The Process Ninja

Process Days 2009 starts next week - will I see you there?

Process days 2009 starts on Monday - I'll be attending the first day of masterclasses on the Monday. I'll be at:

Master Class 1:

Standardising Business Processes

Lida du Plessis, Senior Consultant, Leonardo Consulting with case study presentation by:

Master Class 2:

But We Don’t Build Cars – Managing Service Processes  -Roger Tregear, Consulting Director, Leonardo Consulting with Gavin Bartlett, National Systems Manager, Leighton Contractors.

After that I'll be at the whole cenference on Wed & Thu - if you're going keep an eye out for me. I won't be dressed like a ninja, but look out for The Process Ninja on my nametag! Hope to meet some of you for a drink and a chat!

The "Dead Time" debate continues @ Process Cafe

Gary over at the Process Cafe has continued the discussion about my concept of "dead time" - he takes the concept a bit further than I did and it's a welcome extension to my thinking! (I like it when others do the thinking for me!) Check it out his article "Dead Time...How Do You Treat Yours?"

Using Criteria to Choose "Best Fit" Processes

How easy would life be if we only ever had one option? Remember Henry Ford? OK, I'll have a black one Mr Ford - thanks very much, next please. Sometime life is complicated and throws up more than one option, particularly for processes.

For example, in the morning I have two options of getting to work: car & train. Actually I have many more options than that, don't I? I could walk, cycle, run, hang-glide, helicopter it, swim, etc. So there's the first lesson when choosing a process:

1. Consider ALL the options, not just the ones you think might work (because you just never know what might work out best)

OK, so am I going to swim 14k to work, probably not. Am I going to hang-glide? Not unless I want to die a hideous death. Second Lesson:

2. Eliminate all options that definately won't work

So when all is done and said I have a few options: Car, Bus, Train, Bike, Ferry. But how do I decide? There are several factors in the decision - it isn't just a matter of how expensive it is or how fast it is. So how do I take that into account? Lesson 3:

3. List your criteria for the decision

So I come up with my criteria: Journey Time, Comfort, Price, Productivity (to explain that am I able to do productive stuff like work at the same time I travel). But once I have those criteria decided I need to work out how important each of them are to me. Lesson 4:

4. Give the criteria weightings

I come up with what is most important to me, so for example i rate each score out of ten. Next it's time to score each and come up with the totals. But wait have I forgotten anything, have I missed anything? Yes, I've realised that I've forgotten a criteria score that covers risk! Which form of transport am I likely to be bombed by terrorists on? Or exposed to swine flu!?? So before you rate, you need one more lesson:

5. Review all options from the start

This is a bit like agile software development where you loop round and pick up what defects you've missed on the first pass. Then it's just a matter of:

6. Adding up the scores

So once you've got all your criteria sorted, you plug in your scores, multiply the weighting by the rating, sum the totals and you should have what is the "best fit" process option.

This technique can be used for any method of comparison - choosing software, a vendor, a process - anything! It's remarkably simple and remarkably effective. Just shows you - not everything needs to be complicated...

- TPN

The Concept of "Dead Time" in Processes

When I was at University I studied the classic Human Resources stuff - Maslow's hierarchy of needs, etc. One of the classic studies (of which I have forgotten the name) always sticks in my mind.

The experiment measured how workers in a factory worked most productively. It essentially discovered that those who worked rapidly could only keep up the rapid work for a certain amount of time before they "burned out" whilst those that were most productive worked at a steady pace throughout.

What this shows is that the "fast" workers were probably operating near to 100% productivity, while the others were operating at, say 70%. When the fast workers burnt out they (for example) dropped to 30% productivity - so overall their productivity was less over the piece.

Where I am going with this is what I call the concept of "dead time". In any process where human beings are involved you will rarely or never have 100% productivity - it's just not our nature. "Dead time" is the gap between 100% productivity and actual productivity.

So why is this important? Well it needs to be considered when looking at processes. This is because it is a waste of effort, time, money, etc. to improve process steps that fall into "dead time". For example is it worth installing new lifts in a building that are super fast to enable employees to get to their desks quicker? I'd say probably not as this period of time may fall into "dead time". Is it worth spending money on a super fast coffee machine in the kitchen? Probably not because people will still stand around and talk to whoever is in the kitchen at the time.

These are simplistic examples, but it is always important to realise that there will always be percentage of "dead time" in every process - it isn't always worth optimising every stage of the process - making the judgement call of what fits into "dead time" is the tricky part.

- TPN

10 Things I hate about BPM

I bet you never thought you'd hear me say it, but here we go. I hate:

The fact that it's reduced to yet another boring ackronym - it's so much more interesting than that

The fact that people are still arguing about what BPM / Process improvement and all the other phrases including process actually mean (it doesn't matter!!!)

Boring, elongated articles on process that try to turn it into a science - please people, go back to university and leave us alone!

People arguing over their tools "my tool is better than your tool!" - stop it - you're all tools!

People jumping on and off process bandwagons "Ooooh Six Sigma was so 2007" - it's not fashion so get over it

Lumbering software giants that charge a squillion dollars for poor installations that give process a bad name

People who write process blogs, but who can't write (does that include me - ha!)

Senior Managers who can't see the value of process (go die you dinosaurs!)

People who think because you've drawn a process map you've solved world peace

Those who cannot see "THE GOAL"

Harsh, aren't I?

- TPN

Have You Lost Control of Your Processes?

Is it all falling apart? Oh dear, what has gone wrong? Did you think about controls when you built that shiney new process?

When Joy Division once sang "And she showed up all the errors and mistakes, And said I've lost control again." in their eponomous song "Control" they hit the nail on the head. Control is about reducing the errors in process, it is about reducing mistakes and it is about keeping the process true to its original intent.

When you create a new process or fix a broken one you must create process controls. What I mean by this is that you must have means of keeping the process on track. Think of it a bit like a slalom skier going down a course. His goal is to get to the finish line, but he has to follow the flags or he gets disqualified. But how do you set controls?

Choosing the controls can be as simple as looking at your process and thinking about what are the drop dead, must happen steps in the process. How many you have depends on the complexity of the process (but don't overdo it). Once you have decided upon your control steps you should continually audit the process to ensure that the control steps are being adequately met.

Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division eventually committed suicide - tortured by his inner demons and his inability to control his world. Thankfully we have the simpler task of controlling business processes, but the lesson here is the same: if you lose control you can be left with nothing.

- TPN

Ninja Tip: Separate work and personal opinions

It is fine with being friends with people at work, but to maintain a healthy balance it is important that you are able to separate your personal and professional opinions. If you have a colleague at work who isn’t performing, it needs to be addressed, whether or not they are your friend. Vice versa you shouldn’t cast aside a good friend because you are embarrassed by their ability to do their job or that you don’t like the work they have given you to do. It may help for you to think of each person as having two sides – a work side and a personal side – and one should never tarnish the other.

 

This is a hard leap for some people to make and it may sound harsh - but ultimately you will be the one looking bad for protecting an underperforming staff member. The converse is true; just because you don't get along well with someone personally, you must not let this come in the way of a professional work relationship.

 

If they're good, they're good. If they're bad they're bad.

 

- TPN

Proving the value of process: If it moves, measure it, if it doesn't move, measure it

STOP! Don't do anything. Sir, move away from the process. Before you think about changing any process for the better there is one thing you must do: MEASURE.

Why measure when you know it's broken? Why measure when it's already caused a catastrophe? I'll tell you why; because one day some little prick with a bald head and a bad suit will come along and say "how can we justify all this spend on process?" and if you haven't measured anything you will have nothing to disprove him. He'll pack up your little process shop and go back to counting his beans, happy in the knowledge that he's saved money - even though we know he's cost more money in the long run.

So here's what you do - measure everything. Measure before you start, measure when you're finished and keep measuring when you're done. After that, start measuring again. You must always be constantly aware of where you are - that way when you make a change you can measure exactly how much you've achieved and thereby prove the power of process. Process is your compass, but if you're in the dark you'll never see where you've come from or where you need to go.

- TPN

Will Twitter Embrace Process or will it become "The New Spam"?

Twitter - love it or hate it, it's the big thing at the moment. I use it myself, but only as much as I can stand to and only for business purposes.

But recently I've noticed that all I'm getting through these days is what I call "twitter spam" - "followers" whose only updates are the same as those crappy spam e-mails we're all now so used to. Twitter is in danger of becoming the new spam. And what about cybersitting? At the moment I can (and as a test I have) registered twitter names of major corporations that don't quite get it yet (shame on them!) - how long before someone invents a little piece of software that starts registering thousands of twitter names and then puts them up for sale?

I see twitter as being like one of those kids who grew up in a commune like River Phoenix or something - a brilliant genius, but not quite living in the real world - full of innovation and creative spleandor, but not able to live with normal society. Twitter's free and easy lifestyle is about to end, I fear. With innovation comes responsibility- twitter has triumphed, but now some rules have to be put in place to protect it's users and to protect it's end goal.

Dare I say it, it's time for process.

- TPN

BPM Software: Flowcentric from Professional Advantage

I attended a breakfast seminar the other week to have a look at Flowcentric, a BPM software product by Professional Advantage. Obviously at these kind of seminars, everything looks good and the response to every question is a "yes", so it did look like a good product that is being used across a wide range of industries - that suggests a certain degree of flexibility, which is obviously a big plus point. It also integrates with Outlook and Sharepoint. You can even upload your Visio maps to it. Good if you use Microsoft products, of course, but if you don't?

I had a good chat to Johnathan Marcer from Professional Advantage. I explained to him the connundrum that I always face with companies - how do you get them to understand the value of process and the benefits that controlling process will bring? His suggestion was simple, but good: start small. Start with a process that can bring immediate value to the organisation - effectively a proof of concept. Don't choose to attack the biggest, hairiest beast in the organisation.

Pick a process, prove that it works and you have a compelling argument for more.

Rock on!

 - TPN