Business Process Management (BPM) is a field of knowledge at the intersection between management and information technology, encompassing methods, techniques and tools to design, enact, control, and analyze operational business processes involving humans, organizations, applications, documents and other sources of information. The term 'operational business processes' refers to repetitive business processes performed by organizations in the context of their day-to-day operations, as opposed to strategic decision-making processes which are performed by the top-level management of an organization. BPM differs from business process reengineering, a management approach popular in the 1990s, in that it does not aim at one-off revolutionary changes to business processes, but at their continuous evolution. In addition, BPM usually combines management methods with information technology.

BPM covers activities performed by organizations to manage and, if necessary, to improve their business processes. While such a goal is hardly new, software tools called business process management systems (BPM systems) have made such activities faster and cheaper. BPM systems monitor the execution of the business processes so that managers can analyze and change processes in response to data, rather than just a hunch.

Source:wikipedia

With the rapid pace of change today, the need for transformation from today's inflexible business environment to an agile enterprise that can change direction rapidly has never been greater. Yet the structures, processes and systems that we have today are inflexible: they are incapable of rapid change. Methods and technologies for Rapid Delivery of e-Government and
e-Business Strategies are needed that support rapid business change - with systems that also change in lock-step. This is both a business problem and a computer problem.

The business process management (BPM) market at $1.0 billion in 2005 is expected to more than triple to $3.8 billion by 2012. The services oriented architecture (SOA) market at $450 million in 2005 is expected to grow rapidly through 2012, reaching $3.2 billion (source : http://www.researchandmarkets.com/).

Enterprise Architecture is fundamental for enabling an enterprise to assimilate internal changes in response to the external dynamics and uncertainties of the information age environment. It not only constitutes a baseline for managing change, but also provides the mechanism by which the reality of the operating enterprise and its systems can be aligned with management intentions.

Enterprise Architecture(EA) is a comprehensive framework used to manage and align an organization's business processes, Information Technology (IT) software and hardware, people, operations and projects with the organization's overall strategy. A strong Enterprise Architecture process helps to answer basic questions like: What are the organization's business processes, and how is IT supporting those processes?

The enterprise architect is responsible for ensuring that each and every one of a company's IT decisions are made with its impact on the entire organization kept firmly in mind. It is the architect who prevents an organization from investing in a technology that it will eventually have to replace. It is the architect's job to look for common business processes throughout an organization so that the services IT creates can be reused. This will certainly lead to streamlining and optimum utilization of resources.

There is growing demand for Enterprise Architecture and system development in cost effective markets. The roles of Enterprise Architect, Solution Architect are new career paths, which lead to top rewards and professional recognition.