What's Your Baseline? Enterprise Architecture & Business Process Management Demystified

One of the skills that I see an increasing demand for Business Analysts is data analysis. Especially when “new” tools like Process Mining shift the landscape towards data-driven analysis.And besides the need to learn these new skills, I also see multiple tools that are very pricey and might be cost prohibitive for some organizations, so they fall back to the universal Swiss knife in business… Excel.One of the tools that beats that trend is KNIME, which not only is open-source but also has a great community and great training offerings. Besides the fact that the tool is great, if you have ever watched a video from KNIME you will recognize the voice of our guest, Rosaria Silipo, immediately.Rosaria has been a researcher in applications of AI and Machine Learning for over a decade. Application fields include biomedical systems, IoT, customer intelligence, financial services, social media, cybersecurity, and automatic speech processing. She is currently based in Constance (Germany) / Zurich (Switzerland).In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:Rosaria's background—she brings decades of experience, from early neural networks in the 1990s to shaping the KNIME community.A journey through data science history: hardware limits, Big Data, GPUs, deep learning, and today’s AI-driven shift.From building models to consuming and fine-tuning AI: why modern analytics is now more engineering than research.Tool evolution matters: visual, low-code platforms lower the barrier without blocking advanced use cases.Open source as an accelerator: community, shared extensions, education, and faster innovation.Why Excel breaks at scale—and how reproducible data pipelines outperform spreadsheet heroics.KNIME’s strength: step-by-step logic, transparency, and workflows you can explain to stakeholders.Education over hype: tools are powerful, but data literacy and validation remain non-negotiable.Rosaria’s focus forward: growing AI learning communities and mentoring young entrepreneurs.AI realities: hype is real, but fundamentals still matter—especially for tabular and business data.Community beats lock-in: ecosystems outlast tools and make practitioners better.Final takeaway: better analytics isn’t about smarter tools—it’s about people, clarity, and shared understanding.You can reach Rosaria via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosaria/. PS: Please reach out to us by either sending an email to [email protected]. And meanwhile, don't forget to subscribe to the What's Your Baseline? podcast on your favorite platform.And if you like what you see here and want to support “the little podcast that could,” please check out our Patreon at https://patreon.com/whatsyourbaseline.

Happy New Year!We are back from our regular break, in which we really did not do a lot for the podcast but were working on other things that you will discover throughout 2026. We are super excited about our plans, but it is not the time to talk about it … as we say in Germany, “lay the egg first, and then cackle.”However, for our first episode of Season 10 (who would have guessed that?), we have a very special guest and an exceptional co-host: Michael Hill and Caspar Jans. Both are very well known in our industry, and Caspar is still polishing his medals that he received from the PEX network ;-)Michael is a journalist and editor with experience in various mediums, including print, digital, video, webinars, and podcasts. He is passionate about the editorial and publishing processes and enjoys working creatively to produce media that has the biggest possible impact on the audience.And he is also the editor of the Process Excellence Network, an outlet that many of us know :-)In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:Michael explains PEX Network’s role as a content and community platform for process excellence, transformation, automation, and AI leaders.His journey into journalism started with a love for storytelling, creative writing at university, and a less-glamorous detour into insurance. Eight years covering cybersecurity journalism shaped Michael’s editorial approach before he transitioned into the process excellence space.PEX Network is positioned as more than a publication: it blends daily news, thought leadership, reports, webinars, and virtual events.The discussion highlights PEX’ push to become a trusted news source for the process and transformation community.Michael walks through a “day in the life” of an editor—balancing breaking news, long-form reports, contributor management, and vendor collaboration.The group explores how AI is reshaping content consumption search behavior and what “quality content” means in a zero-click world.A candid look at different content formats shows why virtual All Access events drive the strongest engagement across the community.The PEX Leaders Lists are unpacked as a mix of community recognition, inspiration, and organic reach, not paid promotion.Sponsored content and vendor partnerships are discussed openly, emphasizing editorial integrity, trust, and mutual value.Looking ahead, Michael outlines PECS’ future focus: video-first formats, broader transformation topics, and the “Future of BPM,” starting with the February All Access event.You can reach Michael via LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hill-1a17b08b/. Please reach out to us by either sending an email to [email protected] or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

We had episodes about BPM education on the show before, but this time we speak with someone who is from a different generation than your regular hosts.And our guest Daniel Matka is building a “Process Academy” to bring process management knowledge to the next generation. And while doing this, he's building modern ways of structuring content that will speak to this audience.Daniel was a product owner/project manager in the field of process automation at Robert Bosch GmbH. Today, mastering highly complex processes and automating networked business processes are at the center of my vision for a user-friendly workflow suite. This requires, among other things, creativity, which I demonstrate as the managing director of the music label Madstep even outside work hours.One of Daniel's main goals is to share the knowledge and experiences he has gathered throughout his career with others and support them on their journey. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:Daniel Matka returns to What’s Your Baseline? to discuss a bold idea: rethinking BPM education so it actually scales beyond workshops and slide decks. Coming from a mechanical engineering background at Bosch, Daniel explains how process automation projects grew from a two-person experiment into a 40-person automation team with real business impact.A key trigger for Process Academy was the challenge of educating 15,000 people, not just a handful of BPM experts, without relying on repetitive, trainer-dependent workshops.Daniel argues that traditional BPM training doesn’t scale: it’s expensive, inconsistent, and often depends more on the trainer’s skills than on a shared, reliable curriculum. One major pain point: “No one wants to teach BPM fundamentals 100 times.” Experts want to solve real problems, not repeat the same basics over and over.Inspired by Duolingo, Daniel and his co-founder Matus envisioned microlearning for BPM—small, daily learning units that fit into real workdays.Process Academy is built around skill trees, not linear courses, allowing learners to unlock capabilities step by step based on their role, maturity, and interests. The focus is on T-shaped skills: broad BPM fundamentals for everyone, with deeper specialization paths for modeling, automation, mining, or architecture.Daniel emphasizes that learning must be continuous, not event-based: five to ten minutes a day beats a two-day workshop once a year. Gamification isn’t about points—it’s about motivation and momentum, such as streaks, progress visibility, and clear skill progression.Process Academy is intentionally set up as a nonprofit to attract top BPM experts who contribute out of conviction, not just commercial interest. “Nonprofit doesn’t mean no money,” Daniel clarifies—it means no cashing out at the expense of the community or inflated license models. The long-term vision is a community-endorsed curriculum, where respected practitioners stand behind the content and skill definitions.Rather than chasing hypergrowth, Process Academy follows a long-term path, focusing on quality, credibility, and shared ownership by the BPM community.Daniel sums it up with a generational perspective: building something that still matters decades from now—not just the next funding round.Daniel can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmatka/.Please reach out to us by either sending an email to [email protected] or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

There has been a lot of consolidation in the process/architecture space in the last few years, mostly driven by PE firms. But why is that so, and why does it seem that there is no alternative to this business model?Back in the day there were foundations behind the companies, or they were privately held, and the only thing (besides a few smaller players you might not even have heard of) that I see are some open-source projects in the automation space … mostly driven by the decision to go closed-source by Camunda.One of these projects is SpiffWorks, and we invited the CEO of the company behind it, Dan Funk, to our little show. He is an expert in identifying organizational and technological patterns, using visualizations and written communication to build consensus around technical directions. Dan is committed to aligning technology initiatives with business objectives, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and mentoring engineering talent.Dan is also a thought leader and co-authored numerous publications as the technical lead for a web-based research application promoting healthier patterns of thinking using interpretation bias training. In addition to this, Dan is the co-founder of the Makerplace in Staunton, VA, where he established a makerspace offering low-cost access to state-of-the-art electronics tools, laser cutters, CNC machines, a pottery studio, and woodworking equipment.In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:Dan's backgroundOpen-source projects require community support to thrive—SpiffWorks aims to bridge the gap between business and technical teams; Python is chosen for its readability and ease of use in process automation.Building a sustainable open-source project involves finding a viable business model, and community engagement is crucial for the success of open-source initiatives.Open-source software is foundational to modern technology infrastructure.The future of process automation lies in making technology accessible to non-technical users.Effective communication is key to resolving conflicts between business and technical teams.The open-source model can be compared to a city with shared infrastructure. Support for open-source projects can (and should) come from larger companies benefiting from them.You can take a look at Spiff Works at https://spiff.works/ and reach out to Dan via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/funkdan/.Please reach out to us by either sending an email to [email protected] or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.

To implement AI (and processes) correctly, you need good data. But what does that mean? Well, firstly it means that you can define your data product and to achieve that you need good data governance.But are we now in a super-nerdy topic? No, this is what we all do in some form or another … but in different fidelities and maturities.To shed some light on the topic of data governance, we invited Angelika Rinck for this episode. She started her career studying public administration and then served in the German federal police before switching to the regular industry (in the aerospace industry, and while that might not be enough, she studied economics in parallel).Somehow she found her way into consulting and is working now in digitalization and IT projects. Her main focus here is product lifecycle management and data governance.In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:Angelika’s career journey: from e-commerce working student in Hamburg to aerospace, engineering, and ultimately major IT and data governance initiatives.Her first agile project—complete with a physical Kanban box—sparked her love for IT project management and structured delivery.A detour into underwater orienteering reveals surprising parallels to data work: precision, navigation, and making decisions in the dark.Defining data governance: the framework of rules, processes, and responsibilities that guide how organizations create, use, secure, and improve data.Why it matters: Governance drives clarity, accountability, and value creation—not just control or compliance.Understanding the difference between data governance (framework and value creation) and data management (the operational “doing”).A common failure pattern: organizations naming “business data stewards” without training, tooling, or understanding the expectations.Governance only works when decentralized experts feed real issues into a central team—not when policies are pushed top-down in isolation.Data products demystified: they’re the outcome of well-governed data—reusable, high-value information assets that improve processes, decisions, speed, or cost.Real examples: using historical field data instead of simulation data to accelerate engineering calculations or using decades of bird-flight video to predict weather with AI.Risks of bad data with AI: incorrect system guidance, support tickets exploding, contradictions between outdated documents, and misplaced trust in “the easy button.”Governance foundations: critical data identification, metadata transparency, ownership, RASCI clarification, and understanding who creates, changes, and consumes data.The messy reality: access rights often don’t match process needs—leading to shortcuts, bypasses, and unintended process redesign opportunities.Final takeaway: data governance isn’t bureaucracy—it's a structured path to value, clarity, and safer AI adoption, but it requires real effort, definitions, ownership, and cultural change.You can reach Angelika on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelika-rinck-b93a7019b/.Please reach out to us by either sending an email to [email protected] or signing up for our newsletter and getting informed when we publish new episodes here: https://www.whatsyourbaseline.com/subscribe/.