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Reengineering Design Series for BPR Teams

Designing Effective Business Solutions

Module 5: Process design

This is the fifth tutorial in a series dedicated to effective reengineering design. Module 1 introduced a framework for the design process of a business solution. Module 2 discussed research with customers and employees, benchmarking and the importance of learning from others. Module 3 set the stage for the design session. Module 4 provided guidelines for idea generation and concept selection. This module will examine process design. Module 6 concludes the series with the introduction of the first elements needed for your business case.

This tutorial series is taken from Prosci's Reengineering Design Toolkit which includes the complete set of templates, guidelines and checklists for business process design teams.

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REENGINEERING PROCESS DESIGN

Introduction

The process design step of reengineering builds on your previous work. You are beginning with a set of guiding principles and concepts developed by the team, and a large set of supporting ideas for processes, technology and organizational design (refer to Modules 3 and 4).

The guiding principles (as presented in Module 4) will be the basis for decision making during the design process, and will also be instrumental in driving decisions during the implementation phase of the project.

The reengineering design work begins with process modeling and design, and then moves into the enabling technologies and organizational models. Your team's ideas and concepts (see Module 4) are the primary inputs to design both the process and the enabling elements.

Because of the amount of time the team invested in the learning process and concept development, the process design itself is straightforward. If these prior steps were not done well, then process design can be difficult, and reaching closure with the design team may be problematic.

Process Modeling and Design

Because process design can occur at many levels, it is important to begin with process models that provide a high-level framework and that capture the key process ideas and capabilities.

The most effective tool to facilitate process modeling is called Scenario Design. With this process, the team uses customer and business scenarios as the starting point for process design.

Scenario Design

A customer or business scenario is an event or need external to your process that acts as a triggering event for your process. With this triggering event as a starting point, you create the new process by repeating the simple question,

" . . . then what should happen?"  Your answers are based on your customer needs and expectations, and the guiding principles and concepts you developed in the prior step.

For example, if your triggering event is a need expressed by a customer, then what should happen next based on that expressed need and your guiding principles? As you answer this question over and over again, you diagram the process that results (use a roll of paper three or four feet wide and roll the paper out onto a table or wall surface for this exercise - 15 to 20 feet in length; leave some blank space in the bottom half of the paper for a subsequent exercise involving technology enablers).

Once the model is created, you look at the model from an overall perspective and ask the question,

"Does this model reflect our guiding principles? Does it meet our customer needs? Does it address our business strategy and objectives?"

The group then shapes the model to have all of the desired characteristics and to fully represent the guiding principles and concept ideas from Module 4.

This response to the triggering event is your process model based on that particular input and business need. You need to repeat this process for all categories of customer-triggering events or key business needs. A useful way to begin this process modeling exercise is to generate the list of triggering events. The team can brainstorm all of the possible scenarios, and narrow the list to a manageable level.

Another useful team approach is to have a two-stage design process. Split the team in half to do the process modeling work (each group will have half of the triggering events to work on). After each team has completed their work, they hand off their triggering events and completed process models to the other team. The other team then acts as a validation team, by working through the process model and validating key decisions and capabilities. This approach enables the full team to be exposed to all of the process models, and allows you to work in smaller groups.

You may find that many triggering events share common elements in the resulting process models, and you will see repeating patterns. The final step is to consolidate the process models where possible. Build simplicity and crispness into your model of the new processes.

When is process modeling software useful?

Process modeling software is useful after you have completed your high-level process models. Avoid getting too deep into process modeling software before developing a high-level picture that includes your guiding principles and concept ideas. You can then use software to optimize process alternatives for your final design. Not all business processes require modeling software in the design process.

Technology Design

Technology design and development occurs in various stages, and it is useful to understand the basic development steps so that you have a context for what the reengineering team can complete for your IT department.

Technology development has the following stages in a reengineering project:

1. Concept Development and Functional Needs

2. Architecture Design

3. Specification and Requirements

4. Gap Analysis against Current Systems and Tools

5. Systems and Tool Development

6. Validation Process and Pilot Programs

7. Full Deployment and Ongoing Maintenance

Use the original rolls of paper that captured the process models and walk through each process step. Below each process step, write down (with a different color marker) the technology capabilities required for that step. These statements represent the functional needs that will be required by your technology group.

When developing technology requirements, you should not exclude anyone from the reengineering team, even if they are not technical experts. You should answer the questions based on what you need the technology to do. Avoid using product names or vendor names. Describe the capability that is required to make the process step or information flow happen.

Organization Modeling and Job Design

A natural consequence of reengineering business processes is the changing of job roles and structure. Organizational changes are essential enablers of the new process. By the time the team has reached this point, they will have a feel for how the new process should work, and what technology will support the new process. They also will know what organizational structure can best support this process.

A simple exercise to extract this knowledge from the team is to split up into pairs (two people per group), and ask each subgroup to go off and draw the organizational model that supports the new process. Ask them to highlight the new job roles in this model, and define the responsibilities of each role.

When the team is back together, have each subgroup share the results of their model. Look for repeating patterns and themes.

Closing the Design Phase

The critical elements of your vision are complete. You should have the following work in rough form:

1. Guiding Principles for the Reengineered Process

2. Reengineered Process Models

3. Technology Architecture and Functional Needs

4. Organizational Model and Job Roles

These elements will need to be presented to your organization to build support and move toward implementation. The suggested format for socializing your design work is a business case. The business case presents not only the cost and benefit analysis for the reengineered processes and tools, but also the complete story of your project. This document will be the primary vehicle for receiving funding approval for implementation, prioritizing the solution, and measuring the success of the reengineering effort. The final module of this series will look at the preparation for the business case.

Coming next:

Module 6 will look at the preparation for the business case

Reengineering Design Toolkit - this toolkit provides guidelines, checklists and templates for effective business process design. Topics include benchmarking guidelines, customer and employee data gathering methods, technology discovery, process design exercises and brainstorming techniques, technology design and organizational design methods.

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