ISD Lecture 7 & 8 Understanding and improving business processes Flashcards
Business process
A collection of: interrelated activities, initiated in response to a triggering event, which achieves a specific, discrete result for the customer and other stakeholder of the process
It’s important for a company to improve process not just development and implementing systems
Business process can be seen in the value creation model in the process performance - Creation of business value
The method
o Scope: understand process context, scope and goals
o Analyze: understand the current (as-is) process
o Design: design the new (to-be) process
Benefits with the method
- Focus on business processes – not just technology
- Diagrams are relatively easy to understand for customers and users
- The method includes enablers, that support processes, and contextual factors, that constrains processes and how the might be improved
- It shows how IT and processes might be integrated
Challenges with the method
- You might get lost in making diagrams – become less agile
- Too many details, if not carefull
- Not suitable for all kinds of processes – best for relatively structured processes
Criteria for a process
Work to be accomplished:
Involves work to be accomplished, typically by an organization, or some organizations that collaborate.
Name should reflect the outcome:
The name should reflect the outcome of the process as wanted by the customer (e.g. Recruit new employee).
Clear and important outcome:
The outcome must be clear, measurable and important for the customer.
Name the areas of a process
Process area (The widest/Biggest)
Business process ( The level lower)
Sub process
The Solution: Overview
Mission, Strategy, goals, and objectives
Mission
The purpose off the organization – Why it exist? What it does, who it does is for and how it would like to be perceived by the stakeholders?
Strategy
How the organization differentiate itself from competitors and why customers should choose this organization?
Strategic options
Low-cost leadership
Product differentiation
Focus on market niche
Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy.
Goals
The direction of improvements – the state you are aiming for.
objectives
Performance targets that must be accomplished.
What is the business process
Swimlane diagram
Enablers
Enablers: Factors that, when adjusted, can change the performance of the process.
Which enablers has a negative impact or an un-exploited potential?
Improved according to goals and objectives:
must be aligned with each other and overall goals and objectives
Non-IS investments: Workflow design, motivation and measurement, Human Resources, Policies and Rules, Facilities.
IS investments: Information systems
Co-Specialization of enablers
Where can you use technochange prototyping
The enablers
Activities of Scope
Discover business processes
- participants should be able to recognize the processes
- focus on processes and how to improve them
- not define what the problem is too fast
Establish process scope and content
Conduct initial as-is process assessment
How to discover business processes
Prepare and manage the process (read about it)
Understand the organization:
Collect background information, meet the sponsor and learn about: strategies, business model, problems, goals and participants? and process area
Understand processes: Understand processes from the perspective of the various functional departments: Responsibilities, problems, process activities, key concepts (e.g. bank - accounts, customers, loans)?
Define processes:
Connect activities, identify processes by analyzing the links (1:1, 1:M, etc). Validate and name the processes.
Choose process to be improved: Using experience (divine intervention) or a systematic approach (systematic analysis).
through a combination of interview and workshops
Which process should be improved ?
Difficulties: How difficult would it be to improve the process?
Customer value: Is the process closely related to our customers?
Easy wins: Is the process complicated – or are there easy wins?
Management commitment: Is management committed to improving the process?
Sequence: Are there any dependencies that implies that we should improve this process first?
Other issues: Are there any other issues that makes it attractive to improve this process first?
The vision
In which direction should we improve?
Consider each problem for each stakeholder
Describe how this problem is solved in the future
If possible, describe objective performance measures and goals
Vision strategy
Operational excellence, Product leadership, Customer intimacy
Example for a assessment
The process, Assessment, Goals, Participants, Mechanisms, Measures
Process workflow models: The essentials
Swimlane diagrams show the flow between steps (activities) in a process The diagram illustrates: What is done – the steps in a process By who – the actors in a process The sequence of the steps
What are you using swinlanes diagrams for?
Make a process visible
To make an assessment of the process
To design IT systems that supports the process
Example of a workflow (Description)
From left to right
Use simple symbols
Show all actors
Steps can:
Involve more than one actor (e.g. conversations, meetings, one actor helping another)These steps are called collaborative steps
Steps can be parallel
These steps are called concurrent steps
Naming: Action verb (assign, validate, sort, …)
Optional qualifier (initial, replacement, …)
Noun(s) (service request, payment, …)
Optionally, information on how (on Form MS-17, by fax, …)
When interviewing an actor: Not all the tasks performed by an actor might be relevant for this particular process.
What is a Flow
A flow illustrates how work flows between steps
A handoff is a flow where work changes from one actor to another – from one swim lane to another
What is a conditional flow
A conditional flow comes after a step where a decision is made.
Diagram in three levels of details
Hand-off – the level we are using here
Service level – more detail. Each step at the hand-off level is broken down to smaller and more detailed steps
Task level – even more detailed
Hand-off will be sufficient for our purpose in most cases
What is the starting point for a AS-IS process workflow model?
The result from the initial assessment and the initial process scope (from the scope)
How to model the AS-IS process workflow
Prepare and manage the process
Develop the first version of as-is hand-off level workflow model
Validate the model and develop a new version
What do you do after you model the AS-IS process workflow
Make an assessment of the AS-IS process and Design a new Process
Confirm initial assessment and goals
Capture first impressions
Identify leverage points
What is a leverage point
A leverage point is a point where a relatively small change can have major impact
Leverage point typically is in the beginning of a process
How can one or more enablers fix a leverage point?
Assessment by Enablers: Workflow design
Are there too many actors?
Do exceptions or “tough stuff” get in the way of the other 80 or 90 percent? Process redesign often involves “triage” at the front end to direct an instance of the process into a flow that is designed for that particular case.
Are roles undefined, leading to confusion about who is responsible for what?
Consolidate improvement ideas
Document problems and possible solutions…
Table consists of:
Enabler -> Problem -> Solution -> Notes
Decide on what approach
Kill the process: simply kill the process – it does not create any value.
Outsource the process: get another organization, the customer or citizen, or the crowd to do the job.
Keep the process: keep the process as it is.
Optimize the process: keep the structure of the process and optimize it.
Re-engineer the process: change the process radically.
Pit falls with designing new processes
Tunnel vision — focusing exclusively on workflow and IT: Use a holistic view
Paving the cow paths — simply automating or re-automating the as-is instead of rethinking it:
challenge underlying assumptions.
Unanticipated consequences — Implementing “improvements” without understanding what it will take to make them work and what the consequences will be:
Assess each potential improvement enabler by enabler to ensure that process requirements (and consequences) are understood.
How to design new process
Describe major characteristics of the to-be process –this is the specification for the new process
Make swimlanes for the to-be process
Evaluate with stakeholders
How to use business process
Tayloring !
This should be tailored to the specific situation
Reflection
Be aware: The method is most appropriate for optimization projects – not for radical innovation.
Relations
While many of the previous theories has emphasized that IT only creates value if it is used to change the organization – primarily the business processes – this text provides descriptions about how this might be accomplished.
Schryen (lecture1) described how IS and non-IS investments (complementary investments) should ne combined to improve business process performance.
Fitzgerald et al (lecture 2) described that developers needs to understand the context to develop proper information systems, that changes the context.
Markus (lecture 4) described the technochange approach where IT development and organizational change was integrated, and emphasized the need for complete solutions – not just IT solutions.
Peppard et al (lecture 4) described how organizational changes are aligned with IT systems in their benefits-dependency network.
