Process Discovery & Analysis

The Need For Process Analysis
Organizations often believe that a process is in place to accomplish a
specific goal, but just as often individuals are not familiar with how the
process actually works.

An even more important lack of knowledge can surround how well the
process works. The tendency is to assume a process is accomplishing
its intended purpose. This assumption is often wrong.

Understanding What A Process Is
A process is a structured, measured set of activities designed to
produce a specific output, or result, for a particular customer or
market. This definition of process implies a strong emphasis on how
work is done within an organization.

A business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to
achieve a defined business outcome. Business processes have
customers (internal or external), and they typically occur across or
between organizational units.

Processes are usually identified in terms of beginning and end points,
interfaces, and the organizational units involved, particularly in relation
to customers.

Employing A Process Analysis Method
Only by using a proven method of process discovery and analysis can
the "how it works" and "how well it works" questions be answered.

Process Identification and Definition
Understanding the state of a business process begins with identification
and definition. Identification means selecting a process to study and
establishing the boundaries of the process. This is the first step in
process discovery. Next, the purpose and objectives of the process are
defined.

Describing The Process
The process definition continues with a comprehensive description of
how the process works including inputs to the process, suppliers of the
inputs, processing steps, outputs of the process, and the customers or
users of the outputs.

Modeling The Process
The process definition centers on developing a model of the process,
often represented by a flowchart. Flowcharting typically shows process
steps and decision points, or gates, but a means must be used to also
consider organizational unit interactions and information flows.

Measuring The Process
The process identification and definition answer the "how it works"
question. To answer the "how well it works" question, process
measurement and monitoring over time is required. This means
establishing meaningful key performance indicators for the process
and then collecting and recording the data provided by the indicators
for analysis.

Evaluating The Process
Criteria must be defined for evaluating key performance indicator
values relative to what each indicator means in terms of impact to the
business.

The conclusion of the process analysis provides a summary of how the
process, based on the collected key performance indicator data, is
performing when compared against the evaluation criteria established
for those indicators. This is an evaluation that expresses if the process
is meeting the criteria benchmark for process success or not.

This level of process analysis provides the organization with the
knowledge needed to make decisions about investing additional
resources to improve the process.

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Delivering Knowledge for Top Performance

Process Discovery and Analysis