Some Process Re-engineering Principles for Identity Management Projects (part 1)

I'm in the early stages of working with a colleague on a whitepaper on guidelines for business process re-engineering for provisioning projects, and thought I'd share some of our thoughts to see if I could get some feedback. (If we use anyone's feedback, we'll make sure we reference you.)

1. The first point is to put some parameters around the re-engineering effort. The most common mistake that IDM focused re-engineering efforts make is to overdo it. Once a current state process diagram is put together (preferably in BPMN) - many consultants find way too much to optimize, usually because of complaints from the customer. It's important to keep your scope in mind, otherwise the project can quickly turn into a much larger endeavor than you (and the client) had previously anticipated. It's important to focus primary re-engineering efforts on areas that can positively impact identity data. It may be tempting to re-engineer an inefficient interviewing sub-process of the onboarding process, but will most likely not impact your identity data either way. Furthermore, provioning platforms were not created to solve that problem (more on this later). On the other hand, re-engineering a self-registration process to prevent duplicate accounts will have a significant impact on your identity data. The lesson: pick your process re-engineering battles wisely.

Thoughts?

(to be continued...)

It's About the Business...

I just got back from another long day with a client to aid them lay out their identity management roadmap. I've noticed a few interesting recurring themes:

• Good technology can't compensate for bad processes (although it might make it less painful)
• Fixing your data without fixing your processes is like painting your house on a rainy day
• Throwing more software at an identity problem usually exacerbates it
• A dollar in an identity project doesn't take you as far as you'd expect (even though its well worth it)
• What business users think is happening is quite often vastly different than what is happening under the hood
  

Any other snappy one liners?