do you know your processes?

2009 ACUHO-I Business Operations Conference

Do you know your processes?BPM for Housing Operations

Brandon VegaAlex Rockwell


Quote

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

-W. Edwards Deming


What is a Business Process?

A collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer.[www.crfonline.org/orc/glossary/b.html]


What is BPM?

The achievement of an organization’s objectives through the improvement, management and control of essential business processes. [Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations, 2008]


BPM is NOT…

just a technology tool, a solution to all your business problems, the best choice in all cases.


What can BPM do for me?

Increased productivity Increased process compliance Improved communication Improved resource utilization Shorter process cycle times Lower process cost Increased customer satisfaction


Area Damage Billing

Paper process Charges recorded by office clerks. Carbon copy form Charge amounts on a piece of paper. Accounting enters charges manually.


Steps

Project Initiation Identify target process Put together team Kick-off meeting Map out the process Improve the process Develop the software Go live


Project Initiation

Create Project Initiation Document (PID). Requires sign-off from project sponsor. Ensures project “makes sense”. Allows for checking progress.


Project Initiation

Objective What do we want to do? Summarize what the project should accomplish.

Success Criteria Project Plan (high level)


Project Initiation

The objective is to provide a streamlined method for handling the Area Damage reporting and appeals process that reduces the total time for process completion.

Objective


Project Initiation

Area charge amounts standardized. Charges are submitted in real-time. Remove need for manual entering of charges

by accounting. Total time for charge submission is reduced.

Success Criteria


Project Initiation

Deliverable Duration Completed

Phase 1: Area damage invoice submission ---------------- ----------------

Project Initiation 20 days 09/08/2009

Select Framework 15 days 09/25/2009

Configure jBPM 5 days 09/11/2009

Design Database 3 days 09/30/2009

Develop Process in jBPM 10 days

Develop Software 34 days

Beta Testing 10 days

Production Deployment 1 day

Phase 2: Resident Appeal

Phase 3: Appeal Approval/Denial

Phase 4: Refunds and Search capabilities

Phase 5: Charge List Administration

Project Plan


Identify Target Process

Determine the project Scope. Involve the key stakeholders. Create a process hierarchy diagram or similar. Identify all activities in the process. Identify sub-processes. Focus on process AS-IS.


Project Team

People determine the success of your Business Processes.

Must understand what is expected. Must understand their role in the process. Process changes especially delicate


Project Team

Should include sample of all actors involved. Ownership is important Project Sponsor(s)

Person(s) making important decisions Project Manager Business Analyst Developers


Project Team

Process Owners Decision makers Ability to change the process after it is defined

Subject Matter Experts (SME) Those with “hands-on” knowledge Ability to provide detailed process information Advocates of the project


Project Team

Role Responsibility Name

Project Sponsor Responsible for critical decisions regarding resources and project sign-off.

T.J. Logan - Asst. Director for Administrative ServicesDenise Tanner - Director for Business Services

Project Manager/ Analyst

Project planning and management. Resource management.

Brandon Vega

Developers Interface design, program development

Alex RockwellJin Peng


Project Team

Role Name Department

Process Owner Denise Tanner Accounting

SMEs Nancy Peebles Accounting

John Evangelista Accounting

Mark Hill Maintenance

Jennifer Leavitt RLC

Donna Ingersoll-Rowland

Office Mgr.

Cassandra Haynes Office Mgr.

Jody Rodgers Clerk

Linda Monroe Clerk

Orpha Hoover Clerk

Rebecca Gilreath Clerk


Kickoff Meeting

All stakeholders in attendance Review of PID Stakeholders agree to responsibilities. Sign off


Analyzing the Process

Map the workflow Go low-tech with Post-Its Activities Decision Points May use colored Post-Its to differentiate Dry erase board


Mapping the Workflow

Write activity title in few words Write decision points with YES/NO answer Basic success scenario Post-Its can be moved around Spend as much time as necessary Involve as many stakeholders as possible Focus on Process “As-Is” (current state)


Assign Roles

Assign roles to activities One role assigned to each activity Write on bottom of Post-It or, specify using dry-erase board.


As-Is


Improve the Process

“The first rule of any technology is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

-Bill Gates


Improve the Process

Find areas for process improvement Touch Time Cycle Time Unit cost Touch to Cycle time ratio >3% is good.


Improve the Process

Step #

Activity Clerk Maint. Acct. Touch

time (min)

Cycle time (min)

Ratio touch : cycle

1 Select Resident 1 1

2 Add Charges 1 1

3 Estimate Damage 60 480

4 Submit to Student 2 5

5 Submit to Accounts 5 2400

6 Enter Charges 2 60 Total 71 2947 2.4%


Improve the Process

Look for easy improvements High cycle times Automating will remove 2465 minutes from

cycle time

Step #

Activity Clerk Maint. Acct. Touch

time (min)

Cycle time (min)

Ratio touch : cycle

1 Select Resident 1 1 2 Add Charges 1 1 3 Estimate Damage 60 480 4 Submit to Student 0 0 5 Submit to Accounts 0 0 6 Enter Charges 0 0

Total 62 482 12.9%


Improved


Software Development

Obtain signoff Setup milestones with target dates Development methodologies:

Traditional “waterfall” Iterative approach (Agile or XP) Custom


Our Approach to Development

Iterative development Each iteration results in working software Deploy to a server and test Get feedback from stakeholders Adjust target date, if necessary



Document changes in requirements Wiki is a great place for documentation Trac - trac.edgewall.org

Wiki and ticket system Spreadsheet Access database

http://trac.edgewall.org/



Do not forget to record metrics. Important for management. Log start and end time for key activities. Send notifications for “out of ordinary”

events. You should see improvements.


Ready to Go Live

Hardware is in place No critical change request pending Implementation plan in place

Communication Support Training


jBPM Software

Java-based BPM open-source software. Graphical Process Designer. Web console for process testing. jBPM engine waits for tasks to be completed. “Knows” what is next in the task list. “Knows” who should complete the task.


jBPM Demonstration


Other BPM Software

ProcessMaker (open source, PHP) processmaker.com

CuteFlow (open source, PHP) cuteflow.org

NxBRE (open source, .NET) devintelligence.com

Lombardi Teamworks (PHP) lombardisoftware.com

Skelta (.NET) skelta.com

ActiveVOS (Java) activevos.com

http://www.processmaker.com/

http://www.cuteflow.org/

http://www.devintelligence.com/

http://www.lombardiesoftware.com/

http://www.skelta.com/

http://www.activevos.com/


Thank you!

do you know your processes?

Education

process changes

process completion

business process management

project scope

project teamshould

project teampeople

process hierarchy diagram

project initiationproject