Is the chase really better than the catch?
At this moment you might be modelling or analyzing your processes, but I hope your final goal will be to execute those processes well.
Because executing your processes is the only way to solve the problems of your customers.
When you dive deeper into the world of executing and
managing of processes, you might hear stories about BPM, Workflow, Adaptive or
Dynamic Case Management and Process Mining.
You might think; what do they all have to do with my day to day
processes? And do I need it?
I think they do. But please. Don’t be influenced too
much by gurus or vendors. Take the responsibility for your own processes.
Because you have processes. Every organization has. It’s your own choice how serious you take
those processes.
Processes are a means. To
deliver a useful result.
Processes are ‘the things’ to deliver results. Having
more grip (or better; the right level of grip) on them might be a good idea. So
a process oriented way of working should start with thinking about what results
(products/services/problems to solve) are worth to manage as a process.
Like a trip
You can see it as making a trip. Before starting a
trip you (at least business wise, probably not private ;-) should know where
you want to go to.
Then you have to decide a lot of things. The route,
the best way of transport, best time to travel etc. This indicates that
processes need many aspects (often called ‘enablers’) to perform. You need good
people, right information, supporting tools and a smart route to follow.
Only the workflow is not
enough. But it’s a start.
Focusing only on the route (in process terms, called
the workflow) is too minimal to understand what is needed to make a process
perform. But this workflow is most of the time the skeleton of the process to
talk about. And often is the picture
drawn in process models ;-)
So a process; at least you will follow a route to that
destination. But, this route might not always be known upfront and there might
be smarter routes, so pack your backs and ….
…imagine you ended on the top of a hill
somewhere in Europe.
That’s where I’d like to be!
You realize that you are some kind of lost, but then,
when the fog disappears, you see a beautiful castle on another hill, a few
miles away. You decide that your desired result is 'being at the castle on the
other hill' and you need a walk (a workflow) to get there.
But, between you and the castle there is a very large
and dark (some would call it scary) forest. But, as always, you are lucky. Just
before you want to start walking, a man comes out of the woods. He says he came
from the castle and says he is called ‘mister structured’. That is why he has
written down all the steps he took to reach the hill you are on. Although the
man looks strange with his long jacket and pointy teeth, you trust him and
follow his notes in reverse order.
Turn left at the big stone, follow the little path
between the oak trees for 1 mile, cross the river at the wooden bridge and
finally you reach the castle.
Workflow management style
This was a trip that could, in process terms, be
called ‘workflowmanagement-style'. All the steps are done, the result has been
reached, but as individual executor you might have no clue why you are doing
things. It’s good old ‘Taylorism’ and is still suitable for some types of
processes. And in our current world of ‘social’, ‘transparency’ and
‘co-creation’ there are still a lot of people that ‘just want to do their job’
and don’t care about process at all.
Back to the hill. What if you didn’t meet the man with
the written instruction and had to start walking without his route map as a
guide?
You just start walking and during the trip you will
run into several things you have to cope with as they happen to you. So, you
walk miles along the river to find a bridge, hide 45 minutes for an angry
bear. But your walk still has a desired result, so now and then you climb
in trees to see where the castle is. After conquering several hurdles, you
finally reach the castle.
Adaptive case management style
In process terms, this trip could be called a process
of the type ‘Adaptive Case Management’ (ACM).
There is a desired result (in ACM it’s often called a
goal), but there is no predefined route. So, during the trip you continually
decide what is the best next step. This is seen in processes where knowledge
workers (actually I don’t like that word) have to solve problems for several
cases, but where every case has its own unique problems and characteristics.
Talking about more cases; assume that there are also
other people that want to reach the same castle but base their decisions on
their individual experience and apply their individual knowledge. Some
are good swimmers and don't search for a bridge. Others carry an axe and cut
some trees to create a path, etc. Depending on their situation they make
different decisions and all create their own route.
This ACM style of process management might scare you,
because it seems uncontrolled. But that is just how some processes work. It
needs trust in your knowledgeable employees instead of micromanagement.
And yes, more control might be possible and needed for some processes, so
back to our trip.
Process Mining
What if all these ‘knowledge travelers’ had GPS
trackers hidden in their pocket? When you collect all that data, you finally
end up with a lot of data about all the followed routes. You can use this data
to find out what routes and what decisions had the best results. In this way
the data becomes information.
This way of ‘discovering the followed routes’ is what
could be seen as what is called Process Mining. Process mining is a technique
to discover ‘hidden processes’ out of big pile of data in the systems you use
to execute your processes.
This information can be used to formalize some routes
and then we come to what I would call ‘normal process management’. Most
processes are executed several times a week/day/month and might perform better
if they are managed as a process.
“Normal Process Management”
If 20 people have to reach the castle each day, it
might be useful to hand them over the best route known at this moment. In that
case even the execution of a process can be supported with a so called
‘Business Process Management System’. Trip wise this can be seen as satellite
navigation.
You use the satnav to set your result (the castle).
Then you have to be aware that (in my opinion) there is a difference between
process result and goals set for that. Because you decide if you want to reach
the castle fast, the shortest or the most touristic. That’s depending on your
organization strategy.
The satnav (BPMS) will then act as a guide during the
execution of a process. It shows you if you still meet your goals (you will
arrive at 10:25) and can even warn if you are not compliant (flashing sign that
you are speeding).
The more flexible satnavs can even help you to find
alternative routes when unexpected things happen (tree on the road).
Processes; they just come in
different styles
Conclusion: As you can make trips in different ways,
also processes can be managed in different ways depending on their desired
result.
So I think the BPM community has to stop with all
those workflow vs ‘normal bpm’ vs ACM fights and help organizations to decide
what ways of steering will support their processes best.
Stop! Are you going in the
right direction?
So thank you for joining me on my trip, but don’t
forget the real message of this story.
Although it has some natural gravitation, don't start
discussing a process with its route. In my opinion it is better to start with
the discussion if the result you are talking about is worth a process at all.
You remember that nice castle? That castle was
situated in the city of Bran, Romania. And then you probably know that being at
that castle is not such a desirable result at all. All the people that made the
trip wish they never did it as they all ended with two little holes in their
neck.......
Happy processing!
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