The Process Executive

I have previously written about Finding the End-to-End Customer Perspective, in which I wrote about the scope of the defined Business Process having a big impact on the value proposition for the customer or stakeholder. Another aspect of end-to-end thinking is including the customer inside the Business Process.

Why do we need to include the Customer?

Think of a typical Business Process where a customer is making a request of your organisation, maybe they are filling in an application for credit.

The current (as-is) process is considered inefficient as customer contacts the Accounts department and an Accounting Clerk collects all of the relevant information from the customer and then faxes the customer a nearly completed form to finalise and return. It is decided that implementing a self-service web-site will improve efficiency and save the company several staff years in the Accounting department.

The new (to-be) process is implemented, at the start everything looks good, the customers are able to fill in the form on-line and easily print, sign and send the form in. The form is also easy for the Accounting department to process as the information is already available in the accounting system.

However, the Accounting department is busier than ever, the phone seems to be ringing more and staff morale is down. What happened?

The customer is not part of the process. A key part of this process, getting and completing the customer application form, has been pushed out and is no longer considered part of the process; however customers are taking longer to complete the information required, they often don’t understand what is require and they are ringing up for help to complete the form. Once submitted a high percentage of forms are rejected back to the customer because they are incorrectly completed, causing re-work and unhappy customers.

If the customer part of the process was measured, then it would show that the end-to-end process is now less efficient at achieving its customer driven goals than it was previously. The process design may be more efficient from the Accounting department’s perspective; however that is the wrong way to look at it – unhappy customers and staff is a guaranteed recipe for failure.

Another example of this concept is in Gary Comerford’s e-book, The Perfect Process Project; In Chapter 6 there is a great customer perspective story relating to a call centre. Call centres (ironically they are often called customer service centres) are always a good source for processes examples that do not include the customer!

Finally, Michael zur Muehlen has written a great article on the BPTrends site, Service Processes: The Customer at the Centre.

Can you think of one of your Business Processes that does not include the customer? What difference could you make if it did?

At the recent Australian BPM Round table session I did a quick survey of participants to see, amongst other things, what BPM Frameworks are being used in Australian organisations?

I was not surprised by the result, however it is interesting that out of 20 organisations there was not 1 recognised BPM Framework that had been adopted; and comments were even made that they are not necessary. I think this last comment related to the terminology being used.

I have recently added a new page to the Executive Guide to BPM explaining what a BPM Framework is and why they are needed. See the Process of Process Management. For me, implementing BPM is implementing a Business Process and therefore you need a guide on how you are doing it!

What BPM Frameworks are there?

The challenge is finding and evaluating a Framework. There are three main sources;

1. Books
2. Training
3. Vendors

I was introduced to my first Framework by Roger Burlton of the Process Renewal Group. The Process Renewal Group Framework is based on Roger’s book, Business Process Management: Profiting From Process; however the best understanding of the Framework and the techniques to implement it came from attending Roger’s training course and being mentored by the Group.

There are other Frameworks that come from similar sources, and consequently I have not had the opportunity to review any of them, I just know that they exist from web research. Frameworks from BPMInstitute.org and Management By Process are examples of training / consultant led offerings.

Another option is to adopt the processes recommended by your BPMS vendor. The advantage of this option is that the framework is tailored to the tools you have available. This can also be a disadvantage if you do not already use the tool as the training seems to be inherently linked, even if the framework is generically good. An example of this may be the framework promoted by Appian.

There may be some more generic options, such as the Association of Business Process Management Professionals (ABPMP) Common Body of Knowledge. As I am not a member I have not reviewed this framework; however there is a good summary presentation available, see Guide to BPM CBOK.

The Round Table also attempted to develop a common methodology which was called The Process of Process Improvement (TPPI). The output of the exercise can be found on the BPM-Collaboration TPPI Wiki (registration is required).

At the moment I am evaluating the BPTrends methodology that is based on the book Business Process Change by Paul Harmon. This methodology is supported in Australian by Leonardo Consulting who have written an excellent summary of the methodology and the certification program that they offer; see Achieving Process-Based Management.

I am sure there are many BPM Framework offerings that I have not covered here. If you know of one or you have a framework or methodology to offer – please leave a comment to let me know. I am also keen to collect or create reviews of the Frameworks that are available.

What Framework are you using or considering?

Roger Tregear in his first BPTrends Column on Practical Process asked “As you go through your day, do you find yourself mentally redesigning the processes at the supermarket, airport, theatre and most other places you go?”

Yes, that’s me. I can join the club, I’m a Process Tragic!

In this article Roger describes his interest in process-based management, a passion that I share. I have spent many hours developing a message to describe the process centric view of management behaviour.  Sometimes I find someone who grasps the concepts and is enthusiastic, more often confusion or disagreement is the result.

Roger suggests that we need to build a body of knowledge about the compelling reasons why organisations would benefit from adopting a process-based culture.

I have my own Compelling Reason Body of Knowledge to build, to strengthen my message and help organisational managers not only get enthusiastic, but influence them to join the club!

Let me know if you are a process tragic (or would like to be convinced). There are plenty of us around – another Craig is a good example, the Process Ninja.

In the previous post I referred to the Adelaide BPTrends Forum session that I attended, presented by Professor Peter Hines. I want to elaborate on what I got out of the session.

1. It is important to understand the fundamentals of the business and it’s strategy – common-sense management.

2. It is vital to understand how the business creates value for it’s customers. Customer surveys often focus on the products or services offered, not the experience that created the real value for the customer. Quite often organisations are not very clear about who their real customers are!

3. A good understanding of strategy and customer value leads to the ability to select to improve the processes that will be critical to achieving the organisations aims.

4. Detail this in a Purpose Statement, a practical communication about What we will do, How we will do it and What the outcome will be, including what the Critical Success Factors are and are we measuring the right metrics to achieve them?

Now the Process Improvement work can begin -

5. Understand the problem, what is the root cause and what opportunities exist to improve.

6. Ensure you have the right level of support. If Senior Managers are not behind the initiative and eager for success, then sucess is always going to be a big challenge.

Overall, a great session.

Professor Peter Hines gave an excellent presentation on Lean Thinking to 30 BPM practitioners at the Adelaide BPTrends forum tonight.

Peter’s presentation covered a case study, demonstrating how a company used Lean Thinking to create a new strategic direction, execute organisational change and redesign their processes for greatly improved outcomes.

What struck me during the discussion was that the analysis and decision making techniques used were not ground-breaking, not proprietary and definitely not special. The techniques used were mainly common sense strategic management – understanding vision, setting goals, performing the analysis and executing change.

The only difference to what I got taught in the MBA unit on Strategic Management was to start the strategic process with obtaining a clear idea of how the organisation could create real value for their customers.

So the question for me was, has the wave of Process Management ideologies, tools and systems led senior managers to think they can achieve all the benefits of a Process Centric organisation without undertaking common sense strategic management?

Every Business Process Management project should be part of a Strategic Management initiative to assist the senior manager to change their organisation or business unit. The senior manager still needs to lead the development of strategy and execute organisational change, Process Improvement methods simply provide a new efficient and effective way to help achieve the desired outcomes.

Peter has setup a Lean Enterprise group on LinkedIn – “Lean Enterprise Australia & New Zealand”. I was very impressed with Peter’s presentation. Thanks to Ben Haigh (BPTrends Adelaide coordinator) and the University of South Australia for organising the event.

We Australians are making a strong contribution to the Business Process Management body of knowledge, however I could be biased being an Aussie and in the field!

If you would like to learn more about the Australian BPM community, here is a summary of what is on offer. (I am sure that I will not cover everything here, please let me know if there are other items that can be added).

BPTrends Forums

A great place to start is your local BPTrends Forum. These user groups are a coming together of BPM practitioners, consultants and vendors to hear about and discuss BPM topics of interest. Generally each forum will meet bi-monthly and will include a presentation of a case study, research or concept, discussion on the topic and will usually round-off with refreshments and networking.

There are BPTrends forums in most capital cities (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane), to find out about your local forum, contact the national coordinator, Imre Hegedus, or check out the events page on Imre’s website.

Other Forums

There are other forums that cover Business Process Management, such as the Australian Business Analysts Association (ABAA). I am not a member, and have not been to a meeting (although I hope to rectify this), so I will update you when I know a little more. (If you have your own review, send it to me and I will post it).

QUT and BPM Roundtable

A key contributor to the development of BPM in Australia is the Business Process Management group at QUT. There is a significant amount of research being done in the group and they collaborate well across the spectrum of the BPM community and a really good part of this is the BPM Roundtable for which they facilitate.

The BPM Roundtable has been bringing the leading BPM practitioners and thought leaders in Australia together on a quarterly basis for nearly 4 years. Through it’s invited membership, it maintains a high quality of interaction, sharing and collaboration on BPM. I personally have found it a very rewarding group to work with and it has opened the door to a higher level of knowledge about the practical application of BPM in Australian organisations.

BPM-Collaboration.com

To tie it all together, the bpm-collaboration.com website has been created. The objective of this site is to bring together the members of the Australian BPM Community to share knowledge and collaborate on BPM areas of interest. The “collaboration” aspect is the key component and members are expected to contribute to the development of content on BPM topics, as well as use the site as a reference and networking tool.

Accordingly bpm-collaboration.com contains a interactive knowledge base, areas to post questions and comments, video snapshots and information about presentations, articles and events. The initial work of the BPM Roundtable (a process framework called “The Process of Process Management”) has been moved to BPM collaborations for further development.

To access the site you need to be registered and you will need to be invited by a member of the community (send me an e-mail if you need an invitation).

BPM Networks

Finally, it will be great to meet up at the BPM forums or related conferences and maintain your relationships afterwards by keeping in contact and contributing to the groups and blogs available on-line. Besides my site, LinkedIn has a number of well connected BPM groups and the Question and Answer section is great for researching particular topics. Feel free to connect to me on LinkedIn to check out my groups and questions.
Let me know if this has been useful, I would like to hear about your experiences.