defining process scope
TRANSCRIPT
Defining Process Scope
An Introduction by Declan Chellar
THE NEED FOR RIGOUR
• Most business subject matter experts (SMEs) do not have a formal understanding of “process”.
• SMEs often cannot distinguish between business functional areas, general areas of business activity, business processes and sub-processes.
• Inexperienced BAs often take the SMEs’ word that “X” is a process, and jump straight into modelling atomic tasks without understanding the scope of the process. This is mere process “mapping”.
THE NEED FOR RIGOUR
• A key disadvantage of this approach is the failure to understand what starts each process and how each one ends.
• Another drawback is the failure to understand how many processes need to be modelled, leading to wildly inaccurate estimates.
• A more rigorous approach is needed in order to drive out process types, candidate processes, sub-processes and then atomic tasks.
• This rigourous approach is process “modelling”.
OVERVIEW
1. Identify in-scope process types
2. Identify candidate processes
3. Define the process boundary
4. Identify process performers
5. Identify key process stages
6. Assign stages to roles
7. Explore process detail
IDENTIFY IN-SCOPE PROCESS TYPES
• By team/department, e.g.: Accounting
• By event, e.g.: Month-end
• By business concept, e.g.: Loan
– Loan Origination
– Loan Maintenance
– Loan Final Settlement
IDENTIFY ACTIVITIES BY PROCESS TYPE
• Loan Origination
–Originate Loan
–Price Loan
–Review Proposal
–Review Documentation
–Open Account
– Transfer Funds
• Loan Maintenance
–Drawdown Loan
–Rollover Loan
– Take Payment
–Charge Fee
–Amend Details
–Release Security
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• INTENT! INTENT! INTENT!• A business process has a single intent• What does each instance of the process represent?• Identify and label the key end-state of an activity to reveal the
intent of the process (Noun + Past Participle)• Name the process accordingly (Verb + Noun)• Activities with multiple key end-states probably conceal multiple
processes• Several activities driving toward the same end-state are likely sub-
processes within a single process
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• What does each instance of the process represent? In otherwords, what is the thing that is being processed? Is it one thingor many things? What if the start of the “process” createsthings one at a time but another part handles them in a batch?
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• There is a difference between “Review Document” and“Review Documents”.
• The diagram below on the left is an example of three instancesof the former. On the right is an example of a single instance ofthe latter.
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• If your process has stages for both “Review Document” and“Review Documents”, then it is probably two processes, thesecond being a batch process.
Review Document
Review Document
Review Document
Review Documents
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• A business process has a single intent
• Identify and name the primary end-state of an candidate process to reveal its intent
• There may be exceptional end-states but we are not concerned with them yet
CandidateProcess A
PrimaryEnd-state A
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• When a candidate process seems to have with more than one primary end-state, it probably conceals multiple processes
CandidateProcess A
Primaryend-state B
Primaryend-state A
CandidateProcess A
Primaryend-state B
Primaryend-state A
CandidateProcess B
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• Several candidate processes which ultimately drive toward the same primary end-state are likely sub-processes within an overarching process
CandidateProcess B
Primaryend-state A
CandidateProcess C
CandidateProcess A
IDENTIFY CANDIDATE PROCESSES
• Several candidate processes which ultimately drive toward the same primary end-state are likely sub-processes within an overarching process
Primary end-state A
Candidate Process A
CandidateSub-
processA3
CandidateSub-
processA2
CandidateSub-
processA1
DEFINE THE PROCESS BOUNDARY
• End-state defines the intent but is only half the process boundary
• Identify the event that typically starts the process to close the boundary of the process
Start event end-state
IDENTIFY KEY PROCESS STAGES
• Identify and name the key stages the process must go through from start event to end-state
• Some of those stages may turn out to be sub-processes, others may be atomic steps
1 2 3 4
IDENTIFY PROCESS PERFORMERS
• Identify and name the key performers tasks within the process
• Performers may be teams or roles but not named people
ASSIGN STAGES TO ROLES
• Assign the key stages to the roles that perform them
1
2 3
4
SIPOC CORRESPONDENCE
• Your organisation may be using the Six Sigma concept of SIPOC, which stands for:– Supplier (provides inputs to the process)
– Inputs (resources or data needed by the process)
– Process (the process converts inputs into outputs to provide benefit to customers)
– Outputs (what the process produces)
– Customers (the recipients of the process output)
• Your organisation may require you to define process scope in SIPOC terms.
SIPOC CORRESPONDENCE
• What we defined so far corresponds to the “P” in SIPOC.
1
2 3
4
SIPOC CORRESPONDENCE
SIPOC CONCEPT BPMN SHAPE
Supplier • Black-box Pool
Input • Incoming Message Flow• Incoming Data Association
Process • White-box Pool
Output • Outgoing Message Flow• Outgoing Data Association
Customer • Black-box Pool
• The table above relates to the process as a whole for scope definition only, as you can apply SIPOC to individual process activities.
SIPOC CORRESPONDENCE
• When defining the scope of a process, you will not yet know all the Message Flows, Data Stores and Black-box pools required.
• Most will be revealed as you explore process detail.
• However, at the scope level, you should be able to identify a minimum set to satisfy SIPOC.
SIPOC CORRESPONDENCE
1
2 3
4
Supplier and/or Customer
Supplier and/or Customer
Input
Input Output
OutputProcess
EXPLORE PROCESS DETAIL
• You now have a context within which to explore process detail, such as:
– Atomic tasks:
• Actions
• Decision points
– Interactions with external processes
– Interactions with known IT systems
– Alternate flows (only after primary is done)
– Exception flows (only after primary is done)
www.chellar.com/AnalysisFu/
LinkedIn: es.linkedin.com/in/declanchellar/
Twitter: @AnalysisFu
Care to discuss further?