Alec Sharp Process Traction

Getting Traction for “Process” What the Experts Forget

Prepared for Dafna Levy’s blog BPM Intro

Alec SharpConsultantClariteq Systems Consulting Ltd.West Vancouver, BC, [email protected]

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Traction for “Process” Speaker background

Alec Sharp, Clariteq Systems Consulting25 years consulting and facilitation experience:• Business Process Redesign / Improvement

(discover, model, analyze, improve processes)• Application Requirements Definition

(Use Cases and Service Specifications)• Data Modeling and Management

Consulting and instruction worldwide

Principal author –“Workflow Modeling” (Artech House 2001) (second edition Fall 2008)

The point……I spend a lot of time working with “process” – often with people who don’t know, don’t want to know, or actively dislike it.

Applications

Data

Process

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Traction for “Process” From an August WfMC newsletter…

Dear Colleague,

Despite decades of theories and methodologies from BPR to Six Sigma, the rise of Business Process Maturity Models, and a wide variety of technical standards for Business Process Management, many organizations still find that processes are unowned, unmanaged, and out of control - in short, many organizations are "process ignorant."• Theories and methodologies – exactly… theories!• BPR – “bastards planning redundancies”• Six Sigma – the “Six Stigma” phenomenon• BP Maturity Models – “Who says?” “Who cares?”• Technical standards – BPMN, and what it’s for and not for• BPM – see “BPR” above…

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Traction for “Process” Factors to consider to gain traction for “process”

1 – Reactions to “process” – not what we’d hope

2 – Total lack of clarity on what constitutes a “business process”

3 – “Process improvement” means someone is doing a bad job

4 – Use of methods that are unsuitable for mere mortals

5 – Not applying the new mantras of “conceptual thinking” and “simplicity” to the world of business processes

Disclaimer: Not exhaustive,not a methodology – a 30 minute

mix of:• observations and ideas• examples• tips and techniques

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Traction for “Process”

Strange but true…Many people do not find “process” a fascinating topic!

Quiz: what words or phrases come to mind for most people when the topic is “process?”

What I wanted to hear…• Eliminate friction• Work together / pulling together• Cooperation• Alignment (my favourite term when discussing “process”)• Working to our potential• Free up time for value-added work• Higher job satisfaction• etc.

1 – What they think when they hear “process”

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What I actually heard…• Downsizing or outsourcing• Fix the process, lose my job• Boring• Dehumanizing• Efficiency experts• Dumbing-down• Stifle creativity• Bureaucracy and red tape• “How will I get around the process?”• “It won’t work for us – we’re different!”• “Process, process, process – I am so sick of process!”• “Ewww – the P word.”

So…be careful how much you talk about “process,” avoid labels

1 – What they think when they hear “process”

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Traction for “Process” 2 – Clarify what is / is not a “business process”

True, but useless…

“A business process is a linked set of activities

that collectively deliver value to the customer of the process.”

“A business process can be decomposed into a hierarchy of processes.”

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Traction for “Process” 2 – Acknowledge varying opinions on what a “process” is

Bigger than a business process:- Customer Relationship Management - A “process area” or “process family” (a related set of business processes)

Smaller than a business process:- Identify Prospect or Set Up Customer- A sub-process or activity or fragment

Differences around size

Confused with systems:- Our Oracle CRM process

Confused with organisations:- Our Customer Service process

Confused with technology:- Our e-Business process

Differences around concept

Just right:- Acquire Customer- A true business process

If you can’t get agreement on what a business process is, you’ll have a hard time modeling, improving, or managing one!

Much smaller than a business process:- Calculate Credit Limit or Create Customer Account- A procedure or use case

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Process: a defined sequence of steps and decisions, to achieve a particular result

Problem: diving too quickly into the work – the “how” –before clarifying the result – the “what”

A simple method for clarifying “what”1. Name potential process in “verb – noun” format2. Flip name into “noun is verbed” format3. Ensure this is the intended result of the process

- each instance must be discrete and identifiable - instances must be “countable”

4. No mushy verbs! Manage, monitor, administer, handle, track, support, maintain, etc

2 – What does a good process look like?

Steps and decisions(“work”)Event Result

Action or decisionTime (temporal event)Condition

Workflow models showthe flow of work:who, does what, when

ProductServiceInformation

AcquireCustomer

Customer is Acquired

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Traction for “Process” 2 – Example: how big or small is a business process?

Telecom company redesigns Service Provisioning processes, makes things worse!

Service Order

Managementprocess

FacilitiesManagement

process

Service Assurance

process

Installationprocess

Customer Updateprocess

Customer Service

Network Monitoring

Installation &

Repair

Customer Records &

Billing

Facilities Management

Process: Move Telephone Service

Process: Move Telephone ServiceTrigger:Customer wants telephone service moved.

Customer result:Telephone service is moved

1:1 1:1 1:1 1:1

Telco result:Active account with receivable posted

Capture Service Order

Confirm Service Quality

Install Premise

Equipment

Activate Customer Account

Assign Network Facilities

Vague process naming, confusing process with organization, not focusing on what the client wanted from the triggering event

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Traction for “Process” 2 – Be prepared to deal with objections

VP of Workflow at banking organization:“Typical consultant – that’s just semantics”

First principle – “demonstrate, not convince”

Me:“That’s fair –

let’s try it with your processes…”

“Oh-oh… this isn’t going the

way I planned”

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2 – Discover, sequence, link “Commercial Loans” processes

IdentifyProspect

QualifyProspect

SolicitProspect

RegisterCustomer

AcceptLoan

Application

AssessLoan

Application

FundLoan

SettleLoan

SolicitPayment

ReceivePayment

DistributePayment

BookLoan

IdentifyProspect

QualifyProspect

SolicitProspect

RegisterCustomer

AcceptLoan

Application

AssessLoan

Application

FundLoan

SettleLoan

SolicitPayment

ReceivePayment

DistributePayment

BookLoan

1:1 1:1 1:1 1:1 1:1 M:1

1:1 1:M 1:1 1:M 1:1

IdentifyProspect

QualifyProspect

SolicitProspect

RegisterCustomer

AcceptLoan

Application AssessLoan

Application

FundLoan

SettleLoan

SolicitPayment

ReceivePayment

DistributePayment

BookLoan

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Settle Loan

Collect PaymentGrant Loan

2 – Process Area, Business Processes, Subprocesses

M:1

1:M

1:M

Acquire Customer

IdentifyProspect

QualifyProspect

SolicitProspect

RegisterCustomer

1:1 1:1 1:1

AcceptLoan

Application

AssessLoan

Application

FundLoan

BookLoan

1:1 1:1 1:1 SolicitPayment

ReceivePayment

DistributePayment

1:1 1:1

No subprocesses

identified yet

Commercial Loans Management

• Process Area• Business Process• Subprocess

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Grant Loan

2 – Five sensible guidelines for “business process”

1. Activities linked 1:1 are probably part of the same process2. “Action verb – noun” naming that indicates primary result3. Generally triggered by an event (action or time) outside your control4. At the end is a result that makes a stakeholder happy5. The same “token” or “work item” moves through the whole process,

although it will be transformed (e.g., “loan application” -> “loan”)

AcceptLoan

Application

AssessLoan

Application

FundLoan

BookLoan

Trigger:Customer submits loan application

Customer result:Loan funds are received

Bank result:Loan asset on books

Token: A loan, from application to booked loan

1:1 1:1 1:1

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Traction for “Process” 2 – Summary: what is a business process?

Clear, defensible, understandable guidelines:Naming in “action verb – noun” formatDiscrete, countable results

Logisticsprocess

Salesprocess

Productionprocess

Accounts Receivable

process

Ultimately, business processes are all about alignment

LogisticsSales Production Accounts Receivable

Fulfill Order: an end-to-end business process

Capture order

Build order

Transport WIP

Collect payment

1 triggering event: Customer signals demand

1 result for each stakeholderCustomer: Goods acceptedOwner: Payment receivedPerformer: Commission creditAssociation: Order statistics

Eliyahu Goldratt: “Local optimization yields global suboptimization.”Local (functional or departmental) improvement is often achieved by adding constraints that hurt the wholeProcess focus: shift from task efficiency to outcomes

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Sales Production Accounts Receivable

Logistics

3 – Let’s agree – functions are not bad!

Earliesttriggering

event

FinalresultsProcess: Fulfill order

• Specialized skills, knowledge, tools• A centre of expertise – an efficient

way to provide resources across multiple processes

• Work is ongoing• Organizational design is usually

based on functional areas• We prefer not to use the somewhat

negative term “functional silos”

FunctionProcess• End-to-end business processes

deliver valued results by aligning the objectives and work effort of multiple functions

• Results are discrete – “countable”• Must be explicitly identified and

managed as a whole

The people who manage and work in these specialized areas often don’t like the term “functional silo”

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Traction for “Process” 3 – My favourite picture

Function 1

Function 2

Function 4

Function 3

Business Process

Under each function, list:

• Performance goals for each function

• Applications used by each function

• Data required by each function

• Technology platforms used by each function

• Core responsibilities by function

Nothing else seems to illustrate the disconnects as well

Criticalresults

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Sales Production Accounts Receivable

Logistics

3 - Three common obstacles to performance

Process: Fulfill Order

1. Processes are not identified properly and made visible

2. No “process owner” to set overall direction and resolve conflict

3. The goals of the functions often conflict with the goals of the process

Who owns the process? Aprocess owner/steward/officer must be appointed

2

3Logistics goal:lower shipping costs

Process goal: Shortest cycle time

1If the process isn’t identified and managed as a whole, it will never get better on its own!

Sales goal:late-quarter sales

A/R goal:precision vs rapid collection

VP Production

VPFinance

VP Sales

VP Logistics

Production goal:minimize setup

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Traction for “Process” 3 – The process consultant’s philosophy

That’s why we must…• make it clear – what “processes” really are• make it visible – how their processes behave • make it blame-free – because everyone’s working hard…and then, let the facts speak for themselves

We must also help everyone understand that…• there’s more to improvement than “faster and cheaper”• what matters the most are the human factors

“Honest criticism is hard to take, especially from a relative, friend, acquaintance, or stranger.”

Franklin P. Jones

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Traction for “Process” 3 – Process goals: not always “faster and cheaper”

Great processes don’t try to be all things to all people – strive to be great at one differentiator, and good at the other two…

OperationalExcellence

ProductLeadership

CustomerIntimacy

Consistent, predictable, error-free, and efficient.

More efficient, but less flexible in changing direction or meeting needs of individual customers.

Tailors service delivery to the processes of individual customers.

More flexible for adapting to needs of individual customers, but less efficient.

Continuous and rapid introduction of new

products and services.

More flexible for adapting to needs of

new offerings, but less efficient. The original reference:

The Discipline of Market Leaders Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersma Addison-Wesley 1995

Too often, companies lack focus, or focus on the wrong discipline.

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Traction for “Process” 3 – Critical factors: more than just workflow and IT

Business Process

enables enables enables enables enables enables

WorkflowDesign

Information Systems

Motivation & Measurement

Human Resources

Policies and Rules

Facilities (or other)

Business mission, strategy, goals, & objectives

Culture, core competencies, and management style

drives drives

Process ownership, objectives, & differentiator

drives*

• Actors• Steps &

decisions• Flow -

sequence and handoffs

• Applications• Data• Information• Integration

• Employee assessment and incentives

• “Reward and punishment”

• Process performance indicators

• Constraints• Business

rules that the process enforces

• External & internal

• Workplace layout

• Equipment• Furnishings

• Skills• Matching

actors to tasks

• Recruitment, selection and placement

Enabler – A factor that can be adjusted to impact process performance.

* *

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Traction for “Process” 3 – Assess process by all enablers

• Mismatch of work needs and facility

• No support for team work

• Layout that impedes flow of people or material

• Unavailable information

• Re-keying of data

• Missing functionality

• Awkward interfaces

• Lack of support for workflow

Business Process

enables enables enables enables enables enables

• Too many actors

• Non-value - added steps

• Duplicate steps

• Delays and bottlenecks

• Excessively sequential

• Inappropriate performer or process measures

• Internal rather than customer focus

• Measures of tasks vs. outcomes

• Mismatches between task value and performer

• Inappropriate recruiting and placement

• Too little empowerment

WorkflowDesign

Information Systems

Motivation & Measurement

Human Resources

Policies and Rules

Facilities (or other)

• Out-of-date policies or numerical limits

• Excessive review or approval steps

• Restrictive labor contracts

• Overly complex coding

Business mission, strategy, goals, & objectives

Culture, core competencies, and management style

drives drives

Process ownership, objectives, & differentiator

drives*

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Many techniques to choose from…• Simple swimlane diagram• Traditional ANSI flowchart• Data Flow Diagram (DFD)• Process action diagram• IDEF0 diagram• ARIS EPC -

Event-response Process Chain)• Business Interaction Model • OMG BPMN BPD -

Business Process Modeling Not’n Business Process Diagram

• OMG UML Activity Diagram• and many more…

4 – Make it visible: choose appropriate techniques

Challenge – Showing how the process really works, in a way that everyone can understand, highlighting what matters.

Process Area

Process Process Process Process

Sub- Process

Sub- Process

Sub- Process

Decomposition

We use decomposition to clarify scope

Workflow Model (Swimlane Diagram)

Initially, use simple swimlane diagrams to show the reality of process workflow.

Later!

Initially!

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Traction for “Process” 4 – Graphic principles for involvement & understanding

Abstracting

Using visual cuesconsistently

Maskingunnecessary detail

Highlightingwhat matters

Keeping implementation-level widgets out of business-level diagrams

Models should aid understanding by:

Practice voluntary simplicity!

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Note - This is simplified - we haven'tshown the "transport mechanisms."

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Approve orreject waiver

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Etc.

4 – Simple swimlane diagrams support understanding

• Simple – easy to read• Shows all actors and

therefore all handoffs• Shows sequence and

dependency left to right• Shows reality –

not “sugar-coated”

Key points!

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Traction for “Process” 4 - Detail and complexity impede understanding

Might be a fine system or data flow diagrams, but from a business perspective…

• Visually intimidating (too many symbols)

• Hard to follow (left to right flow?)

• Doesn’t illuminate what matters to the business (who, what, when)

And so…, It may be inaccurate because the client can’t verify it, so it probably misses a lot of “interesting” human activity

“Complexity is

for amateurs,

simplici

ty is fo

r exp

erts.”

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Traction for “Process” 4 – Comparison - a “great” workflow model

!

!“Order and simplification are the first steps to mastery of a subject.”

Thomas Mann

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1) Visual – show sequence and dependency: flow lines strictly go in from the left, out from the right

2) Accessible – use the simplest possible set of symbols

3) Honest – no “deception by sanitization”: shows every actor that holds the work

4 – Three keys to keeping workflow models relevant

Wrong!

Sorry – maybe it’s time to get rid of the old flowchart template, and re-think your tools !

Right!

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Traction for “Process” An ongoing issue

Sharp’s postulate: Implementation-level techniques will always swim upstream into the domain of business analysis• Relational Database Design –> data modeling

(and most data modeling tools were at least originally thinly disguised physical DB design tools)

• O-O technologies –> OOAD• UML –> E-R modeling, workflow modeling, etc.• BPMN –> business process workflow modeling

Corollary: Any successful technique will be applied outside the domain for which it is suitable• “Everything’s an object!”• “A business process is simply a very large use case!”

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Traction for “Process” 5 – Simplicity matters!

There just isn’t time anymore for unnecessary complexity

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Traction for “Process” 5 – The lost art of progressive detail

Scope Concept Detail

• Planning• A “context diagram”• Clarify boundaries,

process vs. organization• Decomposition• Boxes

• Understanding • “Business-oriented”

overview of concepts• Maximize participation• The “flow of work,” case

by case (“tell a story”)• Boxes and lines

• Specification• All detail needed for

implementation• Completeness and rigor• Detailed flow (perhaps in

BPMN form) plus “out of context” rules, procedures, logic, etc.

• Boxes, lines, operators, …

Key points!• Multiple diagrams for each process – “one process, one case, one scenario” per diagram.

• Possibly two levels of detail – “handoff” & “service”

Org.Org. Org. Org.Org.

Process

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Traction for “Process” 5 – Progressive detail – the key points

All types of modeling should progress through three well defined levels of detail, each providing a different perspective for different audiences

Key Point! Getting through the “concept” level • takes approximately 20% of the effort• delivers very high business value

The level of precision and rigor that you need in order to build something is far greater than that which is necessary for the business to understandif they’re going to like what you build.

Scope

Concept

Detail

*** Finalist – run-on sentence of the year ***

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Traction for “Process” Key points

The products

SimplicityConsistency and repetition

Attitude“It’s a privilege to learn about your business!”“It’s new to me!”“Seek first to understand”Business first, technology later

1. Recognize that not everyone is thrilled by “process”

2. Provide clarity on what a “business process” is

3. Address cross-functional issues, and make it blame free

4. Avoid the deep dive into detailed and complex models

5. Simplicity and conceptual thinking

Thanks!Alec [email protected]

Documents

Alec Sharp Process Traction