Not just an(other) process blog

You could easily think I'm  only busy with creating ‘funny’ process models and twittering cynical quotes, but I also spend quite some time at organizations who want to ‘do something with processes’. And, as always, mapping processes and putting them in nice process manuals seems to be a flu you can’t get rid of. In no time we end up in discussions about how hard it is too keep those process manuals up to date.  A mean question we always ask then: Do you think your customer is expecting up to date process manuals?  I don’t think so.   Those (process)customers just want that your processes are designed in a way that those processes are able to do what they promise.   Grip on the execution of processes (hopefully useful ones!) is the only thing that counts in the end.  And, during execution that may mean that processes will indeed change often because of different properties of a process instance (a customer that has different wishes). And with that it is a

...so they fit on one page T housands of articles, white papers and books have been written (but also read?) about process modeling . One extra won’t hurt, will it? And when you’re lucky, you probably will not learn anything new.  Modeling processes; who doesn’t do it? Process modelling. It seems the first and most appealing thing companies do when they start doing 'something with processes’.  And yes, I’ve done it a lot in my, so called, career. But after all the consultancy fees enabled me to buy a second  and third house, a few sports cars and a boat I never use, I thought that time has come to start discussing the value of it. Process modelling is a means, so don’t do it without a goal. So, very often I run into discussions about pro’s and con’s which I most of the time like to trigger with some quotes I regularly post on my www.procesje.nl blog. And those quotes are not meant to make people angry or to play the funny guy (although…). I use them to ma

Customer Journey; that's an hipster thing, isn't it? Can you remember when the Customer Journey became a hip thing? 3 years ago? 5 years ago?  Anyway, doesn't matter. But, when it suddenly became "the next big thing" in Processistan, I remember myself thinking "What have all these organizations been doing before they started thinking about the Customer Journey?" Didn't they care about their customers? Did they really cause the customer a lot of trouble and effort to buy their products or services? I don't hope so. For their customers.  Customer Journey; that isn't some standalone thing, is it?  Besides that, it also surprises me that the Customer Journey is often seen as something separate from a process (that some even call "Internal process"). I think that is strange. Very strange.  Most processes just have more executors. And  the customer is not seldom one of them. And in these days of digital-everything and c

I assume you ended up on this blog because you are interested in processes. 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. So many process things, I understand it can be confusing 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 re