In an organization, having good visibility on the processes is important.
But knowing how to optimize them is also essential.
In the process life cycle, the analysis and improvement of business processes are two activities carried out to identify the systemic dysfunctions of the organization and to improve its performance.
There are many methods for analyzing processes.
Generally we focus on four areas:
⏲️ Time
💰 Costs
👍 Quality
🚦 Compliance
To know if a process meets the requirements of effectiveness and efficiency, it is necessary 1) to know the objective 🎯 of the process and 2) to be able to measure 🌡️ its performance.
👉 One recurring question is: when to analyse and improve a process?
Process analysis can be carried out periodically in a proactive logic of continuous improvement.
The processes are managed and monitored permanently and performance indicators are measured in order to detect dysfunctions.
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More often, the analysis can be opportunistic.
The processes to be improved or redesigned have been identified and prioritized based on their perceived performance.
Indeed it may happen that we know what processes are going wrong, but we don’t know why.
We are aware of the potential for improvement of a process, and we therefore prefer to concentrate our analytical efforts on these critical processes.
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The analysis is also regularly the result of a strategic approach.
The evolution of the company’s strategy, the market, the competitive environment all have an impact on the objectives of the organization, and consequently on the processes.
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Finally, specific events can trigger the analysis.
For example, the implementation of a new technology or a new application can impact the processes.
Regulatory changes, a merger or an acquisition of companies also lead to a homogenization of processes.
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Whatever the reason, the analysis goal is to understand and to evaluate an existing process.
It generally leads to an evolution of the workflow. Depending on the health of the process or the strategic issues of the organization, it could be only few modifications or a full redesign.
Geeers tips
- Include the objective of the process in the title
- Visit your analytics dashboard to watch the process average time for completion
- Use the versioning feature to redesign your workflows
