Enabling Healthy Decisions

Back at E&Y, we had a process called the Accelerated Solution Environment (ASE).  For $250,000, we took clients through an amazing 2-3 day facilitated event that got months worth of work done with creative thinking and fostered huge buy-in across the groups.  Tons of clients did it, but it was expensive.

I lost touch with the group, but I just found them the other day.  They are now a standalone entity called Wildworks Group which offers a portable environment at a fraction of the cost…but with the same results and amazingly quick product.

This is great for rapid requirements gathering, strategic visioning, project kickoffs, or other activities that require cross-functional participation and buy-in.

As you get your BPM project(s) to production, you will quickly see the tangible benefits and numerous opportunities will come to the surface.  How do you move to prioritize those?

There are several approaches including simple 2×2 quadrants that rank projects based on percent automation versus frequency of use.  Companies can also use the Kano Model from Six Sigma.  The Kano Model looks at how different attributes relate to customer satisfaction and help companies drive for “delighting” their customer.

Another framework from my E&Y days that I like lays out attributes based on potential value and ability to execute.  Each of these attributes (see below) is then rated on a 1-5 scale which can be weighted.  The projects are then ranked base on total score.  Some of the attributes in these two areas include:

1. Strategic alignment
2. Financial impact
3. Customer satisfaction impact
4. Competitive status
5. Organizational readiness
6. Proven technology
7. Time and resources required

Identifying the right attributes for a company should be driven by an understanding of the corporate strategy and the metrics that drive that strategy.

One of the areas of project implementation most overlooked across the board is organizational change management.  This “soft” area often scares people away, but anyone who has done a major implementation of a complex project will tell you the importance of this.  Every constituent has a WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) attitude, and they see the project through the impact that it has on them.

I was reading some other sites about project management, and they stressed the importance of the PMO or COE (Center of Excellence) in managing the change.  But, a lot of people don’t understand the tangible deliverables of an organizational change management plan.  Some of the typical deliverables include:

1. Implementation readiness – understanding the implications, creating a strategy, and assessing the leadership readiness to support the change
2. Stakeholder management – identifying the stakeholders, lining up leadership support and change agents, capturing risks and benefits, and building commitment
3. Communication – communication strategy, communication plan (audience, medium, message, frequency, author), and execution
4. HR strategy – identification of future state and changes (e.g., new skills needed), pay and performance management, competency development, and staffing plan
5. Team effectiveness – clear project charter, shared vision, and understood business case

E&Y, Accenture, and many of the large consulting companies have build competencies in this area.  In my time at E&Y, I worked with many clients in the data warehousing and performance management areas regarding change management.  It is not easy, but it is very important to get right.

After you have your first few BPM projects complete, it is natural to begin looking at sustainability and best practices.  A typical way to approach this is to build a Center of Excellence (COE), but companies have to avoid the PMO (Program Management Office) trap.  Corporate level PMOs were set up to do the same thing, but only a few have been successful.  Keeping your COE (or PMO) lean and focused is key.  A good strategy is making it a rotational role so it doesn’t become an ivory tower and make sure that it is composed of cross-functional people with line experience.

What does a COE do?  It serves as the knowledge repository for the organization on BPM strategy, methodology, tools, market changes, processes, business cases, templates, etc.  The team should be versed in multiple approaches to process management (e.g., BPR, BPMG training, Six Sigma, Lean) and should understand system development with experiences with BPMS, BI, DW, and EAI.  Essentially, they are acting as internal consultants to evaluate projects, create the business case, recommend the right approach, and make sure teams are successful.

The COE is going to answer questions like: How long should this take?  Are their re-usable sub-processes or services that we should link into?  Is this the right BPMS?  How do we integrate with our existing data warehouse or document management system?  How do you analyze our processes? What works well?  What doesn’t work?

A few articles on this:

• Moving On Growing the Team’s BPM Capabilities – key points include conduct benchmarking, evaluate different approaches, take an iterative approach, build experience on the right types of projects, address governance early.
• Infosys Presentation – key points include building standards, doing market analysis, linking efforts, and knowledge management.
• IT Toolbox Blog –  talks about the process culture which become critical as you move from functional focus to process focus and address the issue of governance.
• Allstate Article – this is an old article (2002) but it talks about Allstate’s Process COE that they built in 1997.  some of the key points are building models and templates, linking projects to the enterprise vision, and moving to process stewardship.

This is a key topic so I will continue to add to this, but it is an important part of your roadmap as you embrace BPM.