Visio / Sharepoint - Dead?

Are these tools dead today?  Obviously not.  Most of you probably use them.  Some of you may even use them daily.

Although I like both of the tools, I question their value.  If you hare using Visio to map processes, those two dimensional static representations quickly become shelfware.  I could pull up dozens of these on any BAs computer or file cabinet.  With the constant change of people and processes within companies, these hold little value outside of their immediate project use.  For a short-term tool to quickly get people on board, they do well (although index cards and string might have the same effect). 

If you are focused on continuous improvement, you are doing process mapping, looking at current state and future state, identifying metrics, and hopefully evaluating automation strategies.  So, why not use a BPM modeling environment that can be imported into a run-time engine.  This is why all the software vendors started offering free modeling tools over the past year.  You could also use a BPMN template for Visio and hope that the import process works for your software of choice.

I feel the same way about Sharepoint.  Easy to use.  Simple to understand.  Decent interface.  But, isn't it just the next Access.  Every project, every team, every department has one.  There are numerous installations of this across any company using it.  You immediately lose control and have content distributed in places where it is forgotten and not integrated.  Eventually, this all has to come together.  Talk to anyone that has had to reign in their Access use for control purposes.  Something to avoid if you can. 

Since document management and collaboration are possible in BPM tools, why not do it there.  Most documents are either inputs to or outputs of a process.  Collaboration is happening around a specific instance of a process especially around exceptions to a process.  Why not centralize all of these things. 

With the BPM vendors providing easier and easier modeling and development environments using AJAX, this is something that a broader audience can use and understand.  If someone can use Access, Sharepoint, or Visio, I believe they can do 75-85% of the work in a BPM tool.  The only heavy lifting that is code specific is the integration points.  With the vendors (or consultants) developing pre-built integration "nodes" this is becoming less critical. 

So, my suggestion is to step back in your continuous improvement efforts.  Think about the long-term, and realize that a BPM solution is what you are likely needing to address mapping, versioning, collaboration, knowledge management, document management, reporting, analysis, and automation.