Larry,
Free process modellers can be had at http://www.tibco.com/devnet/business_studio/default.jsp and http://www.tibco.com/devnet/business_studio/default.jsp
A HUGE health warning though: if you have not had any formal training on Business Analysis then in all liklihood you will get in to an uncontrolled mess fast - just as I would if I tried to be a Project Manager! Developing process models in isoloation of the rest of the analytical elements you need to define means you have no way of justifying if each process and process step is necessary, what is in scope and what isn't, what would constitute an improvement, and so on.
At the very least you need to consider specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and "to die for" (SMART) objectives so that you KNOW what a successful review of this area will achieve - and they need to be agreed by all those who can kill your project. There is a lot to go through and get your head around - I would suggest you engage with a BA if you can (or get trained yourself) and if you cannot do either of those raise the risk of project failure to your sponsors based on the issue of lack of trained resources - if you don't and the project does not deliver then quite rightly you may end being responsible because you didn't raise the issue of what you NEED to progress this.
These comments are all with your best interests at heart and I hope they are useful.
Guy
Comment 3
The MA mantra: The best tool are pen and paper (only beaten by a whiteboard.) Powerpoint will be sufficient to doany modelling you need to do. AT this stage stick with tools you know. Get the consepts right before you start to muck arund with technical diagram details.
Lastly....
I think I read that you don't have any specific goals, but that you are looking for redundant bits of the process.
In fact the sales process will have a goal - making sales. And it appears your review is looking for improvements to efficiency (ie reducing cost/waste.)
In sales the quickest win is often a rationalisation of products - get rid of the low selling ones or the ones that are complex to deliver. These take up sales people's time but don't deliver much incremental revenue. It's not a process improvement, so proess analysis won't pick it up. Look at higher level isues like these first if efficiency is the goal.
If your scope is purely around process improvements I think your quickest path to ideas is probably via a Context diagram. See the ATM example/case study in the forums for some examples.
Context diagrams will show you where there are information flows across organisaitonal boundaries (Arrgh!! there be problems here) and will show when information flows into one place (system, team) but doesn't flow out. In this later case ask them (who?) why they pass things into this dead end space, and what value it adds. In the former case (boundaries) there are always improvements to be made by bringing people closer together through organisational redesign or clarifying/managing service level agreements and KPIs.
These are usually faster issues to resolve than process improvement projects or IT system implementations.
Craig Brown Better Projects and MA core team member
Hi Larry,
For a simple way to discover and document your client's processes why not try Process Master www.processmaster.com there is a free trial download and the purchasable version is not expensive - give it a go, it is a handy tool.
Nigel
Craig,
I've been doing some reading and a functional decomposition is beginning to make sense because in the world of marketing the activities are not linked in stages. Maintain customer list and participate in seminars are activities under higher level activities. Are there guidelines for max. levels?
I have defined one process under an activity for which I will created a flow diagram.
thanks for the help.
Larry
There are no set guidelines for the level of decomposition. It is up to the business analyst to use common sense and make that decision based on the complexity and size of the model.
- Adrian
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