Public Description - Adaptive Case Management

Adaptive Case Management (ACM) is information technology that exposes

structured and unstructured business information (business data and content)
and allows structured (business) and unstructured (social) organizations to
execute work (routine and emergent processes) in a secure but transparent
manner.
ACM involves three distinctive paradigm shifts:
1. ACM is a productive system that deploys not only the organization and process
structure but through backend interfaces becomes the system of record for the
business data entities and content involved. All processes are completely
transparent as per access authorization and fully auditable.
2. ACM enables non-technical business users in virtual organizations to
seamlessly create/consolidate processes from business entities, content, social
interactions, and business rules. ACM can be unstructured or strict.
3. ACM moves the process knowledge gathering in the life cycle from the
template analysis/modeling/simulation phase into the process execution. The
ACM system collects actionable knowledge (no discussion necessary how) based
on process patterns created by business users.

Comparison: ACM vs. BPM

What is the difference between Adaptive Case Management (ACM), and Busienss
Process Management (BPM)?
Abstract: ACM and BPM

both used to help workers within organization to coordinate better, to

achive goals more efficient, and to better meet the needs of their
customers.

both involve data, process, roles, communications, integration and

analytics.

however, they take very different approaches to doing this which are
effective in different business situations.

Business process management approaches the problem of improving the work of

an organization from a strongly process centric point of view. The first thing you
think about is the process. In a certain way, it is the process which defines
whether two instances are similar or not.

Data flow into and out from the process. The process represent the goal of a
particular sequence of actions, but that goal is not itself an information resource.
the process instance contains process relevant data, as well as application data,
but it is generally assumes that that daate is a copy of data that has its source
elsewhere. This is the main point about "integration" of the process into other
information resources.
BPM might be visualized in this diagram:

ACM also tries to improve the performance of an organization, but instead of

considering the process primary, it is the case information that is primary. This
information is an information resource, which will be accessed over the length of
use, and in many situations will become the official record (system of record) for
that work.
There can be processes, but the processes are brought to the case, and run in
the context of the case, rather than the other way around.
An ACM system might be envisioned as this:

Both approaches deal with

process relevant data,

allow for processes.

produce history information that can be analyzed to determine the

efficiency of the group involved.

available to multiple people

people are notified of tasks

cature the results of tasks

At a technical level these are similar or even identical. But at a methodological

level, how you approach a given problem, they are opposite ends of a spectrum.
In BPM, the process is primary, and so normally the process is predetermined
and static, while the data flow through it. With ACM, it is the data that is primary,
which tends to remain persistent for a long time, possibly forever, but it is
processes which are brought to it. In many cases with ACM the processes are not
even fully predefined, but can be defined on the fly.
The net result is that BMS and ACM are useful for different kinds of business
situations.

Highly predictable and highly repeatable business situations are best

supported with BPM.
o

For example signing up for cell phone service: it happens thousands

of times a day, and the process is essentially fixed.

Unpredictable and unrepeatable business situations are best handled with

ACM.
o

For example investigation of a crime will require following up on

various clues, down various paths, which are not predictable before
hand. The are various tests and procedures to use, but they will be
called only when needed.

What is Adaptive Case Management?

By Barb Mosher Zinck | Aug 9, 2010
On July 15th there was an interesting Tweet Jam (on Twitter) related to managing
unstructured processes with Adaptive Case Management (ACM). There was lot of
discussion on the similarities and differences between ACM and business process
management, and tweets related to why its important, best practices and more.
What follows is summary of that TweetJam (thanks to Jay Roberts at Global360).
What is Adaptive Case Management?
Adaptive Case Management (ACM) is a way provide enough structure to
knowledge work to make it manageable, but not so much as to strangle itIt is
the way to manage the intelligent anarchy that is knowledge work.
Business process management (BPM) and enterprise content management (ECM)
suites alone are insufficient for dynamic case management, but the convergence
ofBPM, ECM, business analytics and event processing will breathe new life into
case management and will provide new opportunities for businesses to benefit
from the technology.
If you approach solving ACM from a BPM angle, you will fail. Start in the middle
with the person working the case, then move outward. You can model the
opening of a case and the completion of a case, but the working of a case needs
fluidity. This fluidity must be captured and categorized to be leveraged as a
resource for future cases. Its a people first approach to processes.
Why all the buzz about ACM Now?
According to Forresters Connie Moore, We think the nature of work is changing.
Repetitive work is automated or off-shored. Whats left is really hard. (Keith)
Knowledge work is not routine. Precise work depends upon the situation.
Emergent, highly effected by how it unfolds.
Its true that case management has been around for some time, but the buzz is
growing these days because of the increasing importance of knowledge work
on the demand side and the availability/evolution of more effective adaptive
case management solutions on the supply side.

There is an acknowledgment that knowledge work which can be defined as

using your creative brain to achieve a goal and in fact many of the core
business problems companies face, is generally non-repeatable and
unpredictable.
ACM needs to enable the end user to adapt, to deal with work as it happens, and
to generally exercise judgment and apply expertise. There is a groundswell of
interest in the topic, not because of the vast benefits of the widget of the day,
but because there exists a set of problems that either arent predictable enough
to use existing solutions for, or are too complex and therefore impractical to try
and model with any success.
ACM is credible and extends the capabilities of the BPM approach, but a clear
methodology needs to be defined to make it work.
Intriguing Tweets (some captured in content above):

piewords: Knowledge work needs triggers, works best with others.

Collaboration increases it. #bpm can keep it on track, but not solve it.

neilwd: Careful to avoid retrofitting knowledge work defn to fit to the

#acm pattern. Theres a spectrum of work; blurred boundaries.

frijswijk: One important observation i made last 2 weeks. The Business

User doesnt care about models, it finds it way too complex.

piewords: If you approach solving ACM from a BPM angle, you will fail.
Start in the middle with person working the Case, then move outward.

piewords: You can model the opening of a case & the completion of a case,
but the working of a case needs fluidity.

cmooreforrester: knowledge work to me is when the worker has latitude to

make lots of difference choices/decisions; process isnt prescribed

tomshepherd: @frijswijk Goal driven, obviously important part of work.

ACM not about creating knowledge management free for all

piewords: The fluidity in the working of a case must be captured &

categorized to be leveraged as a resource for future cases.

JoshuaWaldman: @piewords so its a people first approach to processes. I

dig it.

A lot of the conversation is related to a book called Mastering the Unpredictable:

How Adaptive Case Management Will Revolutionize the Way That Knowledge
Workers Get Things Done.