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Methods, Concepts, Case Studies and Standards in Business Process Management and Workflow  The next BPM & Workflow Handbook will be launched on the 18th of June 2009.The question, "How can governments manage change organizationally and be agile operationally?" is answered in this special spotlight on BPM in Government worldwide with specific emphasis on the USA government where agencies, armed forces, states and cities are facing almost insurmountable challenges. This is a book for business people who just want to understand the how and why of process automation and integration in simple non-jargon terms. It is also for the technical person looking for current insights into where BPM standards are heading, how others are managing implementations and more. Included in this book is a chapter by Marietjie Lancaster (GE: Group Strategy, SAPO), Carien Venter (Chief Management Analyst, SAPO) and Dr. Michelle Booysen (MD Petanque Business Specialists). The chapter details how the South African Post Office developed a structure in support of the new business model to achieve strategic goals. A project that was accomplished through comprehensive process facilitation and analysis. Order the book or read more about it here. Labels: bpm, case study, methodology, ProcessStep, strategic goals Posted on Thursday, May 14, 2009 ProcessStep Case Study Series #5  Case study: Process Mapping the process of changing from a business division into a company Enterprise: South African State Owned Enterprise Petanque role: Delivered ProcessStep Duration: 3 workshop days of Process Mapping and Action Listing Scope: The processes were needed for a current, operating division to become a corporatized entity. We designed the processes with the client corporatization team on who needs to do what to change the business from a division to a fully fledged company. These are now being used as part of the overall corporatization project which needs to deliver the new company: operational, branded and incorporated in 2010. The work was presented to the SOE's board a week later, and the way forward was signed off. Application: This information is now being used as input into the Program Manager's project plans. Benefit: Actions to be taken agreed on, role clarity obtained, risks and mitigations identified and planned for, scheduling agreed to, process defined and agreed to. Labels: bpm, case study, process optimization, ProcessStep, Risk Management, role clarification, strategic goals Posted on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Case Studies We recently started publishing short and to the point case studies at this SDO News page; a quick reference of how ProcessStep (the SDO business process documentation & analysis methodology) is applied in projects. Two more elaborate case studies can be found in our Library. Labels: case study Posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 ProcessStep Case Study Series #4 Case study: Processing Mapping the Corporate Communication Function in order to support the Business requirements Enterprise: Large South African parastatal Petanque role: Delivered ProcessStep Duration: 2 workshop days of Process Mapping and Action Listing Scope: This project was an extension of a mega-project to develop an organizational structure in support of the new business model. As part of that project the Corporate Communications process was documented. Further review was required to ensure seamless support of the organization. Corporate Communications needs to contribute to business growth and to develop a positive reputation for the organization. In workshops, with relevant role players, we reviewed and designed the processes to support the enterprise by clearly defining the activities, people, systems and performance indicators to effectively communicate the pillars: Strategic Direction, Organizational Transformation, Brand Repositioning and Policies & Procedures. Application: The processes were redesigned to drive and support a high performance organization, to develop a positive reputation and to enable Corporate Communication to meet the business' strategic objectives. The action lists were used to identify shortfalls within the process and are used continuously by management for process improvements. Benefit: Immediate outcomes of this project were transparency, resource management, obtained role clarity, identified risks and controls, agreement and buy-in of the redefined process. Labels: bpm, case study, process optimization, ProcessStep, role clarification, strategic goals Posted on ProcessStep Case Study Series #3 Case study: Process Mapping the process that is needed to effectively manage strategic investments Enterprise: Large South African parastatal Petanque role: Delivered ProcessStep Duration: 2 days of Process Mapping and Action Listing Scope: In order to ensure that strategic investments in the organisation are managed effectively throughout, from concept to delivery, it was necessary to determine what the full lifecycle of an investment is to start off with. From this, the step by step activities that are needed to effectively roll out and track each investment were defined, debated and agreed on by key role players. Application: The result of this project is role players are clear on their respective accountabilities, stakeholders understand the full scope of work that tracks an investment, and management is provided with assurance that all elements are defined and assigned for actioning. Benefit: Transparency, role clarity, progress tracking, risk management tracking, resource management. Labels: bpm, case study, process optimization, ProcessStep, Risk Management Posted on Monday, March 30, 2009 ProcessStep Case Study Series #2 Case study: Process Mapping the Human Resource Function in order to support the Business requirements Enterprise: Large South African parastatal Petanque role: Delivered ProcessStep Duration: 9 Workshop days for Process Mapping and Action Listing Scope: This project was an extension of a mega-project to develop an organisational structure in support of the new business model. In March - September 2008 we spent time documenting the Human Resource processes. Further review was required to ensure seamless support to the organisation. The HR function's purpose is to support the organisation's strategic objectives to become a high performing business through the provision of specialized Human Resource services. We facilitated the process design to support the enterprise by clearly defining all the HR processes, people and systems and how they should interface with the relevant business and supporting units. In other words, what needs to be done by whom in a best practice manner and when in each of the defined processes. These processes were then presented to the business units using their services to develop a best practice process designed to enable business to meet its strategic objective. The review included the following 'existing' and 'envisaged' processes:
Benefit: Immediate outcomes of this project were transparency, resource management, role clarity, risk and control identification, agreement and buy-in of the redefined process. Feedback: "By using visual storyboarding, we were able to clearly identify shortfalls and highlight the issues that needed to be resolved." "Being part of the HR process mapping sessions, I was able to see the bigger picture and how HR integrates with business and the HR value chain." Labels: bpm, case study, process optimization, ProcessStep Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 ProcessStep Case Study Series #1 Case study: Process Mapping Pilot Project to document retail logistics processes to identify and address bottlenecks. This pilot would also demonstrate the value of ProcessStep for further application. Enterprise: South African FMCG retailer that is expanding and rolling out shops in other African countries. Petanque role: Delivered ProcessStep Duration: Positioning Map session of 1,5 hour + 2 full day Process Mapping workshops. Scope: This retailer, needed to document processes that were still only in people’s heads, and also wanted to smoothen operations in support of the growing business. To determine whether ProcessStep would be the right method to achieve this, we started a pilot project. Our starting point was a Positioning Map session with the General Manager, in which we mapped the high level supply chain. The day after we reviewed and challenged this Positioning Map in a work session with participants from 3 different departments, made changes, and added where needed. We then identified the most critical processes with burning points, and continued to map three of these 'burning' processes. We also listed actions for process improvement related to the positioning map. As the participants' day-to-day activities are in different areas, the workshop provided an excellent platform to share knowledge around the process related to their function. This broke down the wall between the departments with immediate results: "I learned much more than I learned in the past years, I now know how I must consider the Export department", as a workshop participant from Planning department indicated afterwards. Unpacking the processes clarified issues and showed that specific process elements actually consist of many steps with complications that impact on various departments. Unpacking the processes addressed all these implications and clarified the importance of identifying the who, what and when to the role-players. The drivers for change are the actions listed in the Action Lists: the issues are identified and it indicates what must be done, by whom and when: "We've talked about the actions a lot before, but now it's on paper and someone has been made responsible to take action and agreed to it. To me this has been really valuable." This project has confirmed the value of ProcessStep as a process documentation and analysis tool, and the retailer was pleased with the outcomes: "This is definitely a methodology that can assist us in further documenting of processes, to structure roll-out in the African countries." Deliverables:
Benefit: In just 2 days we provided a platform for discussion of items that were long overdue and marked them as actions; and captured knowledge and improved processes in visually attractive step by step format. These maps have given the participants insights into the processes during the work sessions, and will continue to do so for people that try to understand the process at a later stage. Labels: bpm, case study, process optimization, ProcessStep Posted on Thursday, March 19, 2009 |
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