Business process management (BPM) is one of the fastest-growing software markets but faces organizational challenges, according to a BEA Systems study on the BPM market.Completed January 25 and released this week, BEA’s “The 2008 State of the BPM Market White Paper” drew on more than 100 analyst reports, articles and customer surveys, the company said in an executive summary of the report.The market is estimated to grow from $500 million in 2006 to $6 billion in 2011, a more than tenfold increase. Respondents, however, cited organizational challenges to deployment as outweighing technical challenges. Organizational issues included internal politics, change management, a dearth of skilled business analysts and lack of organizational alignment. BPM has seen rapid growth in recent years because it brings business analysts and technologists together with shared tools and strategies. Successful BPM deployments view continuous process improvement as imperative, BEA said. BPM is increasingly being used to manage processes spanning multiple packaged applications.BEA reported that a survey of its AquaLogic middleware customers in November 2007 found that 68 percent of respondents connect BPM and SOA. Market consolidation was noted, with the nearly 150 vendors in the BPM space in 2006 being reduced to just 25 in 2007. Leading BPM products support collaborative and social process activities that today are lost in email, documents and hallway discussions, BEA said. Technology Industry