Ever start a new job or step into a business wondering why the heck do they do things this way? Can't they be more efficient doing XYZ instead? That's a good question; and while sometimes there are legitimate reasoning (ethical, regulatory, or legal) behind a set of processes, other times they may be greatly out of date and not even the employee preforming the action may know why they are doing it that way.
Living in the age of technology means any business needs to be quick on its feet to ensure that their priorities align with their customer base. The needs of consumers and stakeholders can change very rapidly and aligning them to your business model will not only help you drive a successful business, but also allows the employees to spend more time in delivering work of value, instead of engaging in cumbersome and out of date tasks.
A good starting point to figure out how your business does things today. Some companies may already have a repository or intranet that has some of this information, including FAQs, Q&A's, Help sections, written and printed procedures or even specific subject matter experts (senior staff).
For every business, documentation of process is crucial in ensuring its survival over time. Current staff and employees will not be working forever, staff may go on vacation or retire and there is always turnover to worry about. What happens if the expert in your department is gone? Will there be someone who can carry on his or her role and will it be business as usual? Without proper documented process, there can be many avoidable inconsistencies between employees. You may have John doing things one way because he always did it that way since he started 25 years ago and you may have Sandra doing things a different way because she found a shortcut in the process. Who is correct? Having proper procedures in place dissolves such ambiguity and allows for every worker to be trained correctly according to your company guidelines.
Current state process MODELING
Documenting current a current process may seem like something that is not always useful and may seem like a waste of company resources. A company may say they are profitable and their processes are fine and don't need improvement. But the truth is, there can always be new ways to innovate and improve. Just because you a filling a leaky pail faster than water is flowing out doesn't mean you will always be successful. The trick is to find those holes and plug them before they turn into bigger issues or better yet, being able to predict faults and prevent or reduce waste from occurring. However, one must understand it is not always what's written on paper or on the whiteboard that really matters, but the discussion that ensues. When you have leaders, experts, and staff of the business in one room, anyone can document a process; but it is when you have stakeholders questioning and asking why things are done the way they are, you soon open doors to improving a process, often leading to saving company time and money.
A few tips to keep in mind while documenting the process.
- Have the correct experts and stakeholders together to carry out a meeting
- Determine the boundaries of the process (which is the box? the scope?)
- Determine each step, task or activity
- Document the preferred flow (happy path)
- Document any alternate flows
- Document all the users or actors involved in the process
Done correctly a business will often find out things they have never noticed before. Essentially, they will be locating waste, are resources and tasks being duplicated? Are there physical or systematic delays introduced that can be reduced or eliminated? A lot of these issues often hide within a business and cut into the bottom line. By asking the right questions, backed up with the right data, you will be able to find the root cause and being able to address it appropriately.