Identifying do’s and don’ts using the integrated business process management framework

Purpose: The authors observe that actionable guidelines are missing from many reference works on business process management (BPM). Also, success factors are mostly not contextualized in the different phases and concerns of a BPM initiative. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap. Design/methodology/approach: The research design builds on a literature survey for building an integrated framework for BPM that is referred to as integrated BPM. It integrates lifecycle phases, capability areas and governance aspects. Then, the authors consolidate insights from expert interviews. Findings: As a result, the authors provide a list of various activities that are associated with the different elements of BPM. Furthermore, the authors describe pitfalls for each of the elements that have been avoided in order to make the BPM initiative a success. Research limitations/implications: The findings emphasize the potential to study BPM success and its factors on a more fine-granular activity level. Practical implications: The list of activities and the list of pitfalls are directly applicable for practitioners. Originality/value: The research on the integrated BPM framework consolidates insights from prior research and extends it with an expert perspective on pitfalls.