A business owner has a problem and asks for a solution...
There are four main parts to a BPM
project: analysis, design, construction and implementation. The analysis portion is the most
critical. If a solution is designed,
constructed and implemented that doesn't meet your needs, you will have wasted
lots of money.
A business analyst must uncover the
problem[s] you are trying to solve. Since we are talking about BPM, I will assume that the problem is a
process problem. These five steps will
drive success:
1. Document the process.
What are the steps of the process? Who performs these activities? Are there any business rules that determine a
process path?
2. Determine if you have documented
the process properly.
Follow the process manually to see that
you have accurately recorded the steps and see who performs what
activities. Check with these people to
see if there are some unspoken business rules and so on.
3. Measure the process.
Measure the existing process as it is
currently being executed. We need to
know a before measurement so that we can determine our success.
4. Improve the process.
Now is your chance to remove all
non-value add activities from the process.
While looking at the process, you may see other things that you can do
to make the process more efficient.
Create a new process map.
(5) Measure the process
Follow the new process manually and
measure the time it takes to cycle through. Compare this time with the measurements in step three. You should see an improvement.
Addressing the problem process is only
one item in your list of requirements. The requirements document can be quite lengthy - I will address some
others in my next blog.
Your thoughts...
Have you tried these steps? If not, what was your approach?
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