Process Governance, Roles and Centers of Excellence
Scope
Decision rights, accountability and organisational structures that keep the process portfolio aligned with strategy.
Core rules
- Governance sets decision rights, policies, standards, controls and escalation for the process portfolio.
- Roles: process owner (accountable for end-to-end performance, targets, change approval), process manager (day-to-day operational performance of a process or segment), process analyst, process architect (architecture and portfolio), process participant, process steward, BPM center of excellence, executive sponsor or steering committee.
- Process architecture levels: 1 process landscape, 2 process groups, 3 process models, 4 detailed procedures, 5 IT/technical implementation.
- Portfolio management: inventory, prioritisation, lifecycle status (new, maintain, retire), strategic alignment.
- CoE operating models: centralised (CoE does the work), federated or hub-and-spoke (CoE owns method, standards, tooling and coaching while business units execute), hybrid.
- RACI separates responsible from accountable, which matters because accountability is not delegable.
Worked example
A team wants to change a credit-check step in lending. The process manager raises the need; the process owner approves because end-to-end controls and KPI targets change; the CoE confirms modelling standards and tooling; IT implements. Reasoning: accountability sits with the process owner, not the team that spotted the problem, and the CoE enables rather than owns the process.
Traps that cost marks
Treating the process owner as a project manager or line manager. Assuming the CoE models everything, when its usual mandate is standards, method, tooling, coaching and cross-process portfolio work.