Removing the barriers to the architecture discipline

Have you ever been confused by jargon-y architect language? Things like “TOGAF”, “BPMN”, and “UML” – what do they mean, and why do they matter? Or suffered through a system implementation that had a lot of upfront planning, but ended up with scope creep?

Welcome to the What’s Your Baseline Podcast, where we explore these topics and more. This podcast is about Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management, and how you can set up your practice to get the most out of it.

It is for:

  • newbies who just get started with these topics,
  • organizations who want to improve their EA/BPM groups and the value that they get from it,
  • as well as practitioners who want to get a different perspective and care about the discipline.

So what can you expect here? Each episode, we’ll be diving into a topic that is relevant for you. What it is, why it’s interesting and why you should care. We’ll also share stories from the road – how to implement best practices, and their value.

Join us on this bi-weekly journey with the What’s Your Baseline Podcast and companion blog.

Latest episodes

Ep. 77 – Mergers & Acquisitions: Luca de Risi and Nick Reed What's Your Baseline? Enterprise Architecture & Business Process Management Demystified

There was a big splash in the Enterprise Architecture tool market a few weeks ago – BizzDesign announced that they will merge with Mega and an unnamed third party (which we will learn about in Q4 soon, but cannot name here at this time). But why these two (three) players and why now? Since we know some people in the industry, I reached out to Luca de Risi from Mega and we quickly came up with the idea of doing a show about Mergers & Acquisitions and not only talk about the current example, but also more generally about ownership models, how M&A comes together, and what that means for the involved organizations. Our first guest doesn't need an introduction since he has been on the show already: Luca de Risi. Luca is Mega’s Chief Executive Officer and he held various leadership positions at the firm before that, like, being the country manager for the APAC business while being located in Singapore, or as Business Development Executive in the United States. He started his career as an internal auditor for a major French car maker before joining Mega. Our second guest is Nick Reed, the Chief Strategy Officer of BizzDesign. He is a senior software and services leader with a successful track record of building and leading teams in high growth software technology companies. Strategy development and execution, M&A, value proposition development, strategic partnerships and analyst relations. Nick builds long term relationships with customers, with a relentless focus on business value and customer success and is a strong cross-functional team player, connecting the dots across sales, marketing, product, services and customer success for strategic initiatives. In this episode of the podcast we are talking about: Luca’s and Nick’s backgrounds Forms of ownership and the impact on an organization’s strategy What are the reasons (and timing) to acquire another organization Criteria to check if you are a match Impact of a merger on customers and products What is the process of mergers and acquisitions What is the impact on the organization(s)? How is the product strategy affected? Luca and Nick can be reached on LinkedIn. More detailed information about the merger is available here: https://bizzdesign.com/bizzdesign-merger-enterprise-transformation/. Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here. — Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whatsyourbaseline/support
  1. Ep. 77 – Mergers & Acquisitions: Luca de Risi and Nick Reed
  2. Ep. 76 – BPM/EA Misconceptions: Caspar Jans & Russell Gomersall
  3. Ep. 75 – Business Architecture For A New Product: Mike DeCamp
  4. Ep. 74 – Process Mining Readiness: Olaf Geyer
  5. Ep. 73 – Leading High-Performance Architecture Teams: Amy Levine
  6. Season 7 Trailer

See more episodes

Meet your hosts

This podcast is hosted by Roland Woldt and J-M Erlendson, two experienced consultants with decades of experience in large consulting firms and tool vendors.

About Roland

Roland is the main author of this site and the podcast host.

He is a well-rounded executive with 25+ years of Business / Digital Transformation consulting and software development / system implementation experience, in addition to leadership positions within the German Armed Forces (11 years).

He has worked as a Team Lead, Engagement / Program Manager, and Enterprise / Solution Architect on many projects. Within these projects, he was responsible for the full project life cycle, from shaping a solution and selling it, to setting up a methodological approach through design, implementation, and testing, up to the roll-out of solutions.

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About J-M

J-M Erlendson

J-M is the co-host of the podcast, and is a Business Process Architect, Methodology Specialist, Conference Speaker, and Transformation Engineering Lead with over 15 years of experience in Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Architecture, Supply Chain Management and Project Management, helping clients develop and implement business process frameworks, hone process-centric strategies, and execute process improvement and architecture modernization projects. 

He is a leader in business, founding and running multiple highly-successful independent arts companies and charities.

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Meet our interview guests

Here are the guest on our show so far. Click on an image to open the episode in a new tab.

What others say

Praveen Edwin

Praveen Edwin

The What’s Your Baseline? podcast is a tool I keep in my back pocket to navigate the challenges in an ever-changing business technical ecosystem.

 

The podcast episodes cover topics that are relevant to business process management, process optimization and enterprise architecture domains.

 

The podcast gives me an immediate perspective on how, as an enterprise architect, I should look at these topics with a lens to see where and how it applies within my landscape.

Praveen Edwin

Reddy Ice
Jose Pires

José Pires

Enterprise Architecture and Process Management nowadays are filled with technical jargon, which is an unnecessary obstacle for organizations and professionals who want to get started or stand up their own practices effectively and efficiently.

The What’s Your Baseline podcast demystifies these disciplines with clear information and targeted advice. In addition to architecture-relevant topics, the podcast includes culture, business, and digital transformation practical insights that will help you run your practice better.

Roland and J-M also have great chemistry, which makes listening to their show both valuable and entertaining.

José Pires

Excellence & Innovation
Helge Hess

Dr. Helge Hess

In a business world deluged by so many buzzwords, clarity is power. That is exactly the value that the podcast ‘What’s your Baseline?’ delivers.

The two hosts Roland and J-M have decades of practical experience in the fields of Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture and manage not only to explain theoretical concepts, but also to show the very concrete practical benefits for companies on their way to Operational Excellence.

A must-hear for all BPM/EA stakeholders!

Dr. Helge Hess

Software AG
Kevin Scully

Kevin Scully

Whats Your Baseline tackles the myths and facts of the multi-billion dollar Process Intelligence market; covering topics such as Task Mining, Process Discovery, Process Mining, Process Modeling and RPA.

Roland and J-M, with their guests, provide valuable insight into the nuances of each approach to better understand how to optimize business processes. Using a medical simile, process mining provides the “prognosis” and RPA provides the “medicine.”

It’s refreshing to hear from experts who have been in the trenches versus industry analysts who just review spreadsheets and hearsay.

Kevin Scully

Kryon
Nina Bourgeois

Nina Bourgeois

In a world where podcasts have become more and more popular, it is hard to find one that is informational, provides transparency, and has facts from experts in the field.

The “What’s Your Baseline?” podcast provides valuable insight into the Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture world. It uncovers multitudes of questions one may have, and secrets to help one succeed in this space. It is the perfect on-the-go podcast for someone who is looking to learn more without having to get on a call with a sales person. J-M and Roland have 15-25 years of success in the field.

This is a must-listen to podcast for anyone looking for something relatable and to keep them hooked!

Nina Bourgeois

Zuora
Jakub Dvorak

Jakub Dvořák

Despite competing for every valuable minute of listeners’ time in an already crowded podcast scene, it’s always a pleasure to compliment a show of people who are as passionate about their work as you are.

And I can honestly say that it is precisely what I feel from Roland and his co-host J-M on the What’s Your Baseline podcast. It’s a great show about the fascinating world of BPM!

Jakub Dvořák

Process& - Host of the Mining Your Business podcast

Where to find us?

The What’s Your Baseline Podcast can be found on all major platforms. Click on an icon below or search in your favorite podcasting app.

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