Luis Sanchez, MBA, PMP

As a project manager, professor and consultant in business process management, these books have been a valuable reference and a great source of ideas to create tools to support BPM initiatives, so I think it may be a helpful list when considering increasing your book collection.

Business Process Change: A Manager’s Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes by Paul Harmon.

If you are a business analyst or process consultant this is definitely something to read. Even if the book presents concepts about strategy and value chain when analyzing business processes, the author presents the most practical approach for modeling processes and organizations. Also, it provides tools to analyze activities and measure business processes. You can apply the business process redesign methodology applying architectural patterns. I found particularly useful the guidelines to redesign customer oriented process using BPM solutions.
Ed. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. 2003.

Business Process Management: Profiting From Process by Roger Burlton.

If you are starting your BPM strategy and looking for the big picture, this is a great reference. It presents a methodological approach to formulate a BPM strategy and to design, implement, and operate BPM initiatives. The methodology is organized in terms of strategy, design, and operational modes and is a good reference when defining scope and preparing plans for BPM projects.
Ed. Sams White Book. 2001.

Business Process Management, Second Edition: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations by John Jeston and Johan Nelis.

This book analyzes the reasons to involve BPM projects in the organization, in particular, drivers and triggers behind BPM implementations. I found this a very practical set of critical success factors and implementation aspects when deploying BPM initiatives. The framework to implement BPM projects is similar to Roger Burlton’s approach. Organized by phases, it introduced new ideas about value realized at the end each phase. It is a valuable resource when planning BPM projects.
Ed. Elsevier Ltd. 2008.

Essential Business Process Modeling by Michael Havey.

If you are a process architect, this is a great resource. This book presents a technical perspective about BPM technologies. The book discusses various aspects, from the process models to technical architectures of BPM solutions. If you are interested in the details of BPM standards this is a good book take a look at. Definitions and examples of BPMN, Petri nets, BPEL, Workflow management coalition’s reference model, and W3C are described in detail. It is not just drawing models in the visual component of BPM suite, the way that you relate activities and business rules will have an impact on the process execution. The book presents a useful set-up process pattern to assist process architecture definitions.
Ed. Orelly.

Failure to communicate: how conversations go and what you can do to right them by Holly Weeks.

The most difficult part in managing projects is dealing with conflicts among people. The way that we communicate, in particular the words that we use, the way we express ourselves with our emotions can get us into ‘hot water’ when dealing with team members and stakeholders. Holly Weeks provides a practical framework to manage tough conversations that will help you master your communication skills. It is a great and practical approach for project managers and team members.
Harvard Business Press, 2008.

Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons by Tim Russert.

It’s not just process and projects. This is an incredible book about our fathers it just makes me realize how important is to call mom and dad and say: Thank you and I love you.
Ed. Random House Trade paperbacks. 2006.