Does your organization perform business process mapping? Mapping of business processes is important if you want to understand what is happening. Mapping your "as is" processes tells you a lot about what you may already know, but also a lot about what you don't know.
When you begin to map your processes, you will start to see the activities, products, information, and decisions being made that support the process.
Some reasons to map your business processes are:
Mapping the "as is" processes will assist your team when doing detailed analysis
Helps to identify process ownership, and identifies the roles that support the process
Helps to show the difference between cycle time and value-added time
Helps to measure process performance
Helps to identify problem areas to address
Establishes performance baselines when creating "to be" processes
Identifies process bottlenecks, and disconnects
Shows relationships between activities and products
NOTE: When looking at what processes to model, the processes that cross functional business areas should be addressed first.
Three principles to keep in mind when process modeling are (in this order):
Eliminate wasted time and work
Consolidate efforts where possible
Automate (where it adds value)
When process mapping we are always asking questions like "why are we doing this", "why are we not doing that", "can this step be eliminated, consolidated, automated", "can we do this step/sub-process better, faster, smarter, cheaper”? Business process mapping can help your organization to operate more efficiently and respond to change faster, which ultimately will lead to improved customer satisfaction.
For more information be sure to Google "Business Process Mapping" or "Business Process Modeling"
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Friday, April 22, 2005
Project Management Basics
To improve your project management results you need to look back over your organization's project management successes and failures. In doing so patterns or trends will emerge that will help you pinpoint areas for improvement. Research in the area of project management has shown the following simple steps can lead to radical improvements in your project management results.
Here are some ideas:
When starting a project a core team of competent, motivated people must be assigned as early as possible to the project and kept on the project until the end.
The project manager is held responsible for managing the success of the team and for motivating and monitoring the team's performance.
The project manager position needs to be a full-time position with documented job responsibilities.
The organization must ensure that the project manager is held responsible for the success or failure of the project.
The project sponsor's organization and/or the end user group(s) are responsible for defining the specifications of the project's product. This is not a project manager's responsibility, however the project manager works to coordinate these activities.
A project plan (word document) needs to be developed with the cooperation of the core team.
Developing the project plan is the responsibility of the team, not just the project manager.
A lessons learned/project close-out meeting needs to be held at the end of every project to determine if the project objectives were met and to identify project management process improvements for future projects.
A communications plan must be developed for the project, and kept up-to-date.
There are many other items we could add to this list, but the ones listed here are vital if an organization wants to have any success at managing projects.
Here are some ideas:
When starting a project a core team of competent, motivated people must be assigned as early as possible to the project and kept on the project until the end.
The project manager is held responsible for managing the success of the team and for motivating and monitoring the team's performance.
The project manager position needs to be a full-time position with documented job responsibilities.
The organization must ensure that the project manager is held responsible for the success or failure of the project.
The project sponsor's organization and/or the end user group(s) are responsible for defining the specifications of the project's product. This is not a project manager's responsibility, however the project manager works to coordinate these activities.
A project plan (word document) needs to be developed with the cooperation of the core team.
Developing the project plan is the responsibility of the team, not just the project manager.
A lessons learned/project close-out meeting needs to be held at the end of every project to determine if the project objectives were met and to identify project management process improvements for future projects.
A communications plan must be developed for the project, and kept up-to-date.
There are many other items we could add to this list, but the ones listed here are vital if an organization wants to have any success at managing projects.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Communicating with Discretion and Tact
How are your project communications? How do others perceive you? How do you perceive yourself as a communicator?
Let us review some rules of communication that will help us better manage our projects.
When making presentations know your:
OBJECTIVE – Goal, Purpose, Destination
LISTENER – Know facts about the group, the group expectations, the key people
APPROACH – Premise, Strategy, Theme, Pay-off for the Listener
When speaking with others one-on-one, use statements that show you are concerned about them. Remember the three “A”s when communicating.
APPRECIATING – Show appreciation for the other person’s problem or situation
Examples: “I appreciate you bringing this to my attention”
“Thank you for letting me know that”
ACKNOWLEDGING – This lets the other person know that you hear them
Example: "I can understand…”
“I sorry to hear that..."
ASSURING – Lets the other person know that you will help
Example: “This will be taken care of…”
“I will see to that personally.”
Some thoughts to ponder…
Project Managers that do not communicate effectively at the right times are destined to fail.
Poor communication skills have derailed many a career.
More than likely you will never be told that your communications skills are lacking.
Every project needs to have a written communication plan.
In closing, there are many good resources available to help us all improve our communication skills. A couple of books you might consider are: “The Four Agreements” and the “Seven Survival Skills for a Reengineered World”.