The Process Ninja

Linking Process, Procedures & Business Requirements to Successful Customer Outcomes - a Business Analyst Guide

"Go out to the business and gather their requirements!"

How many times do we hear this said? 

When I hear this being it immediately fills me with dread; images of men in suits wandering through dark forests without maps, looking for mushrooms...needles in haystacks and the like (you get the idea...)

What generally happens in these situations is that business analysts go away and do just that - gather requirements - what the business thinks they want. Typically what this results in is a giant rambling document written in a pseudo business / IT speak that the business say they can't read and the IT guys say isn't detailed enough for them to build from. So the BA goes away and creates a functional spec which the IT guys love, but by this point in time it has morphed so far from what the business want, they have a heart attack when they see the final product!

"That's not what we wanted!" they say!

"But that's what you told us!" say the BA's and IT guys!

It doesn't have to be this hard. Here's how you do it:

1. Define the successful customer outcome(s)

What is it that the customer really needs? What does the business need to do to meet those needs?

2. Define the process scope

Establish what the process actually is from the customer's perspective - current state (if a current state exists!). Don't take the business's word for it - their interpretation of what a process is may be radically different to yours. Document the process at a high level (e.g. SIPOC) - confirm with the business. Tick in box from business? 

3. Define the current process

Proceed to document the process at a task level. Don't waste too much time on the as-is if you are going to change the process! Photos of sticky notes on a wall is sufficient. Tick in box from business?

4. Improve the process / define new process

List all the tasks in the current process and eliminate or improve tasks focussing on the outcomes required. If a new process, sticky note the tasks required to achieve the outcomes required with the minimal amount of activities. Don't just consider "sunny day processes" where everything goes right - consider everything that can go wrong! Look at the paths from every business rule in your process! Consider all process permutations!

5. Link Process Tasks to Procedural Steps

For each task, create procedural steps - how and why each process step is done rather than what is done. This can be done very simply in a spreadsheet ( For example my Process Ninja Workbook that utilises the CEM Method). What's more, you can then spit it into a procedural document for your staff to use for training and day-to-day operational procedures.

6. Link Procedural Detail to Business Requirements

The procedural detail helps to create a granular level of detail that greatly benefits the creation of specific requirements.  It forces the analyst to think of all possible permutations and options - it forces them to think in the context of the real world, not a gobbledegook business requirements document.

7. Link Business requirements to test scenarios

Use procedural detail and business requirements together to develop test scenarios and use cases - IT can then use these for their unit testing then they can be re-used for user testing. Easy.

8. Build it. Iteratively.

Presuming that there is actually an IT solution involved (and let's face it, there usually is), it's best to adopt an iterative (agile) approach where there are short development cycles with high business involvement. I have seen too many waterfall development disasters in my time.

So in eight steps a Business or Process Analyst can create complete traceability from the customer outcomes to the delivery.

It's not really that hard, but isn't it amazing that so many people can make it seem that way?

Cheers,

TPN

My Presentation from the BP Group Sydney Sundowner

My presentation from the BP Group Sydney Sundowner a couple of weeks ago. Here I discuss some of my recent experiences with using outside-in process design at two very different clients.

- TPN

Don't Dictate the To-be Process, Facilitate the To-be Process

In my opinion there are few worse things in the world than a consultant in a shiney suit turning up at your business and telling you what to do. It's arrogant, unnecessary and gets the customer offside from day one.

Last night I attended the Sydney BPM Link meeting at where one of the speakers was John Jeston, Partner at The LiTMUS Group. When John was asked by an attendee  whether he "tells people what they should do" with regard to the to-be process I was glad to hear him say that he would never tell the client what to do.

I am exactly in agreement with this approach. I find it abhorrent when process consultants walk into a business and start to design to-be processes that they think are correct. I believe that a good process person facilitates the to-be process, but they never dictate to the customer what that process should be. Often the to-be process may be obvious to the process facilitator - but it is vitally important that the customers come to the conculsion on what the process should be with the help of the facilitator.

One of the great benefits of the CEM Method I use is that it actively involves the workshop participants in designing the not only the as-is process and the to-be process but it helps the customer define the actions required to get from the as-is to the to-be.

It's your job to guide your customers in the right direction, not push them.

- TPN

Don't Talk the Process - Walk the Process

There are so many ways to gather information these days that it's easy for us to get lost in the detail. When it comes to looking at and understanding processes we have the same challenge - how to wade through that sea of information and data to find the truth.

The short answer is that you will never understand everything and you shouldn't expect to. It is ridiculous for us as process analysts to walk onto a project and set about trying to learn every piece of information on a subject that has taken years to create and which sits within the heads of numerous subject matter experts. To quote a sage friend of mine, we need to take the approach of "how much do you need to know to know that you know enough".

Whilst workshops can have value, and depth interviews, well, add depth, I am a great fan of walking the process. This involves very simply following the flow of information through the process - walking to each person or department and asking them to take me through their work. Info will always disappear into systems and pop out somewhere else, but we can still follow that too.

What walking the process achieves for me is to build a visual picture of flows in my head. It also helps me to build relationships with the staff involved in the process and to explain what I am trying to achieve. There is something about walking the process that helps the staff to build a sense of trust and to speak openly about the work they perform and the issues they face. Putting the same staff in a workshop environment creates a totally different set of group dynamics where staff may not be so open with their thoughts.

So as a starting point do not underestimate the power of walking the process. It's an ideal first step.

Outside-in Part 3 - The Method

So I've talked about what outside-in has achieved and about successful customer outcomes - by how do we practically implement outside-in?

Outside-in is fundamentally about aligning processes with successful customer outcomes. Through workshops with little more than than sticky-notes, brown paper and the front line staff in the room we can start to radically change our thinking of organisational processes.

When we look at the customer experience we are looking for three key items within the process:

Moments of Truth – any interaction with the customer – this could be a customer to person interaction, for example or a customer to system interaction. These moments represent an opportunity in time to delight the customer or to fail!

Break points – any hand-off in the process – these represent potential points where the process can break down.

Business Rules – any decision point in the process. These can add complexity, increase effort and be a potential failure point.

When we map out the process we start to identify where these three factors occur for each step in the process. We then use these to calculate the point of failure factor for our process. This point of failure factor gives us an idea of how optimised (or not optimised!) our processes are from a customer point of view. The point of failure factor has been proven to directly correlate to customer satisfaction – so a high level of potential failure will equal a propensity for customers to be dissatisfied (I wonder why?!)

Thinking about our process with all its moments of truth, break points and business rules for a moment it is easy to see how customer dissatisfaction can occur. You may think that having lots of moments of truth (i.e customer interaction) might be a good thing, but think of it this way: if you had to call up a company to get some information but each time you received the information it was inaccurate and had to call again, how long would it take to irk your dissatisfaction? And what if instead the company had not only given you the information, but had given you extra information that had helped you further?

So once the point of failure factor has been identified we seek to improve our processes. But how to we do this? We need to:

1. Eliminate
2. Improve

Each moment of truth, break point or business rule represents an opportunity, but the more of them we have the greater our chance of failure occurring. So to reduce our point of failure factor we seek to eliminate as many as we can. Obviously we can’t practically get rid of all of them, but we need to ensure that the ones that we leave in place are improved as much as possible and that they are aligned to successful customer outcomes.

This is a very high level overview of how outside-in works. If you’d like to find out more or to become trained in the technique I’d recommend you visit the following links:

BP Group - http://www.bpgroup.org/

BP Group on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1062077&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Steve Tower's Blog (World Outside-in Guru) - http://successfuloutcomes.blogspot.com/

Remember, The Process Revolution Starts Here...

- TPN

Ninja Tip: How to present effectively and avoid "Death by PowerPoint"

Unless you want to give the impression that you have the intellectual Kudos of a 14 year old girl who spends all day on Myspace you should make some effort to improve your oral skills. If you can’t stand up in front of a group of people and deliver a presentation without looking like a jelly on top of a washing machine then you need to take action. Unfortunately the best way is simply to do more and get used to it. But if this is too confronting do yourself a favour and get some professional coaching. Being able to talk confidently to a group of people is a fantastic skill and one that few people do well.

Here are some tips for successful speaking:

• Practice. Stand up in front of a mirror and practise your presentation out loud. Be aware of your mannerisms. Keep your head up, shoulders back and chest out. Say to yourself “I am the B*llocks!” Don’t be afraid to use your arms!

• Use crib notes if you have to, but cut them into bullet points on small cards. Don’t stand up with a sheet of A4 paper and read everything out like 5 year old.

• Project your voice to the back of the room (imagine you are talking to the chap in the back row)

• Dress appropriately for your audience

• If you are using a PowerPoint presentation, try to express what you are saying with a simple picture and no more than a couple of words. People’s brains can’t take in any more.

• Be interactive, don’t just talk at people – ask questions and challenge the audience (it will keep them alert).

• Inject humour. Everyone fears death by powerpoint with slides filled with gobbledigook spouted by some boring GM. Make it interesting by creating a theme with a bit of humour. People will enjoy it and more importantly will remember it.

Process Tip - Facilitate workshops your own way

 

Frank - he did it his way...and so will you...

 

When you are holding a meeting, conducting an interview, holding a workshop, remember that it is YOUR DECISION on how you want it to be run. If you have called it and organised it, you are in charge. Don’t let anyone tell you how to run it or put down your ideas. Stand firm and say “no, this is the way we are going to do it because I’ve found this method successful in the past”.

Process Tip - When and how to use brainstorming

 

Even little brains can whip up a storm...

People love a good brainstorm – especially if you use your laptop and some funky mind mapping software. Brainstorming is an ideal first step in process discovery as it allows you to let your group go absolutely bonkers with ideas, complaints, suggestions, rants and raves. You can kick off the meeting and let it go in all directions. Just give yourself a reasonable amount of time at the end of the meeting to organise and categorise the topics into a logical order. You’ll be amazed how effective a brainstorm is for getting all the cards on the table and everyone will be really impressed by your software!

Process Tip - Always Ask Stupid Questions

There is such a thing as a stupid question, but if there’s anyone who should be asking it, it’s you. It’s your job to prod, poke, harry and harass as need be to get the information to build the picture. Tell everyone to explain things to you as if you are a 3 year old. That way you will be able to create processes and procedures that anyone can understand.

Process Tip - How to discover the true story

Donkey...suitable for talking the hind legs off of...

Talk to everyone, talk to everyone’s best friend’s sister’s dog. The trick is that everyone knows something, but one person does not know everything. The more people you talk to the more you will fit the jigsaw pieces together that give you the “real” picture of what is going on – the picture that the little people sitting in their sweaty little cubicles can’t see…so talk to people who are part of processes, but also talk to those touched by the processes – but don’t be afraid to also talk to those who have opinions about the processes. Less isn’t more when it comes to process. Obviously you have to manage your chattering within the time constraints of your project…but the more you can talk, the more you will see.