Hi,

This is my first post (and first visit to this site, although definitely not my last... it looks really useful).  I have just started in a new job and have come into a project partway through.  A lot of the analysis has already been completed, but I have been tasked with preparing end to end process models.  That's fine (I think), but I've also been asked to prepare operational models, both current and target.  Really not too sure where to start with this, especially as I have been asked not to bother the business users unless absolutely necessary (apparently they're "workshop-ed out"!

I've tried searching on the internet, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of a standard to follow... any help please?

Thanks

What Tony says is potentially true.  You must have the access to the business as you require it.  Otherwise your work will be counter productive.

Also designing the operating model usually comes before designing future business processes.  However, it may be the case that your business process models are of the current state of the organization.

Regardless of these risks, I expect you want to get some information about how to put together an operating model.

You are right - there is no solid consensus in the industry on how to do this.  In fact there are several views of what an operating model is.

A couple of key concepts that people often labeled as or related to operating models are;

• The way process workers handle jobs - do they specialise deeply and focus only on a limited set of tasks, or do they follow the process down a significant degree of the process?  There are strengths and weaknesses to both these approaches and you need to analyse the situation to determine which is best for your client - of course with plenty of consultation.
• Value chain analysis - which steps in the process are adding value, and who are they adding value for?  (Egg customers, shareholders, management, staff, regulatory compliance, legal, etc.)  Several process steps may be identified as redundant, and so you can recommend process improvements and cost reductions by removing them
• Span of control - are staff doing low skill, highly repetitive work? If so one manager can often supervise many staff.  If on the other hand there is lots of complex customer interaction you might want to shrink the manager to staff ratio
• Rework - what is the current rework in the process? Where does it happen?  How can it be reduced?  If it can't be easily addressed, can it be pushed as far forward into the process as possible to reduce the cost of fixing?

I hope this helps.

Craig Brown

www.betterprojects.net

Hi,

Our experience might assist you to get some more "engagement" with your user community. Tools available for discovery and documentation of the "as-is" position, are typically complex and do not invite engagement. Give your user community each a copy of Visio ,  ask them to document their as-is processes and see what happens. Visio is complex enough to the uninitiated and does not lend itself to a simple, easy-to-use collaborative tool. The success of "as-is" discovery goes around the ability to 1) Engage , 2) collect data in a common format, 3) Be able to use the data as an output from the discovery and documentation tool for further collaboration towards ongoing optimisation.

A new tool called Process Master does enable all of the above. The simple text based system with automatic diagram presentation is flexible easy to use and the output in XML can connect to various analysis suites. Does round-trip connectivity with the likes of Aris, Tibco, FlowCentric and other automated workflow tools. Give it a try, it only costs $299 per copy or try a free download www.processmaster.com

Hope this helps