The magic of processes

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: Processes are an integral part of everyday life. Every time we, as human beings, perform any kind of action, we are actually carrying out a process. This may vary from the way that we get dressed each morning, the way we cross the street on the way to work, to the way that we cook our food in the evenings. The key word used here is ‘way’ as, in essence, a process simply describes the way to do something or, to put it another way, an ‘approach’. It is possible to identify and relate processes for every single action that we take in life. However, this would clearly be a very large number, if not infinity!

Using processes effectively, however, is often not quite so straightforward. There is a big difference between observing a process and performing a process effectively. Consider the example of a magic trick being performing a process effectively. Consider the example of a magic trick being performed by a magician who is, quite clearly, following some sort of predefined process. It is easy to watch and follow a magic trick, such as a card trick. The magician shuffled the cards and asks a member of the audience to choose one. The audience member selects the card, memorises it, shows it to the rest of the audience and then places back into the pack. The deck is then shuffled. After a few clever words and a bit of showmanship, the card reappears underneath a vase, or in a pocket or on the other side of the room. The crowd are impressed and give their applause.

A trick such as this is one that everyone can follow and appreciate, but one that most people cannot actually perform themselves. In fact, it is possible for someone to follow the exact steps that were carried out by the magician, but to fail utterly in producing the chosen card. There are a number of possible reasons for this:

* The layman, when trying to perform the trick, simply does not understand what has actually gone on. There is a big difference between what is perceived by an observer and what actually occurs. Invariably, this is deliberate on behalf of the magician but something that can be quite clear to a fellow magician who has the relevant domain knowledge. Such trickery may involve a deck that is arranged into a particular order, the use of false cards or the pre-placing of copies of cards around a room.

* The trick itself is far more complex than it first appears. There are subtleties and nuances of the activities carried out by the magician—false cuts, double lifts, palmed cards and the like. The deception is not just limited to the cards themselves, but may also include sneaking looks at various cards, distracting the attention of the audience by waving the hands or orally catching people’s attention. All of these activities are designed to look like natural actions to a casual observer.

* The information conveyed by the magician is not the true reality of what has actually happened. Deliberate distractions and misdirection techniques can be employed to send the wrong information to the audience.

The effective manipulation of processes is very much like the manipulation of playing cards, albeit without the deliberate intention to mislead. to capture a process is very often not as simple as just watching somebody perform a task and then copying the perceived actions. Without a good knowledge of what is actually going on, this task can be very difficult. If the process is not captured effectively and accurately, then it will be impossible to reproduce the results of the process. There are a number of ways to ensure that the process is captured correctly:

* The trick must be looked at from several points of view, rather than purely from the point of view of a casual observer. In fact, with a rigorous and structured approach to observing what is going on from a number of different perspectives, almost any trick can be worked out to some degree.

* The end result must be related back to the initial conditions of the trick and full traceability established. How is it possible to go from one set of conditions to another—if it does not seem possible then there is some key information missing.

* The role of all the participants must be examined, including the audience members and the magician. But it is not good enough to stop there, as there may be several other roles that exist that are not obvious—what about the possibility of the magician having an accomplice either in the audience or on the other end of a phone line or radio line? These are techniques that are regularly employed by magicians.

* Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is essential to understand what the overall intention of the trick is and what effect it will have on the audience.

It is not just people that follow processes, as every organisation in existence, whether it is a single-person company or a multinational organisation, will rely on a number of processes to function effectively. Depending on the size of the organisation and the complexity of its set up, the number of processes that a company uses can be huge—almost infinite, again.

Process modelling is arguably one of the most important aspects of any organisation in terms of the management and control of all of the organisational activities. These activities will range from the high-level business activities, including mission statements, business processes and requirements, right down to very detailed technical processes that may be executed on a daily basis within the organisation. Business process modelling goes under many different names and labels so, in order to keep things simple, the term process modelling in this book may be replaced by any of the following terms:

* Business process management: any process modelling exercise that is performed in order to enhance the overall operation of a business.

* Business process management: the coordination and management of a business process which will, inva-riably, involve some sort of business process modelling.

* Business process re-engineering: used specifically when business process modelling is applied to existing processes as part of a process improvement exercise.

* Operations management: often used in the context of business and management courses and, although it has a wider scope than just process modelling, it contains and relies very heavily upon process modelling.

* Process mapping: refers to relating different proce-sses to one another and forms an integral part of any audit or assessment exercise. In order to map effectively, all processes must be modelled in some way.

* Process re-alignment: often applied to existing processes that have, over a period of time, gone out of date for some reason—usually because the requirements for the process have changed and the process is no longer fit for its original purpose.

Reprinted with permission from Viva Books Pvt Ltd

Book: A Pragmatic Guide to Business Process Modelling

Author: Jon Holt