white paper 7 steps to bpm success
TRANSCRIPT
7/28/2019 White Paper 7 Steps to Bpm Success
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COVER 7 steps
to
success
A Pragmatic Approach to
Leveraging BPM Technology
for Business Success
by Mark McGregor
sponsored by
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Executive Summary
Business Process Management or BPM as it is commonly referred is itself a
management discipline. The technology associated with it is more commonly
referred to as a Business Process Management Systems or BPMS.
Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably which has led to confusion
in the marketplace.
The confusion has caused much misunderstanding and quite a bit of infighting
among competing process groups, both inside and outside of organizations.
Some see process as a technology issue that simply involves automation or
system implementation of some kind. Others, such as some in the Quality or
Lean/Six Sigma arena believe that technology is not required.
While it could be said that both camps are wrong, equally they are both right!Many of the improvements businesses seek do not require an automation
solution and can be achieved simply be altering the way that people work.
However, from an analysis and design perspective, smart use of technology
has many advantages over simple pen and paper approaches.
This paper provides the reader with a 7 Step model that seeks to suggest
ways in which organizations can maximize their business returns. The model
sets out to blend the benefits of non-technology approaches with the more
technological ones.
Further, it aims to aid the reader in thinking about the ways in which the
different types of tools and technologies fit together in order to provide the
complete perspective. For example, even if one is not intending to automate a
process, use of appropriate technology is still important when considering how
to assess impacts and to communicate information effectively.
For ease of understanding, the examples presented here are based upon
the Casewise product set, however, other combinations of products may be
used to achieve the same linkages and results. Similarly, it may be that some
vendors are better able and more willing to support you during the non-
technology phases than others.
Introducing the 7 Steps
In should be stated right from the outset, the 7 Step model was never intended
to be definitive or prescriptive. It only sets out to suggest one way on which
you can harness the power of some of t he various technologies available for
BPM today.
It does however place a great emphasis on starting without technology and
engaging the people in the process. This is no accident as there is now
increasing evidence that starting with a technology focus can cause some
people to be disengaged with the process and for others myopia when looking
at solutions.
As with all good projects, the starting point should always be understanding
what the desired outcome is, from this you can ass ess at which step the
objectives can be achieved and then undertake the preceding steps in order
to ensure that when your objective is achieved, it is done in the most effective
manner and one in which the gains you make can be held on to.
Each of the 7 steps has associated a “Focus”, this being the suggested
objective of that step. The details of the focus for each step can be found in
the table. As you can see, the steps provide a logical progression towards
achieving the BPM excellence that many organizations seek. It should also
be clear from looking at the steps some of the reasons why traditional BPM
projects fail to deliver all t hat was hoped. By starting at step 6, we are already
potentially building fat into our systems and we have potentially alienated some
of the very people who might be affected by the new systems. If you start
from step 1 then you can be sure that you will only be eating the elephant
one small bite at a time and you will be delivering business benefits on a
more regular basis.
“Many of the
improvements
businesses seek
do not require an
automation solution
and can be achieved
simply be altering the
way that people are
working”
7 Steps to
BPM(S) Success
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Discover & Simplify (Waste Elimination)
Capture & Document (Information Capture)
Publication & Animation (Communicating)
Design & Improve (Effective Process)
Simulate & Optimize (Resources)
Generate & Execute (Operationalize)
Monitor & Manage (Continuous)
STEP FOCUSStep 1 Waste Elimination
St ep 2 I nf or ma ti on Ca pt ur e
Step 3 Effective Communicat ion
Ste p 4 Pro ce ss E ffec ti ve ne ss
Step 5 Resource Opt imizat ion
Step 6 Operational iz ing Models
Step 7 Continuous Improvement
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Step 1
Process Discovery and Simplification
This first step affords you the opportunity to get people involved. The more you
get them involved, then the easier your life will be when you come to implement
potential changes that you might make. The use of workshops and goo d old
fashioned brown paper and “post-it” notes is highly recommended, beyond
its simplicity it also has psychological benefits that are sometimes overlooked.
For example, because the map is created by everyone physically sticking their
ideas on the single piece of paper, the resulting map belongs to everyone. So
often when someone acts as a “scribe” people use the excuse “that was not
what I meant” and they perceive the scribe as the owner.
The group you will work with should be as cross functional as possible,
ensuring the biggest range of perspectives can be obtained. Very often
participants in these sessions will comment on the fact that it is the first time
they appreciated what others do, or understood how what they do fits in. This
is important as it can very quickly identify duplicated activities or other activities
that are no longer required.
The purpose of this stage is only to
speed the effective discovery of what
is currently happening, and identifying
quick and easy ways to simplify the
process. If used well it can also be
used to identify rules, breakpoints in
the process and potential customer
interactions with the process.
In order to make the most of the
opportunity afforded by this step, it is
advisable to ensure that your processes
start and end with the customer(e.g. from order to delivery or order to
pay). The simplification parts of this step
will usually fall easily out of the process
as people start to question why some
activities take place at all, although it
can be thought of as “Lean” thinking,
it does not have to follow the detail of Lean, but of course it can if it suits you
better. Finally, everyone will manage their workshops differently, which is good
as long as we do this step without technology. Technology gets in the way and
slows things down.
Step 2
Process Capture and Documentation
For some people, the capturing and documenting of processes has been their
end game. We saw much of this in the quality world, and where the project is
driven by regulation such as Sarbanes Oxley, it may still be the case today.
Very often among process
professionals or technology vendors
there is a tendency to forget that many
organizations still do not have their
processes and procedures captured
and documented in a meaningful way.
Of course building a business case for
those who have not yet done it is also
very challenging.
Many of those who have already
captured processes have done so
using simple diagramming tools such
as Visio®, while others may have
collected information in tools like
Excel. It is easy to criticize these tools
or point out the problems, but the
reality is that is what people have and
so we need to work with that reality.
The best way to leverage the assets that you already have is to ensure that
all such maps and diagrams are captured in some kind of central storage or
repository. In fact taking the outputs from step 1 and converting them into
Visio® diagrams may be perfectly suitable in some situations; in others, a
full blown modeling tool may be better. The key is to focus on the objective,
which is to capture, document and collate all your process information inone place, using the tools you are familiar with. At this stage, if capturing and
documenting is your goal then worrying about standards, notations and tooling
is to detract from that.
In many cases it is the t ime taken to undertake this phase that concerns
business managers; it can be hard to prove value. So the idea of doing it
quickly and effectively usually has great appeal. As Analysts, our job is to
guide and facilitate this step in the same way as step 1; done well this will also
increase user buy in.
Many BPMS tools provide support for importing Visio® models.
Excel Visio®
E x t e n s
i b l e
R e p o
s i t o r y
automodeler
am
Business Architects Project Managers
IT Architects Operational Staff
...use The Tools You Know
Discover Collate Map Review
Inclusive Work Carried Out By The People Involved
Fast Workshop Approach Produces Results Fast
Motivating People Feel They Are Being Heard
Compelling Hard to Resist The Idea s You Suggest Yourself
Results Bottom Line Improvements Realized Now
...and The Focus is on The Customer
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Step 3
Process Publication and Animation
Historically, one of the reasons for a lack of
acceptance by users of process models was
the way the information was presented. With
some tools today this is still the case, but on
the whole the publishing side of processes is
getting better, although there is still work to be
done. The key point of this step is to remember
that it is the user’s data and processes and it
is our job to present it to them in the way they
desire. It used to be that the expected format
was via Word or other documents, but today
we increasingly see that more use is made
of intranets and portals. For some, mobile
devices are also being used on a wider basis,
especially in environments where companies
are making real use of their process models
as the work guides for employees. Some
newer vendors have carved a market niche
out of their ability to easily publish and share
process information.
As the focus of this step is communication,
it is also worth pointing out that animation can
be really useful here. Sometimes it is easier for people to understand what
happens when they can see objects moving along a process.
Time and money spent in getting the publication and communication of your
models right will pay dividends. Some large organizations spend tens of
thousands of dollars ensuring that the documentation is branded correctly and
that users enjoy the experience. It has been shown that the easier it is to usethen the more often it will be used, the more often it is used then the more
likely it is that people will want it kept up to date. This cycle helps to ensure
that people in the business are on the same page and will almost certainly feed
back issues with the documentation (assuming that as part of this step you
make it easy for them to provide feedback to the process team.)
For many organizations or parts of organizations, this is as far as they either
need or wish to go on their journey. Certainly time spent on these first three
steps will satisfy many regulatory and compliance requirements. At the end of
step 3 you will in effect have a living, breathing, effective operations manual.
Step 4
Process Design and Improvement
For some people Step 4 might be undertaken before Step 3, as has been said,
it all depends on your overall objective. For the most part, getting information
out, shared and used as quickly as possible can be highly beneficial. The time
taken to properly undertake this phase can be quite long, especially as the one
process you were working on will now have to
link up and connect with other processes.
You are also likely to need to consider the
organizational and data models required
to support the process or changes to the
process. So it is highly likely that you will find
it advantageous to make use of a professional
modeling tool at this stage. The market for
modeling tools has exploded in terms of
choice over the past couple of years, however
most of these have been single process
focused and have not tended to be repository
based. As mentioned, having central storage
or a repository will prove vital in managing
artifacts effectively.
The key is to have choice, the ability to decide
whether you want some people to have quick
lightweight modeling via the web, or whether
you would like more business centric users
to continue using Visio®. Of course for your
serious analysts you will want them to have access to a high end professional
tool. The work you are going to require of them cannot yet be done in the more
lightweight environments.
The key for this stage is process effectiveness, and to be effective we have
to be able to link back to strategy and goals, look across multiple processes
and to connect with our data, application and network architectures. In many
ways this stage could be described as fleshing o ut the Business Architecture
and making sure that all the pieces fit together. To date, many BPM projects
have potentially gone down the same route as 4GL environments before them,
focusing so much on one element and ignoring the other. This is also the step
where we may need to capture and model business rules.
Once we think we have the answers we were looking for, we can move on.
Visio®Corporate Modeler
+ Easier Deployment
+ Easier Buy-In
= Less Resistance
+ More Choice
+ More Flexibility
+ More Productivity
= Lower Cost
Via Web Browser
Modeling the way You Prefer
If a picture paints
a thousand words,
then a movie paints
an entire library.
Easier to Show
than to Tell!
Your Data
presented
Your Way
Word, HTML,
Intranet, Portal
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Step 5
Process Simulation & Optimization
There are many in the BPM community who speak out against simulation,
however it can play a major part in many projects. In part this has been due
to misunderstandings over how and when best to apply it. 2009 saw a lot of
publicity around major projects where if throughput had been simulated first
then problems may not have occurred. It is also t rue to say that for some
smaller projects the cost of gathering data can outweigh the benefits.
Simulation functionality though can
enable us to more accurately optimize
resources, understand and assess the
impacts of change and predict peaksand bottlenecks in process. Although
the experimentation approach will
work for some, the risks associated
may be too great for others.
Another challenge when using
the technology can be the level of
understanding of those attempting to
use the tools. This does not have to
be the case and much can be gained
by even basic scenario
based planning.
Once again, the key is to be clear on
what you want to achieve, in the manufacturing Six Sigma community the use
of statistical analysis is seen as a key tool in understanding root causes and for
finding problems that evade simple process analysis. Others have seen that
in financial services, being able to asses and predict resource requirements is
extremely useful.
The purpose here is to illustrate where simulation fits in to your overall strategy,
and in this case it requires well specified models on which to operate.
Using the right type of s imulation capability makes it easier to test and optimize
before implementation and also to once again assess the impact of changes in
one part of your process or system against others.
It may not be a must have for you, but you would be wise to ensure that you
have the capability and knowledge to use it where appropriate.
Step 6
Process Generation and Execution
This is the step that has been the driver for many of today’s BPM projects; as
we have seen there is much that needs to be done before this step if you want
to achieve the maximum benefits. The generation of workflows from process
models is a major advantage of the professional modeling tools over the use
of the relatively simple workflow designers included with many BPMS systems.
Part of the challenge faced by many who have used this as a starting point has
been how to connect the various processes together or to conduct impact
analysis when changing flows.
The use of the term workflow as opposed to
process flow is used purposely. There are
many different ways of expressing a process
flow map/model/diagram, any of which
may serve the purpose of simplification or
communication. But, if you want to generate
and execute a system then the workflow
description has to be very precise. If looked
at another way, the workflow model is
nothing more than a visual representation of
a computer program, and we all know that if
you were to write a program then you have
to be very specific. This challenge over
precision against lack of precision is the
cause of many of the debates in the process
community today.
Ideally you should be looking at an
environment that will easily allow you to
link the precise workflow models with the
imprecise process models and that will allowyou to then generate the workflows and
execute them in your chosen engine.
The ability to be able to trace forwards and backwards through the various
elements (process model, workflow model, application element) will make
your life much easier. It should be stated that linguistically it is more important
to have a “described by” linkage than an “inheritance” type linkage, as you
navigate up you will invariably identify increased “vagueness” – this is normal
and is advantageous from a business standpoint.
ScenarioPlanning
Visualize / TestHypothesis
Statistical Analysis
Corporate Synergy (Workflow)
Corporate Synergy (Application)
Corporate Modeler (Business Process)
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Step 7
Process Monitoring and Management
Assuming that your end objective is the ongoing management of your
business, then having a proper dashboard is essential. As with Step 3, the way
you share this is important and it is highly likely that mangers today may want
access to such data either via mobile devices or as email alerts. However, the
objective of the dashboard is to monitor and alert, not to reconfigure systems.
The complexity of businesses means that it is highly likely that any single
process exists in isolation. The alerts serve to enable managers to assign staff
in an appropriate manner to consider the issues.
In some cases it may be true that a
simple reassigning of resource might
be possible, but in other cases it may
require reworking or a process. In these
cases it is important that an analyst be
used, so as to look at the issue as a
whole. Effective process dashboards are
more than a simple graphic indicator;
they are the window through which
you can view what is happening in
your business, not just in your software
application. Ideally your dashboard will tie
in to your corporate Balanced Scorecard,
if you have one.
When an analyst “opens the hood”
they will need to be able to drill either
to workflows, in the case of potential
system issues, or into process flows in
the case of more systemic issues. Having the ability to directly navigate around
and across your process and data architecture is vital if you are to avoid a silomentality. For many organizations today there is a real risk that they will simply
move from functional silos to process s ilos. The only way to avoid this is to
ensure that you keep looking across as well as up and down, and that you
constantly monitor impacts outside of the process.
When done right, this management information system will enable you to
continuously improve your processes; however it is strongly advised that you
do not limit improvements to managing what is and always consider what else.
Conclusion
As stated, the steps outlined here are not the only way of organizing your BPM
project, they do provide a solid basis upon which you can develop and build
your own steps. They demonstrate a way of starting without technology and
then bringing in the appropriate technology as required. Through these steps
it can be easier to: increase buy-in for change, deliver real business results
quickly, leverage the tools you have and build on the knowledge that already
exists within your organization.
Furthermore, an approach such as this can also be a way of integrating
the competing process groups within an organization. A way in which the
operational excellence teams can work with the Lean/Six Sigma teams, while
all can benefit from the value the IT team bring to the party, and in a way that
keeps the risk/compliance team onside too.
Fundamentally, BPM is about change and change is about people. So whether
you choose to use this model or another, the key to your success will be how
well you engage a wide group of people, staff, customers and stakeholders
and how well they buy-in to your program.
Finally, as has been said, the 7 Step process can be applied using many
different combinations of vendor’s products. It may be that you will find it useful
to ask potential vendors how they will support you through the various steps
when assessing new products or suppliers.
PROBLEMS?
Drill Down to
Workflow or
Business Process
Re-Animate / Re-Simulate to Indentify & Apply Solutions
“can be easier to:
increase buy-in for
change, deliver real
business results
quickly, leverage
the tools you have
and build on the
knowledge that
already exists within
your organization.”
About The Author
Mark has worked in the IT Industry for over 30 years, he has held executive positions
with a number of software vendors. Well known for his ability to help companies
bridge the gap between business and IT, more recently he has focused helping
business understand how to maximize the value of process programs, from both apeople and systems perspective.
Mark has authored five books “People-Centric Process Management”, “In Search of
BPM Excellence”, “Thrive! How to Succeed in The Age of The Customer”, “Winning
With Enterprise Process Management” and “Extreme Competition” (Contributor). The
range and depth of his experience lead him to be sought after for speaking, advice
and workshops by users, vendors, analysts and conference organizers alike.
Mark can be contacted via [email protected] or www.markmcgregor.com
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About The Sponsor Established in 1989, Casewise provides software and consulting solutions to over 3,000 major
global organizations for Business Process Analysis, Business Process Management, Enterprise
Architecture and Governance, Risk & Compliance purposes. These solutions enable organizations
to visualize, audit, report, improve and continually maximize complex operating processes and
technology infrastructures.
With a team of passionate experts, and with offices in the United Kingdom, United States, France,
Belgium and Germany - and a network of global resellers - Casewise provides thought leadership
and solutions enabling clients to achieve stronger strategic planning, better decision making and
improved business efficiencies.
From Design to Execution - BPM solutions to Empower your Organization
Corporate Synergy from Casewise provides the necessary tools to create, implement,
automate and manage business processes efficiently and effectively without the need
of IT involvement. The end result sees the total alignment of the organization from being
functionally driven to process driven.
• Accessreal-timemanagementinformation
• Increasespeedofsolutiontomarket
• Increaseproductivity&efficiency
• ImprovecommunicationsbetweentheBusinessandITfunction
• Reducedoperationalcosts
• Automatemanualprocesses
• Improvedcommunication.
Combined with Casewise’s comprehensive modelling toolset the Corporate
Modeler Suite, users have the total and complete solution to map,
model and execute process workflows easily and a effectively.
www.casewise.com
Copyright Mark McGregor www.markmcgregor.com 2010 – All rights reserved