Welcome to a new endeavor for me; one that I have thought about starting for years, have contributed to a few others before, and will keep to monthly as best I am able. In my current role at IBM, I evangelize the software platform for digital business worldwide and work with clients and partners from all industries. With this lens and others from past endeavors, I hope to provide a perspective both IBM specific and broad across all enterprises. The commentary and postings on this site are my own (or a partner’s) and do not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

I feel the message of IBM Automation is a turning point in an area of digital business transformation that I have worked around my professional career. First, in systems engineering: requirements elicitation, system and user design, model first, measure always and iterate. Next in software development: iterative and agile platform, nightly build, user experience. Then in software support: process consistency, repeatable virtual images, automated testing. And now in solution architecture where I work with clients to design operational solutions that bridge between IT and business to deliver automation and drive customer value.

Please give me a moment to define the bold terms above in my words (everyone has their own!):

• Design: creation of a system that is centered around the users (participants) of that system and uses SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Participants, Outputs and Consumers) to ensure complete and delightful experience
• Agile: a combination of user centered design and iterative delivery with a constant and quick feedback loop that involves business sponsors and users (participants)
• Consistency: the first step toward automation, delivering the same, personalized experience to internal and external users (participants) throughout operational systems and workflows
• Automation: The culmination of consistent and agile design leveraging enterprise capabilities across the following pillars (in alphabetical order): analytics, business modeling, content, decisions, human and system workflow and master data

Stay tuned for more as I cover business automation topics and how they relate to the operations of all enterprises. Keep the dialog coming and thank you for collaborating with me!