Have you ever heard the expression “the adversary is in the details”? I constantly assumed that this claiming was a little strange … until I began to work in project monitoring. The funny point is that once I entered into job monitoring this phrase made so much feeling. I can bear in mind being on one task where the project supervisor was much as well nearsighted. All she cared about was data storage space needs as well as basically nothing else. For this project supervisor, the devil in the information was never ever thought about, beyond the confines of data storage anyway. On an additional task, the project manager was so certain of his very own capacities to “do his job” that he completely neglected the information completely. The latter project had some devastating end results … including Social Security down payments being gone back to the state that sent them, which in turn led to that state terminating those payments. In other words, significant client effects occurred due to the fact that individuals were overly positive in their own capacity to adjust to a transforming process.

So what does this relate to job administration? Whatever. If a job is producing something distinct, then it stands to reason that there vary that are known and some that are unidentified. Think about throwing a rock right into a lake. You recognize that the rock hitting the water will cause a rippling effect on the water’s surface area. What you do not recognize is the amount of surges it will trigger or just how far the surges will distribute beyond the preliminary impact. Process management is a means of taking into account all that might occur as a result of the surges in the water.

Let’s claim that there is a job is to carry out new processing software program right into an existing information handling center. On the surface, this looks rather very easy. The processing facility already exists and also the innovation is currently in position. So other than infotech and/or info systems installing the new software application as well as some training on just how to use it, this is a fairly very easy task. This amounts throwing the rock right into the water. We have a rock, we have water, as well as we understand that the rock striking the water will develop a rippling effect. Issue resolved, right? What happens if all of the users of the new software are not literally situated in the exact same processing facility? Suppose there are people that send job to the handling facility, using carrier, due to the fact that they are from another location located and also therefore not able to use the innovation that is readily available to others? Maybe this appears bizarre to you given that we stay in the 21st century, but I can ensure you that it’s not.

Below’s the crux of the trouble. It’s human Project Management Professional nature to make presumptions based on limited knowledge and/or lack of info … specifically when dealing with a job. This is why in the Job Monitoring Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which is one of the standards for job administration, procedure improvement is included in its Job High quality Monitoring section. Refine enhancement, whether you call it process administration, process layout, or process engineering, is crucial to making certain that your project is executed according to scope. If the task is made according to range, yet falls short when put into production, the project is a failing as well as its extent was never ever satisfied. A fundamental presumption of a job is that it will work as soon as fully implemented.

Let’s check out procedure enhancement from even more of a natural viewpoint. I use the term natural because we rarely think of process management and also project management together. Like project monitoring, process monitoring has actually progressed right into its own technique. At its roots though, procedure management is just a series of shapes and also arrows utilized to highlight a procedure. This is the inherent value of procedure management. It permits you to illustrate the procedure prior to it is even in place. Put another way, you can lay out the process prior to the task is even near being completed.

I specified that at its origins, procedure monitoring is simply a collection of forms and also arrows used to highlight a process. You can map a procedure (additionally called a flowchart) utilizing as little as three forms, an oval, a rectangular shape, and a diamond. Each shape stands for a particular part of the procedure. An oval represents the start or end of a process … the first or last step. A rectangle highlights an activity. If you put a rectangular box under an additional box, the second box recognizes a job. A diamond is a call out for a decision. It shows that there is a yes or no concern within the process that needs to be responded to. Interestingly sufficient, this basic form usually is among one of the most powerful in identifying spaces (several breaks in a procedure that can create rework, client influence, failing, or any other variety of problems) within a job and/or procedure. The arrowheads are used to guide the “circulation” of the procedure from one point to one more.

As an example of the win-win of using procedure monitoring throughout a task, I was lately on a task where information was being transformed from one system to an additional. The procedure for this is usually referred to as data mapping. You map the data and also the fields in the system where they presently stay and also map them to where they will stay in the brand-new system. When this was process mapped, the ruby form was used to ask if the data from our department had actually been mapped to the new system. The solution was of course. The next task was to figure out exactly how that information would certainly be recognized in the new system, to which no one understood the response. This was a substantial gap. If the information had been mapped, then somebody must have been able to inform us what that information would resemble in the new system. We swiftly learnt that no one might confirm that our area had been consisted of in the initial information mapping. What would the influence had been if after the project no person could find the data in the brand-new system? Once more process mapping spent for itself, as it usually does.

Another benefit of procedure mapping is the capability to flowchart the conceived process. Allow’s claim that there are a variety of tasks that you understand need to take place and just how they will be done. What you may not know is that will do all of the actual work. Consider a lending being originated. Someone is going to take the lending application; someone is going to process the lending application; someone is going to underwrite the financing; as well as somebody is mosting likely to shut the loan. But who is mosting likely to file the records as well as will they be scanned right into an imaging application? This is an unknown. By flowcharting the procedure you have the ability to take the tasks you know will certainly occur and after that the tasks you “assume” will happen and produce an image of the process. By utilizing the exact same shapes, yet altering the color or texture of the “conceptual” ones, you have the ability to highlight the know tasks from the “exactly how we believe it will be” tasks. This enables others to say on the process before there is a problem, such as wrong procedures being written or worse yet, that part of the procedure being totally disregarded.

Perhaps among the best benefits of process mapping, within the context of project management, is that it allows you to better control the work of the project. When the core processes are placed in flowcharts, it is much easier to identify control gaps within the process itself. Control gaps are, in and of themselves, risks within the project. Let’s use the above example of a loan being originated. A decision point (diamond shape) in the process is validating that the loan has been underwritten correctly. What happens if no one validates the underwriting? Or, what if the one validating the underwriting is the same person that underwrote the loan in the first place? Segregation of duties has to be a part of the process in order to protect the integrity of the process itself. A flowchart would show if this control has been sufficiently setup or if there is potential for a control failure.

Finally, the use of swim lanes is another value added dimension of process mapping. Swim lanes are used to track a process through all of the areas that need to be a part of it, in order for the process to be completed. Think of an Olympic pool. You automatically picture a pool with swim lanes, each one belonging to a different swimmer. Again, let’s use the loan origination example. In most cases the origination of a loan takes several areas (called cross-functional areas) working together for a loan to be completely processed. This could entail various areas such as sales, loan application processing, underwriting, closing, and file management. While no single area owns the entire process, they all work a part of the process to ultimately complete a single loan. By employing swim lanes, you segregate each area in the process into its own lane. Then, using the shapes already discussed, you track the process moving from one swim lane to another. This not only illustrates the areas responsible for the entire process, but also the decision points, controls, and ultimately the interdependencies. Getting the process map validated by all of the areas involved seals the deal. Once all agree on the process, a responsibility matrix can be developed and the project is in a better state of control because of it.