Programma 'Working with Business Processes'
Defining, Mapping and Improving Business Processes

Het programma start om 09.30 uur en duurt tot 17.00 uur. Registratie is mogelijk vanaf 08.30 uur.

1. Business processes – what they are, and how to discover them
- Variations on what is meant by “process,” and the impact on process identification
- Three guidelines for well-formed processes
- What makes a process a “business process?”
- Real-world impacts of incorrectly identifying business processes
- A clear method for determining when one business process ends, and another begins
- Example – using this method in identifying “true” business processes
- Summary – six rules for business processes

2. Working with business processes – issues, impacts, and methods
- The emergence of “process orientation” – two key points to keep in mind
- Two perspectives: functional (skills and resources) and business process (results and value) 
- Why the functional perspective is essential, and why it causes difficulties for business processes
- Reconciling the two – philosophies and methods for helping functions and processes get along
- Impact of business processes for application and process architects
- Introduction to modeling techniques – when to use decomposition, when to use flow diagrams
- What makes for an effective “swimlane diagram?”
- Fit with other business analysis techniques – objectives, processes, applications, and data 
- Progressive detail – working through the scope, concept, and specification levels
- Understanding the six enablers of a business process
- Methodology overview – a three-phase approach to completing a process-oriented project
- A reading list

3. Discovering your enterprise’s business processes
- “Process areas” – families of related business processes
- Depicting process areas with an “overall process map” or “process landscape”
- Using “off the shelf” frameworks and process areas such as “Supply Chain Management”
- Why top-down process identification often leads to incorrect results 
- A bottom-up method for process discovery
- When to use one-on-one interviews, when to use group sessions
- Beginning your analysis by clarifying terminology – a structured approach
- Applying the method in a facilitated session
- Process patterns and inter-process relationships that will emerge
- Introduction to the major case study
- Hands-on practice with process discovery – team work and group debrief

4. Framing the process – scope, issues, and goals
- A critical concept in all business analysis – separating the “what” from the “who and how”
- Four components of the “what” scope definition – the essence of the process
- Three components of the “who and how” scope definition – the current implementation
- Tips for ensuring you haven’t defined the process smaller than it really is
- Case study – hands on practice with documenting process scope
- Initial assessment of the "as-is" process and goal-setting for the “to-be” process
- A compelling and blame-free format for the case for action, and methods for communicating it
- Clarifying strategic direction – the process “differentiator”
- Case study – hands on practice with process assessment and goal specification

5. Workflow models – techniques for modeling process workflow
- Components and terminology in workflow models (“swimlane diagrams”)
- The most common errors in workflow modeling – missing the point, “deception by sanitization,” and a rapid descent into detail
- Avoiding errors with three questions to drive the development of your initial swimlane diagram
- A real-life example of applying the three questions
- Principles and guidelines – making your models useful, and knowing when not to model
- Guidelines for actors – who or what can or cannot be an actor on a swimlane diagram
- Special cases – depicting systems or machines, holding areas, and other processes as actors
- Guidelines for steps – naming, multi-actor, and sequential, parallel, and collaborative steps
- Guidelines for flow – what that arrow really means, common errors, parallel vs. exclusive flows
- Workflow vs. dataflow
- Representing the basic concepts in BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation)
- Additional symbols, keeping it simple

6. Managing detail – controlling the detail of your models, knowing when to stop
- Real-life example – why detail must be managed
- Controlling detail – three levels of workflow model (handoff, service, and task)
- Definition, use, and example of each of the three levels
- Business modeling vs. specification modeling, and the problems with being too precise
- When to stop – how to know when you’ve crossed the line and aren’t modeling workflow anymore 
- Making the transition to use cases, procedures, and task specifications

7. Techniques for facilitating an as-is workflow modeling session
- The basics – participants, resources, and tools
- Facilitated session ground rules – specifics for “process” sessions
- Tips and guidelines to ensure you’ll actually get through the process
- Divide and conquer – one process, case, scenario, and path at a time
- A reminder – the three questions to drive your initial “handoff level” workflow model
- After the initial pass – five more questions to validate and extend the model
- Case study – hands on practice with developing the initial workflow model
- Progressing to further levels of detail

8. Designing or redesigning the to-be process
- Clarifying redesign options:
- When there is an as-is 
- When it is a completely new process with no as-is
- Three common redesign problems, three techniques to avoid them
- Overview of process redesign and process design 
- Final assessment of the as-is process – a framework for assessment and its role in redesign
- Conducting the final assessment of the as-is process
- With respect to each of the six process enablers
- With respect to specific issues from initial assessment
- Looking for leverage points
- A decision point – five options for going forward, from “design” to “abandon”
- Establishing principles for a new process - Moore’s matrix, differentiator, primary characteristics 
- Seven patterns and themes in redesigned processes
- Characterizing the to-be process – generating creative improvements 
- Generating ideas (characteristics) from the final assessment
- Generating ideas (characteristics) by surfacing and challenging assumptions 
- Generating ideas from characteristics the process needs to achieve your differentiator
- Factors to make the new process sustainable
- Uncovering unanticipated consequences – an enabler-based assessment of characteristics
- The “process requirements document”
- Creating the new workflow – turning the to-be characteristics into a workflow model
- Designing an all-new process – note: some of the previous steps also apply
- Determining essential (no who or how) activities
- Laying out the essential workflow
- Defining roles 
- Assigning essential activities to roles
- Generating the initial process workflow
- Identifying necessary supporting roles and mechanisms
- Refining and testing the emerging workflow model
- Preparing for implementation