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Process Creation Rulebook.

Western Sydney University

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Process Creation Rulebook. Western Sydney University

Doc # B06

Introduction.

Process mapping allows you to visually represent organizational processes so that they can be better understood, adapted and improved.

Western Sydney University captures process information using Promapp. Process mapping using Promapp allows you to record live and up-to-date processes that can be accessed and commented on by all staff.

Western Sydney University has established a number of principles and standards for creating a process, as outlined within this document.

It is important to note that Promapp cannot be used for the creation of:

Value Stream Transformation (VST) maps

Organizational charts

Network diagrams

System diagrams

Conceptual solution diagrams

Project plans

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Process Creation Rulebook. Western Sydney University

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Table of Contents

Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 1

Process accountability – process owners and experts. ........................................................... 3

Key process elements. ....................................................................................................................... 4

Linking in supporting material......................................................................................................... 6

Documenting variations, conditions and exceptions. ............................................................... 7

Roles & Responsibilities. .................................................................................................................. 8

RACI. ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Glossary. .............................................................................................................................................. 10

Use of @todo. ..................................................................................................................................... 10

System tags. ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Lean tags. ............................................................................................................................................ 10

Data Security & Privacy ................................................................................................................... 11

Document Control. ............................................................................................................................ 12

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Process Creation Rulebook. Western Sydney University

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Process accountability – process owners and experts.

A process owner and a process expert must be appointed for all processes. Appointment is assigned by lead process champion(s) following process scoping and prioritization sessions.

Process owner:

Responsible for ensuring process is effective and easy to understand

Maintains awareness of wider end-to-end process changes

Has the authority to approve process changes

Process expert:

Subject matter expert

Responds to improvement ideas and feedback

Updates process for changes

Performs process reviews (with process owner)

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Key process elements.

Process title: Always begin the process title with a verb. Each process title should not

exceed 10 words (or 50 characters) to ensure clarity.

Activity: The key steps in a process are defined as activities, which describe what the process is doing.

Task: Within an activity are tasks which describe how to carry out the activity.

Note: Also outlined within an activity are notes, used to document exceptions to a process and capture additional background. Notes (What if?) are best used when posed as a question, followed by an answer.

Roles/responsibilities: The position/role accountable for carrying out an activity is to be assigned and can include more than one person. Typically, no more than two different positions/roles are recommended, as this dilutes accountability.

Process boundaries: Outside of documented activities, process maps should also identify:

Process triggers and inputs

Process outputs and performance measures

Additional process stakeholders

Process timeframes and costs

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Process Creation Rulebook. Western Sydney University

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Process writing techniques:

Process maps are simple and easy to comprehend

Processes are to be written so the intended audience can easily comprehend and follow them.

The primary objectives of the process must be identified.

Text within a process map must be clear, simple, written in plain English and to the point.

Correct sentence case should be used eg. Apply for annual leave.

Ensure full names are used as opposed to abbreviations. When abbreviations are used, it should be defined in the Promapp glossary.

Hyphenated words within an activity title should start with a capital letter for the first word, followed by lower case for the second word.

Activities should start with a verb and be 3-6 words long.

There should be no more than 10 activities within one process – more than that, and the process should be split into sub processes.

Apply the ‘verb first’ rule

Processes are instructions to your audience on how to execute a process. To do this, use verbs (doing words).

The title of the process must start with a verb.

Activities and tasks should also start with a verb.

Distinguish the ‘usual’ or ‘normal’ process from variations

Documenting every single variation or decision within a process will result in complexity that hides / confuses the real process.

Use the 80:20 rule (create the process for activities that occur 80% of the time – the other 20% can be explained using notes within an activity).

Give the right content the right prominence

If a step in a process is important and/or commonly not being done correctly, promote this step into an activity.

Refer to the attached process for a more in-depth explanation on creating a process: https://demoau.promapp.com/tas/Process/Minimode/Permalink/Glz3jChk8NV3mJpbFzpeVZ

Refer to the Promapp Quick Reference Guide document for a summary of Western Sydney University process creation guidelines.

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Linking in supporting material.

Documents can be linked within process maps to provide ease of access and information for end users. No physical documents are to be uploaded to the Promapp system.

[Linking documents from a document repository] The document link from the DMS

can then be put into Promapp and linked to individual process maps. All referenced links

need to be linked as ‘Guides’ in Promapp. This ensures that documents remain controlled

and centralized to the DMS.

and/or

[Uploading directly to Promapp] Documents can be uploaded within process maps to

provide ease of access and information for end users.

Documents must first be uploaded and approved in Promapp. The document can then be

linked to individual process maps. This ensures that documents remain controlled and

centralized in Promapp.

Note: Documents must be created as per any applicable document creations policy of the

University.

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Documenting variations, conditions and exceptions.

Decision points should not be utilized for minor decisions or for where there are variations, conditions or exceptions to the process. Instead a note should be used to document what to do when a process deviates from the normal process.

Note title: Type the question or condition that may occur.

Note description: Provide instructions for what to do under these circumstances. If necessary, you may also add the link to another process, to a note.

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Roles & Responsibilities.

Process authors assign roles and responsibilities to Activities when mapping a process and

this creates the process map swim lanes.

These roles & responsibilities are in turn linked to relevant Persons’ profiles. This enables

customized dashboard information and notifications about processes that individuals

have a stake in.

Role: indication of a University position title / designation.

[Best Practice] Syntax to create roles in Promapp:

Role_Department(abbrev.)_Dvision(abbrev.), or

Role_School/Institute(abbrev)

Role component, referring to actual Position / Job Title, should be spelt fully without abbreviations in singular noun. Spaces accepted.

Department component refers to the University department under which this role exists. This needs to be abbreviated.

Division component refers to the corresponding University division. This needs to be abbreviated.

E.g. Business Analyst_PMO_F&R

Project Manager_PMO_F&R

The Department & Division abbreviations need to be standard across Promapp.

Responsibility: is used for a collective group of people of same Position / role across different department/divisions/schools/locations etc.; or responsibility such as ‘Fire Warden’, ‘Financial Delegate L6’, etc. that is common for multiple persons across the university.

[Best Practice] Syntax to create responsibilities is flexible. The first component should be the Responsibility (singular noun, no abbreviations), followed by level or scope of the collection it refers to (abbreviations allowed), separated by underscores ( _ ). For responsibilities spanning across the University, _WSU needs to be the suffix.

E.g.

Business Analyst_WSU : Denotes all Business Analyst across the University.

Business Analyst_F&R : Denotes all the Business Analyst under F&R Division.

Employee_WSU : All staff of University.

Employee_F&R : All University staff under F&R division.

Employee_HWK Campus : All university staff working in Hawkesbury Campus

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RACI.

The RACI tab automatically populates with certain stakeholders as captured within the process.

Responsible: Roles/responsibilities assigned to activities in the process.

Accountable: Process owner and process expert.

Consulted: Stakeholders from linked processes and any other additional stakeholders that you would like to be notified via dashboard notification.

Informed: System stakeholders.

Everyone listed in the RACI will be notified of any changes to the process via ‘My Dashboard’. Additional stakeholders to the process should be added in the RACI.

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Glossary.

The Promapp glossary is used to provide definitions for acronyms, abbreviations or commonly used terms which are specific and/or used widely at our organization. These definitions are then displayed when you hover over the term from the process map or procedure.

All staff can view our glossary list by navigating to ‘Admin’ and selecting ‘Glossary’ from the dropdown list.

Use of @todo.

The @todo function marks content that you need to come back to complete.

@todo tags appear in the process map view and the dashboard of the person who entered the text. A report can also be generated that shows a list of all @todo items.

[Best Practice] @todo tags must be actioned and removed from processes prior to their approval and publication. No published process should contain any @todo tags, and process approvers should decline approval if any @todo tags remain in the process.

System tags.

System tagging allows users to identify where systems are used within a process. This is done by including the system tag in the text of the process step. Every system can have a number of different tags Eg. Dynamics; CRM; Microsoft CRM; Customer Relationship Management tool.

[Best practice] All process editors can add a system to process maps, from the systems

list. Please contact your Promaster to request a system be added to the list.

Lean tags.

Lean tags can be used in a process to indicate which steps of the process add value or are waste etc.

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Data Security & Privacy

No personal or sensitive information should be entered in processes and/or

attachments. Information in Promapp should be entered, treated and handled in

accordance to University’s data privacy policy.

Personal information includes, but not limited to information or opinion about:

Person names, date of birth, phone, street address, financial information

Person ID #s

Person email address

Sensitive information includes, but not limited to information or opinion about:

race or ethnic origin

political opinions or membership of a political organisation

religious beliefs and affiliations

philosophical beliefs

membership of a professional association or trade union

gender and sexual preferences and orientation

criminal record

health information

genetic information

biometric information or templates

Permitted Exceptions

RACI

Process Owner, Process Expert and Stakeholders can be identified and linked to the

corresponding person’s profile in Promapp.

User Profiles

User profiles are accessed through single-sign-on using respective email ids issued by

the University. User profiles may contain information on Person name, university ID#s,

university email id, and roles and responsibilities. Only Promasters and System Admins

have access to view and edit user profile information.

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Document Control.

Document Owner Business Improvement Team, Project Management Office

Version Author/Editor Department Description of change Date

1.00 Venkat Asokan PMO First Release. 02/07/2019

2.00 Venkat Asokan PMO Added Data Security &

Privacy section. 16/07/2019

3.00 Venkat Asokan PMO Added Roles &

Responsibilities section. 22/07/2019