Item: IBM Blueworks Live
Rating: 10
Author: Brian Durr

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our company uses it to capture processes and decisions for our clients. We use it with many clients in various industries. Lack of managing policies, processes, and decisions that are key business assets.

Pros and Cons

Business user-friendly - most business people can start to utilize BWL very quickly.
Easy way to capture and build processes starting with the discovery map.
Central repository for a single truth for areas to go to. Business architects can understand the current process and begin to do to-be models. Business Analysts can know where to go and start to get the current as-Is model, rather than spending time and effort trying to capture the information from SMEs to just get a project started.

Analytics - the ability to have more robust analytics. For processes being able to get information about the metadata and to be able to export that information. In addition, being able to capture end-to-end processes, sub-processes, and linked processes. To get the analytics across that value chain. To be able to export that for various areas to do analysis, problems, and opportunities.
Reporting - Being able to have reported. For such a business-facing tool, the reporting capabilities are non-existent. This to me is a drawback to more adoption by the business. Business shouldn't have to go to IT to build reports using APIs.
CM - Being able to capture content in BWL. Keeping pace with Digital Business Automation means BWL has to be enhanced to stay current. I feel that changes get made only after a competitor comes out with a new model capturing ability. BWL can be a great tool and should be invested in and improved with innovations not just catch up.
Create the ability to ingest Decisions into IBM ODM product.

Return on Investment

BWL has allowed us to assist clients in capturing and modeling their processes and decisions.
Organizations that have embraced the tool and concepts are able to under what is happening with their processes and decisions and to leverage that information to make decisions that have the most impact on the organization.

Alternatives Considered

Tristotech BPMN

Support Rating

I have gotten great response for the very few times I needed support.

Key Insights

Do you think IBM Blueworks Live delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Blueworks Live's feature set?

Did IBM Blueworks Live live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of IBM Blueworks Live go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Blueworks Live again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

BWL is a great tool that can easily be used by business customers. It also is a great tool to build a Center of Excellence - providing customers the ability to manage their policies, processes, and decisions in one location. A single source of truth that can be leveraged to meet compliance, understand where information is being used, analysis of where laws and regulations impact processes and decisions. A tool to be leveraged to maintain knowledge and provide the ability to transfer knowledge to new employees. Organizations that used this tool to maintain and manage these assets will be able to make changes more rapidly and have confidence in the decisions they make because the tool is the single source of truth. BWL provides the tool to build a culture of continuous improvement and optimization within an organization that is willing to implement the discipline that goes along with the tool. BWL should be the central tool for all change management, lean six sigma, TQM and any other method or approach used by an organization.

Blueworks is a tool that provides the means for an organization's proactive management discipline

Overall Satisfaction with Blueworks Live