The catalyst behind change is our drive towards increasing efficiency. The tools and methods behind process management effectively short-circuits communication channels and re-wires the organization. Brought into focus are traditional gaps in execution between business leaders and software development. Otherwise impeding the flow of evolutionary progress, and spotlighted for what they are, progress forces its way around unnecessary bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Obvious like highway congestion and air-travel delays \u2013 we need change. It\u2019s our impatience. It\u2019s nearby, within reach, and forces itself as matter-of-fact: keep up or be left-behind.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Spotlight on Bureaucracy: Tradition![\"\"](\"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/tidy-23.png\" "\\"Traditional")
<\/a><\/h2>\n\u201cThere are protocols that must be followed, regardless of their cost or waste.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nLet\u2019s take a look at a more traditional methodology.<\/p>\n
The Business Owner communicates values to our Requirement Analyst who, in turn, produces documentation which is then, in turn, handed over to the Process Architect.<\/p>\n
Process models flow into software which then become rooted within operations via services (SOA) and general integration architecture.<\/p>\n
The \u201cplayback\u201d, or software demo\u2019, provides a theater where our Business Owner communicates direction back into the next cycle. Iterations repeat until we find usability.<\/p>\n
In theory we have a fairly good working methodology. In practice we do not.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/h2>\nShort-circuit Communication and Evolve<\/h2>\n
No barriers. No handoffs. One team.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Short-circuit.png\" "\\"Short-circuit")
<\/a>
\nOur new model has the Business Owner working directly with the Process Architect.<\/p>\nReasons:<\/p>\n
\n- Direct communication between Business Owner and Process Architect is simply more efficient. This efficiency produces working, executable process in a fraction of the amount of time that would have otherwise been spent on traditional, time intensive, requirements documentation and review cycles.<\/li>\n
- As business feedback (aka requirements) now flow directly into development there\u2019s neither room nor slack for misunderstanding.<\/li>\n
- Reduction in administrative overhead (requirements documentation) allows shorter iteration cycles and early delivery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
Business Value![\"\"](\"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/house.png\" "\\"House")
<\/a><\/h2>\nWork occurs with the immediacy of market conditions.<\/em><\/p>\nValue-driven methods and purpose force efficiency. From the Business Owner\u2019s perspective, \u201cvalue\u201d is executing process:<\/p>\n
\n- Strong User Interface<\/li>\n
- Valued Process Outputs<\/li>\n
- Supporting Services<\/li>\n
- Shows Strategic Direction while supporting tactical agility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We now understand the nature of process development. BPM projects DO NOT build systems because \u201csystems\u201d lack context \u2013 technology isn\u2019t the point. The effort behind building \u201csystems\u201d is as irrelevant as attempting to build a house before its blueprint\u2026 more so even before understanding the intended home owner\u2019s perspective. The best approach then is to isolate our system builders \u2013 take them out of the picture.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Irrelevance<\/h2>\n
Those who once lead must now follow<\/em><\/p>\nRemoving system builders removes distraction. Without this distraction we\u2019re able to maintain business alignment and, consequently, remain focused on business process development.<\/p>\n
So what does a roomful of system builders do when left on their own? They build an irrelevant system. \u00a0Frequent the result of specialized teams is competing effort \u2013 things created, with good intent (we hope), that offer much less support as interference.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re left with a dichotomy.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/hut1.png\" "\\"hut\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nOur goal still focused on business process and yet diplomacy plays in as a key strategic requirement? Though completely outside the scope of process development, \u201cchange management\u201d (politically correct term) is none-the-less required.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rebuild The Team<\/h2>\n
NEXT WEEK’S PREVIEW…<\/em>\u00a0 (to be continued)<\/p>\nThe best solution here is to break these specialized teams apart and reassemble as cross-functional units (aka \u201cpods\u201d). We keep our specialized skills, such as QA and integration, while maintaining orientation on process development.<\/p>\n
As a BPM effort we have \u201cprocess\u201d goals on our plan. Competing milestones no longer receive management\u2019s attention. Goals become aligned and focused on process development iterations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As in business, BPM projects either produce or fail. And, in varying degrees, BPM honestly tries. Maintaining net-value is an effort of direct participation. To remain relevant\u2026 one must keep up with the pack Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-process-management-best-practices","category-bpm-methodology","category-business-process-management-bpm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Let\u2019s take a look at a more traditional methodology.<\/p>\n
The Business Owner communicates values to our Requirement Analyst who, in turn, produces documentation which is then, in turn, handed over to the Process Architect.<\/p>\n
Process models flow into software which then become rooted within operations via services (SOA) and general integration architecture.<\/p>\n
The \u201cplayback\u201d, or software demo\u2019, provides a theater where our Business Owner communicates direction back into the next cycle. Iterations repeat until we find usability.<\/p>\n
In theory we have a fairly good working methodology. In practice we do not.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/h2>\nShort-circuit Communication and Evolve<\/h2>\n
No barriers. No handoffs. One team.<\/em><\/p>\n Reasons:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Work occurs with the immediacy of market conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n Value-driven methods and purpose force efficiency. From the Business Owner\u2019s perspective, \u201cvalue\u201d is executing process:<\/p>\n We now understand the nature of process development. BPM projects DO NOT build systems because \u201csystems\u201d lack context \u2013 technology isn\u2019t the point. The effort behind building \u201csystems\u201d is as irrelevant as attempting to build a house before its blueprint\u2026 more so even before understanding the intended home owner\u2019s perspective. The best approach then is to isolate our system builders \u2013 take them out of the picture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those who once lead must now follow<\/em><\/p>\n Removing system builders removes distraction. Without this distraction we\u2019re able to maintain business alignment and, consequently, remain focused on business process development.<\/p>\n So what does a roomful of system builders do when left on their own? They build an irrelevant system. \u00a0Frequent the result of specialized teams is competing effort \u2013 things created, with good intent (we hope), that offer much less support as interference.<\/p>\n We\u2019re left with a dichotomy. Our goal still focused on business process and yet diplomacy plays in as a key strategic requirement? Though completely outside the scope of process development, \u201cchange management\u201d (politically correct term) is none-the-less required.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NEXT WEEK’S PREVIEW…<\/em>\u00a0 (to be continued)<\/p>\n The best solution here is to break these specialized teams apart and reassemble as cross-functional units (aka \u201cpods\u201d). We keep our specialized skills, such as QA and integration, while maintaining orientation on process development.<\/p>\n As a BPM effort we have \u201cprocess\u201d goals on our plan. Competing milestones no longer receive management\u2019s attention. Goals become aligned and focused on process development iterations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As in business, BPM projects either produce or fail. And, in varying degrees, BPM honestly tries. Maintaining net-value is an effort of direct participation. To remain relevant\u2026 one must keep up with the pack Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-process-management-best-practices","category-bpm-methodology","category-business-process-management-bpm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garysamuelson.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\nOur new model has the Business Owner working directly with the Process Architect.<\/p>\n\n
Business Value
<\/a><\/h2>\n\n
Irrelevance<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRebuild The Team<\/h2>\n