February 2005 Cutter Benchmark Review: The Hidden Costs of BPM Projects

by Curt Hall

Hidden costs are the most difficult to predict but tend to have the gravest consequences. For a BPM project, hidden costs are those that remain undiscovered during the project definition phase but surface during implementation because of undisclosed management requirements or bias. A legitimate question arises: "If the costs are hidden, how can I possibly prepare for them?" In truth, many hidden costs are a direct result of (1) shortsighted planning; (2) a shortcutting of the requirements-gathering process; (3) a failure to gather proper management intelligence; and (4) improper understanding of the interactions of the required toolsets and the enterprise infrastructure.