of orchestrated applications/services

These processes are the typical, traditional (ensconced) best and standard practices. This is action-oriented intelligence that is burned-in base intelligence that can change from time to time.

2.  Recognizing Emerging Events and Patterns

processes that can recognize events of opportunity or threat

These processes are a step above those processes that can simply act on normal conditions and expected exceptions.  Once an emerging event or pattern of events is recognized, a smarter process can notify (in cases where no action logic exists) and act with preplanned responses. Quite often, exceptions, opportunities, and threats can be taken advantage of in a timely fashion to the benefit of a business.

3.  Analyzing Alternatives with Poly Analytics

processes that can analyze emerging patterns — either on-demand or in-line

These processes are a step above those processes that can simply recognize situations that may require attention and action.  Processes that have analytics built-in to run in real time will have a better chance to intelligently anticipate and determine the next best action for processes in-flight.  Processes instrumented with multiple (poly) analytics will be smarter.

4.  Machine Assistance/Learning

processes that can suggest the right analytics to use in the right combination, based on goals that are set at the moment

These processes are a step above those processes that can simply analyze.  A process that can suggest actions, based upon its own analysis, to process operators and participants will be invaluable for situations where managed agility is required.

5.  Digital Direction

processes that can think and act on their own, within predetermined constraints

These processes are the ultimate in intelligent processes.  These could be goal models that are either static or dynamically-calculated and are assisted by intelligently-balanced analytics or heuristics. This kind of process will require great care in setting boundaries (for example, boundaries set up for non-violation).

Net; Net

There are definite levels of raw intelligence that processes can possess.  We will need to learn to utilize these various levels of intelligence over the coming years.

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Standard citation for this article:


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Jim Sinur, "Measuring Levels of Raw Intelligence in Your Processes" Business Rules Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2, (Feb. 2014)
URL: http://www.brcommunity.com/a2014/b744.html

About our Contributor:


Jim   Sinur
Jim Sinur VP and Research Fellow, Aragon Research

Jim Sinur is an independent consultant and thought leader in applying business process management (BPM) to innovative and intelligent business operations (IBO). His research and areas of personal experience focus on business process innovation, business modeling, business process management technology (BPMT), processes collaboration for knowledge workers, process intelligence/optimization, business policy/rule management (BRMS), and leveraging business applications in processes. Mr. Sinur was critical in creating the first Hype Cycle and Maturity Model, which have become a hallmark of Gartner analysis, along with the Magic Quadrant. He has been active in the rules, data and computing communities, helping shape direction based on practical experience. Mr. Sinur has vertical industry experience on the investment and operational sides of the insurance and financial services.

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