Alphacourt: January 2008 Archives

A lot of process improvement projects I have come across go something like this:

• A Senior Executive (let's call him Gordon) is not hitting his performance (i.e. bonus) target.  He naturally blames his lazy workers and tells his managers to fix it.
• The Managers call in the Consultants who advise them to 'optimize their performance by automating their workforce', or some US-derived jargon-filled sound bite.
• The Consultants recommend implementing a Business Process Management (BPM) solution, as this has been 'proven to increase productivity by 50%'.
• IT are roped in to buy and implement the software, while the Consultants carry out a 'process review' (time and motion study to you) and pronounce what changes should be made to optimise the offending process.
• The new system is duly rolled out and the Workers are retrained to press different buttons to carry their re-imagined task.

The Result? 

• Productivity drops so more workers are needed to achieve the same output.  Project costs balloon.
• The Managers blame the Consultants for bad advice.  The Consultants blame IT for bad implementation.  IT blame the BPM vendor for rubbish software.  The BPM vendor blames the Workers for being stupid.
• The Senior Executive blames everyone but himself (a true Gordon) and moves on to head a new division.
• The Workers are left with a less efficient process that they don't fully comprehend, let alone own, a vague feeling of guilt and a strong feeling of unfairness that they are carrying the can for something that was done to them.

I'm sure you recognise the situation.  How could this have gone better?  Here's one we did earlier ...

• A Senior Executive (let's call her Joan) is not hitting her performance target.  She naturally wants to find out how to help her Workers improve their own performance and tells her Managers to provide the necessary support.
• The Managers use the Consultants to hold independent facilitated process workshops with the Workers to understand the challenges of the current situation, and to encourage ideas and discussion of ways to remove blockages, duplication and gaps.
• The Workers produce a set of recommendations that cover better training, clearer procedures, reduced unnecessary documentation and streamlined systems to reduce double entry of information.
• The Managers authorise the recommendations and use the Consultants to fill any skill gaps by providing education, training and mentoring of the Workers.  IT are given specific (minor) changes to existing systems along with clear SLAs for delivery.

The Result this time? 

• Productivity improves so more output is achieved with the same Workers. 
• The Workers thank the Managers for their support.  The Managers thank the Consultants for their facilitation and knowledge transfer.
• The Senior Executive thanks everyone but herself (a true Saint Joan) and moves on to run the company.
• The Workers feel confident because they now understand the context of what they have to deliver, and own the ways of working to deliver them.
• IT are disappointed because they don’t have much to do or new toys to play with.

This feels better, doesn't it?  Unless you're a BPM vendor, a big Consultancy, or an IT empire builder ...

John Moe

I'm sure that like me you will already have broken or conveniently forgotten your New Year's resolutions made in the foggy mist of Hogmanay.  Back at work, having waded through all the emails sent by those people who have worked their way through Christmas and want you to know it, it is time to make some business resolutions for the year that will bring you fame and wealth - or at least ensure you keep your job.

Here are my top 5 cunning plans to help you:

1.  Innovation.  This year's big idea is innovation.  From big-picture thought leadership down to better widgets designed and delivered to your customers.  Companies are demanding that their managers be more creative and less obsessed with cost and efficiency.  So take off pin-stripe suit, put on some shades  - the future is looking bright!

2.  Loosely-Coupled Thinking.  Get away from the tired labels of BPM & SOA - the future is loosely-coupled.  Push the flexibility of having loosely-coupled systems enabling loosely-coupled businesses to be much more agile to compete and succeed in the distributed world in which we now live.

3. Model-Driven Everything.  It's not just processes or use cases that can (and should) be modelled.  Graphical modelling tools and rich meta-data repositories allows us to now develop conceptual, logical and physical models of entire eco-systems, including people, process, data, systems, supply chains, etc.

4.  Real-time Monitoring.  Your lords and masters want more (management) information and (business) intelligence to make better and faster decisions.  Enable their fantasies by using your loosely-coupled systems and your meta-models to build a real-time dashboard of KPIs to find, extract and display everything they want - and if you are really good, everything they actually need.

5.  Going Green.  I'm not talking envy, the hulk or sweetcorn here.  Saving energy/water/the planet is going to continue to be a big moral plus this year.  Look for green benefits in the projects you do this year - it may be server consolidation/virtualisation, reducing supply-chain miles, or just planting a tree every time you buy a PC.  You can both save money AND feel smug this way.

Let us know if you have any better ideas!

John Moe