The world is changing faster than one might think, or at least it appears this way … and nobody seems to do solution architecture anymore.

And plenty of organizations seem to have given up on planning what they are doing and changing in their system landscape, organizations, processes, etc. But that is wrong. You need to describe the changes so that you can agree on things and everyone is on the same page (and understands the direction, goals, and measurements going forward).

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• A quick review of Season 8, and what happens here at What’s Your Baseline?
• What is solution architecture?
• How does it fit into the solution lifecycle
• Benefits of having a solution architecture
• Where in the organization should solution architects be located?
• The network of solution architectures and how to manage those
• What do you need to do solution architecture in your organization (tools, approach)?
• Elements/steps when creating the solution architecture
• How do you implement this capability (waterfall, agile, devops)?

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

Some folks go to work and are drained before they even turn on their computer, and they cannot figure out why that is when all the aspects of the job seem to be fine — the tasks, the title, the money. What they don't see is that the managers might be the reason, and that the managers miss emotional intelligence — the ability to “read the room” — and cannot adjust their behavior (and therefore are “off”).

This challenge is why we speak with Steve Ponting, who is thinking hard about this topic and is a great advocate for org change management and the way how we as humans behave (and he gives us a brief intro into the three major professional steps that brought him there at the beginning of the episode).

Steve is a strategically minded go-to-market leader at ARIS, and he guides cross-functional teams to position our capabilities with enterprise clients across multiple regions. He is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice and featured across leading publications and major platforms including CNBC, Steve combines strategic vision, operational acumen, and industry insight to deliver lasting impact.

He's passionate about helping organizations adapt, scale, and lead through change. Having gathered over 10 years' experience in direct and in-direct leadership (managing managers), Steve fosters high-performance cultures, promotes innovation through a fail-fast mindset, and enables cross-functional collaboration.

As a technology generalist, Steve's career spans senior roles across both industry and enterprise software. From serving as an IT Director to leading technical sales teams at portfolio software firms, he has developed a practical understanding of how to connect business needs with technical solutions.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Steve's background
• What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and why is it important?
• Is EQ still needed in these times of advanced technology (AI)? What happens with the people, and what are the impacts on the organizations and their customers?
• How to recognize/measure emotional intelligence
• How to get people to develop EQ and the positive benefits — purpose, belonging, and autonomy
• Where will the future go?

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Steve can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-ponting/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here:

Have you noticed transformation fatigue in your organization? The feeling that you run faster and faster, and have to do more with less, while you don't accomplish the results of the changes that you were out for?
Well, one aspect of that might be that you haven't “picked up” the folks in your organization where they are, and now they are working silently against the positive change that you want to instill. In the past, this was a simple concept, but today it is difficult to manage. That is why we invited Neelesh to our show so that he can share his years of org change management experience with us.

Neelesh is an Operational Excellence Leader with 18+ years of experience driving enterprise-wide transformation, automation, and performance optimization for Fortune 500 firms in financial services, banking, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and high-tech.

He's a proven expert in end-to-end process improvement, digital transformation, intelligent automation, and large-scale operational strategy, leading global teams to streamline workflows, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs. Neelesh specializes in scaling process excellence initiatives, integrating AI, process mining, and automation to drive sustainable business impact.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Neelesh's background
• The resistance to change — the “why” … and the lack of a “change muscle” in organizations
• Did the approach to OCM change over the years?
• The change curve and the “never-ending change” today — take a break and celebrate milestones
• How can change be decelerated to a more “human pace”? (Spoiler alert: not likely)
• Best practices in OCM
• Setting up communities / safe space
• The role of managers in change — bottom-up vs. top-down changes

Neelesh is active on LinkedIn and can be reached here: linkedin.com/in/neeleshharmalker.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

In many minds, legacy is “everything that works”. And even if that is not always true, many organizations look at their legacy systems and get a headache. How do you replace or update a set of systems that have served you so well over years or decades?

That is why we are speaking with our guest Kastin Deal about legacy modernization in this episode.

With over 8 years at Hitachi Rail, Kastin's expertise lies in spearheading IT strategy and digital transformation, aligning with the company's mission towards sustainable technological advancement. At Hitachi, the role involves balancing application, infrastructure, and data project investments and ensuring their alignment with our overarching IT strategy. Kastin's commitment to innovation and process excellence contributes to evolving business models and driving success within a global framework.

Most recently, as the Global Business Architect Lead, Kastin designed and executed the digital revamp of Hitachi Rail Group's business management system. This initiative encompassed strategy execution, process excellence, and enterprise architecture, harmonizing 50 global processes. The responsibilities also extended to product rationalization and the integration of sustainable IT practices, which have been instrumental in enhancing operational efficiency across multinational IT services and lines of business.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Kastin's background
• Definition of “legacy”
• Benefits of legacy modernization
• Alignment of Enterprise Architecture, Business Architecture, and Solution Architecture as key players
• How to get to the desired outcomes in legacy project and what architects contribute to this
• Different views needed when defining the legacy replacement solution
• Use of ArchiMate as notation for solution design

You can reach Kastin via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kastin-deal-1b22b4203/ and email at kastindeal@gmail.com.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to ⁠hello@whatsyourbaseline.com⁠ or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: ⁠https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/⁠.

Having the “Oracle of BPM” on the show? Yes, please.
Even though our guest, Zbigniew Misiak, denies that, the role he is playing is an important one for our little industry. He is one of the few who bring together the different ideas and trends that are hot every year. We were genuinely interested in speaking with him about what he learned over the years and where he sees the ship sailing. And on top of it, he turned around the roles and interviewed us for parts of the show …

Zbigniew is a BPM consultant at the BOC Group, where he also takes care of the community of their free Business Process Analysis tool (the “Community Edition”). As a part of his job, he is also working with other BPM vendors in BPMN Model Interchange Working Group. You can learn more about that effort in the “Making BPMN a true lingua franca” article on BPTrends.

Zbigniew has the privilege of working with a team of great BPM experts creating a new version of the OMG Certified Expert in BPM exam and participating in BPMN, CMMN and DMN task forces. From time to time, he also runs BPM courses at various universities in Poland. I also offer courses on Udemy such as BPMN for business analysts.

And since he doesn't have other things to do in his spare time, he is also currently co-authoring a book about BPM, which will come out later this year.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Zbigniew's background
• The history of the BPM Skills questionnaire since 2016
• Some topics from this year's version
• The “state of BPM” — trends and patterns
• Involvement of people and staging of ideas
• The example of a logistics company / InPost (also in the “additional information” section)

You can find Zbigniew's blog at bpmtips.com and reach him from there.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

We have spoken about Task Mining in the podcast before (see the “Additional information” section in the full show notes), but I haven't seen a lot of adoption of this technology in organizations — for multiple reasons that we will discuss.

However, when we got into contact with Tuhin Chakraborty from Mimica, we could not say “no” to speaking with him about their AI-driven approach to Task Mining.

Tuhin grew up in the Bay Area, which means he was exposed to technology and the changes that we all see today his whole life. This led to positions at Pandora and LinkedIn, before he started Mimica Automation in 2017. Since then, he has perfected the AI technology behind this Task Mining tool to make it a “process improvement tool, not a performance measurement tool” (I love this attitude :-).

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Tuhin's background
• What is Task Mining?
• How does Task Mining work?
• How Mimica captures the data and processes it
• How is Task Mining deployed?
• Using Task Mining to support changes in systems and monitoring the changes
• The data management/surveillance problem with Task Mining (that creates trust problems if not handled correctly)
• An outlook on the use of mining technology in the future
• Case studies and how can a customer prepare for their first project

You can reach Tuhin and take a look at the tool over at mimica.ai.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

BPM is important because everything that we do in organizations are processes.
So, why don't we agree on a common nomenclature, and educate people with a standardized curriculum? Oh, it is because the players have a vested interested in coming up with “the next best thing” and selling it to your customers?

But there is the need for a basic training for everyone (?) in an organization about process management, and the guest in this episode, Matúš Mala, is working on creating the foundation for this.

Matúš is a BPM philanthropist & coach, podcast host, independent [Business] Process Management & Automation advocate, organizer of the BPM-Munich, meetup, trainer, mentor, servant leader, career advisor, solution architect, agile developer … or to say it in other words: a busy man.
He is currently fascinated by all aspects of modern BPM, including hyperautomation, citizen development, automation fabric and other hot trends. As a lecturer at the TH Augsburg, I have the opportunity to pass on my knowledge and passion for these topics.

In this episode of the podcast, we are talking about:

• Matúš' background
• Importance of education in BPM topics — do we need it, or is it enough to learn on the job?
• Is the current education status good or bad?
• Gartner predictions for Digitalization / BPM / Hyperautomation / AI / Low-Code / … areas
• Do we need to change something? And how?

Matúš can be contacted via LinkedIn and you can find him at the Process Academy and SCR Consulting.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

We are trying something new here at What's Your Baseline? — J-M turns his focus on investigative journalism and starts asking the “hard questions” (and not just the softballs that I get from him at other times) :-)
But in all seriousness — this episode of the podcast is a conversation between the two of us, while I play the guest role and did not cheat and did not look into our Notion outline while recording.
So, what is it all about? Well — some of you might have heard — I wrote a book, which will be officially published soon (this month!). And since it is about the first and second most popular topics of all What's Your Baseline? podcasts, I think it is highly relevant for our audience.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

• Why a book, why me, and why this book?
• How was the book writing/creation process?
• What does it take to become an author?
• Self-publishing versus an established publisher
• What is the book about? Who is it meant for?
• What is next for the book, the next thing, and What's Your Baseline?

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or sign up for our newsletter and get informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.