So many process diagrams lie unused in cupboards! And many organizations document one thing and do another. How can people allow their people to not know exactly WHAT they are doing, HOW and most importantly WHY? As Peter Drucker said "The first question in increasing productivity in knowledge and service work has to be: What is the task? What do we try to accomplish? WHY do it at all?"... "Simple, Effective Business Process Documentation" - coded by BCS
Nice tool.
There is a similar one called compedium that I have been using. There is also a good article on dialogue mapping (which ios the technique underlying your tool) here;
Thanks Craig I'll have a look at compedium. BTW - did you notice that Knowledge Genes automatically finds other relevant web documents (indexed documents) related to the Knowledge Gene (requirements) that you are currently mapping? It always finds corporate web documents in the same way. We've had some cool feedback on this functionality. I'd be interested to get your feedbac on this.
Cheers,Mark
Billy:
I totally agree with you: the BA community really needs to step back and ask "What is the task?" (Or as I like to say it, we need to ask "Who am I, and what am I doing here?")
BAs really, really need to get back to the basics. We need to first go to a dictionary and look up the word "analysis". One will see that analysis is almost universally defined as partitioning (i.e., dividing up) an entity (a system in the case of software) and also determining the how the parts interrelate.
Big Problem: You will not find a discussion on how a BA is to go about partitioning a system discussed in the BABOK. I doubt if you will find a discussion about partitioning in any BA book. In fact, a BA can be "certified" without ever having considered how to properly partition a system!
You ask how can people allow their people to not know exactly WHAT they are doing, HOW and most importantly WHY? Answer: The primary purpose of most organizations is not to make money or serve the customer; it is for the people in power to be comfortable.
Tony
Hey Tony, You and me, on the same wavelength we are. This is such an important point - we totally do need to get back to the basics! And there's so much pomposity, nonsense and un-necessary complexity in business and tools today that augment the problem. Let's just cut the crap and get on with it already. Your last point made we smile although I'd say that making the people in power feel comfortable is about maximizing shareholder value which is turn is about making money, but I think I understand what you're getting at here. You know, I used to work as a management consultant (HR) a while back and I was genuinely shocked by the % of employees who genuinely didn't know WHAT they were doing or more importantly, WHY. Shocker! Cheers, Mark
brought to you by enabling practitioners & organizations to achieve their goals using: