The BPM CoE is responsible for the human resource talent in a BPM program. The BPM CoE must recruit, enable, and retain the people and skills that are needed to support the transformational and growing BPM program initiatives, guided and set by the strategic component of the BPM CoE.

In recruiting BPM delivery talent, each individual role must be specifically targeted. An important note is that the first three roles are generally not successful transitions from traditional IT. Successful BPM talent comes from people who are first and foremost passionate about discovering, understanding business problems (rather than administrative, operational, documentation, or technical problems).

When new members are hired to the delivery team, they must go through a BPM enablement process (beyond the basic onboarding items for all new employees).

In most cases, enablement takes the form of four channels:

• Standard or self-paced product training
  The purpose of this channel is to serve as a basic primer, meant to introduce the relevant product and methodology to the individuals in these roles.
•  Reference and documentation material
  Use this channel only after the basic training is completed. The channel assumes that individuals already know the basic ecosystem of the tools and methodology they will be working with, and now have advanced, specific questions they want to explore on their own.
• Internal workshops and seminars
  After standard knowledge about the tools and their related methodology is absorbed by the participants, an essential step is to update that information with how it is to be applied in your organization. What is standard in the courses and documentation may not be standard you chose to follow in your organization. All such contextual knowledge about the application of BPM in your organization (from conventions, best practices, guidelines to the CoE itself) should be provided to the individuals in these roles in the form of a regular internal workshop meant to be consumed by all new additions to the team. These workshops can be delivered ad-hoc, or recorded and made available as self-paced material. in which interpretation and contextual critical thinking are essential.
• Short, targeted, boot camps
  Training, documentation, workshops, and seminars are for the most part a passive means of absorbing information. After this first set of information is delivered, it can be put into practice by actively doing work in an environment that has a specific time period and controlled risk.
  This type of active learning can be done through BPM boot camps, which provide packaged projects and exercises for the participants, and with a dedicated boot camp “track lead” to help the participants apply and use their existing knowledge to implement their boot camp projects.
  The primary purpose of boot camps is to provide a learning experience for the participants, for example, learning the tool and in applying the methodology. A secondary purpose at later stages of maturity for the BPM CoE might also be to jump-start actual BPM projects that will be deployed to production. Selecting such projects and crafting their first phase to fit within the boot-camp curriculum and timeline delivers real business value, although internal skills enablement is ongoing.

Following the boot-camp experience, your new team members are now ready to be staffed on BPM projects under the guidance of the BPM CoE. An important note, however, is that each graduate from this program will need mentoring by a more experienced individual. The mentoring period can be adjusted based on the individual, the nature of the first project the person is assigned to, and the role this person is fulfilling on that project. However it is facilitated, take mentoring seriously; mentoring should be conducted in a formal or structured fashion to accelerate achievement.

The mentoring period provides a real-world crucible in which to evaluate and examine actions that might make perfect sense in the controlled education environments, but are in fact to be avoided in certain real-world scenarios. The feedback that is received during this time can help solidify all the knowledge that is gained so far and enable your team to gain that last bit of organizational knowledge, common sense, and critical thinking that is necessary to succeed.

An enormous amount of effort goes into recruiting and enabling the members of the BPM CoE. The CoE leadership team should be directly responsible for putting in place measures to retain these team members as a part of the BPM delivery practice and to align their internal career growth with growth in their BPM delivery roles. One of the most common problems in any CoE is the continuous leaving of qualified individuals that comes with having learned new and valuable skills and a perceived lack of rewarding opportunities in which to apply those skills.

The BPM CoE represents a substantial investment for the organization and the executive sponsor’s office. It is incumbent upon the element of the CoE responsible for leadership in delivery to protect and provide a return on that investment.

This role is the highest level executive who has responsibility for (most likely, in the form of direct ownership) the BPM delivery initiative.

• Provides senior leadership.
• Sets the direction for the delivery of BPM projects.
• Establishes and evolves the funding model along with this Executive Sponsor’s counterpart for BPM strategy.
• Governs escalation processes along with this Executive Sponsor’s counterpart for BPM strategy.
• Socializes and advocates for the BPM CoE as the de facto delivery team for all BPM projects across the enterprise.

This role is typically a senior and proactive Project Manager who has experience in running wide ranging initiatives with several simultaneous projects. This person is familiar with the BPM methodology used in implementing individual projects. Typically, this role is a full-time commitment.

• Establishes, documents, and governs the BPM project pipeline.
• Establishes and governs the staffing model for addressing the pipeline.
• Runs year-long recruiting, enablement, and retention initiatives to grow the delivery team at a rate that can sustain the growing demand for BPM projects and initiatives in the enterprise.
• Establishes and governs measurement standards for BPM delivery
• Tracks execution across overall project portfolio.