Working with Business Processes Masterclass

The course starts at 09.30 am and ends at 5 pm. Registration commences at 08.30 am.

[IF ONLINE FORMAT] We will send the course materials and meeting instructions well in advance as well as the invitation with hyperlink to join us online. The workshop will start at 13:30 and lasts until 17:00. The online meeting will be available at least one half hour earlier so please log in timely in order to check your sound and video settings beforehand.

1. Communicating the fundamentals of Business Processes

• Introduction – instructor and course background, themes and overview, participant introductions
• Building a presentation on “Business Process” – for executives and everyone else
• Why you should never assume everyone agrees “what is a process?” or that “process is good”
• Why you should never preach or oversell Business Process Management
• Why people fear “process,” and how to overcome this fear
• Five key points you must convey in a briefing on Business Process
• Confusion on what is meant by “business process,” and the impact on process improvement
• Michael Hammer’s legacy – “functions,” “processes,” and the terminology we all use today
• The most common source of confusion – “process” vs. “procedure”
• Levels of detail and perspectives – process domains, individual processes, activities, procedures
• Hammer’s legacy – understanding functional (who) and process (what) perspectives
• Case study: real-world (and expensive!) impacts of incorrectly identifying business processes
• A critical concept in all business process analysis – separating the “what” from the “who and how”
• The “TRAC” framework for clarifying “what” the process is – Trigger, Results, Activities, Cases
• The “Process Scope Model” and “Process Summary Chart” – “what” first, “who & how” later
• Types of Triggering Events and types of Final Results
• Why “input-process-output” is often a terrible framework for process work
• Real-life examples – clarifying “what” vs. “who & how” helping people embrace change
• How Process Scope Models and Process Summary Charts organize more detailed analysis
• The many benefits of using Scope Models and Summary Charts to avoid premature detail
• Simple process naming standards make all the difference
• Case study – how the naming standards helped a university identify real business processes
• Case study – how a Scope Model and Summary Chart helped execs see the need for change
• The good and the bad: why functionally based organisations are a good thing, and why functionally based organisations introduce process difficulties
• Why functionally based performance measures and reward systems may be the biggest obstacle
• The critical role of Business Process in purchased or bespoke system implementation
• Common factors in successful and unsuccessful system implementation
• Understanding the six enablers of a business process
• Using as-is process mapping to support an enabler-based assessment of the as-is
• The strategic differentiator – why your process can’t be great at everything
• Case studies – process change failures from not considering the differentiator
• A five-tier framework for relating goals & objectives, business processes, applications, and data
• Recognising three levels of detail – working through scope, concept, and specification levels
• How these levels of detail relate to Agile development – “Concept” is everything!
• A proven and unique methodology for completing a process-oriented project
• How the methodology helps everyone recognise and embrace the need for change

2. Identifying true, end-to-end, cross-functional Business Processes

• Review of the taxonomy – “Business on a Page” – “Process Area” – “Business Process”
• Depicting Process Areas with a Process Landscape
• Case study – using a structured method to identify “true” business processes
• A bottom-up approach beginning with familiar/recognisable activities
• Applying naming conventions to ensure everyone understands “what” the activities achieve
• Linking activities into chains of activities
• Using TRAC framework – triggers and results – to identify process boundaries within the chains
• Confirming the processes by understanding the flow of tokens through the activity connections
• Summary – six objective guidelines for business processes, and why businesspeople love them
• The connection between Concept Modelling and process discovery
• What next? Simplify “up” and refine “down”
• An important pattern – the “Arc of Modelling & Analysis.” Bottom-up – big picture – top-down

3. Developing a Process Architecture

• Case study introduction – Process Architecture within tight budget and time constraints
• Two core themes – “use available resources” and “non-invasively” (minimal disruption)
• A multi-pronged approach to discovering Business Processes at enterprise scale
• Why top-down process identification can lead to incorrect results
• Why bottom-up process identification can be more effective
• When and why a blended “meet-in-the-middle” approach can be superior
• Recap: Line of Business (“Core,”) Supporting (“Enabling,”) and Governance processes
• Recap: a proven taxonomy for Business Process Architecture
• “Off-the-shelf” process frameworks and reference models – what they are and are not good for
• Applying Michael Porter’s “Value Chain” – what worked and what did not work
• Identifying Line of Business process areas starting with a generic process model
• Using the Asset Management Life Cycle in identifying Supporting process areas
• Service Maps – a great way to discover the more granular services of each functional area
• Using “Role Profiles” from Human Resources to identify granular activities of each role
• “Meet in the middle” – map granular activities / services to process areas to ID processes
• Case study success! – a four-level process architecture within weeks, not months or years
• Samples from the Line of Business, Supporting, and Governance process categories
• The executive’s favourite – the “Business on a Page” graphic
• Statistics, metrics, observations, and executive reaction to the process architecture
• A less formal approach – developing a process architecture with expert people and a whiteboard
• Using the Process Architecture in a structured approach to planning process work
• Case Study – Using the Process Architecture to assess and support a new service offering
• Using the Process Architecture to determine the impact of “a simple change”
• Using the 6 process enablers to determine what would be needed for the “simple change” to work
• An interlude on the role of Concept Modelling in business process work
• What actually is a Concept Model? – essential components, core principles, sources of confusion
• Clarifying core terminology and building a Concept Model for the new service offering
• Cutting through the confusion and establishing the Business Rules through “assertions”
• Using the Concept Model as a starting point for discovering core application requirements
• An Agile approach to expressing system requirements as Business Services and Use Cases
• Using the Services, Use Cases/User Stories, and Rules to refine the Process Architecture
• Case study outcome – a to-be process workflow used to evaluate the proposed service offering
• More case studies of Concept Models clarifying and supporting process work
• Case study – the role of process modelling and concept modelling in a Big Data initiative
• Case study – using concept modelling to determine if a new process concept is viable

4. Seven ways to help people embrace Process Change

• Client thoughts on how a process perspective contributes to any organisational change
• Five approaches that work against encouraging change
• Reference – the leading approaches to organisational change
• Seven specific techniques to build support for process change
  1. The power of “venting” – let people “get it off their chest” – with a case study
  2. What first, who and how later – abstraction to the essence, and Essential Models
  3. How to build a compelling and blame-free Case for Change that answers why? and a Process Vision that answers where to? – with a case study
  4. Clarify what you need to be great at – the process’ strategic differentiator
  5. Understand enablers – the levers of change and the ones that matter most – with case study
  6. Applying frameworks for assessing culture and its impact on business process design
  7. A modular, feature-based approach to process design to be covered in Section 6
• Applying Force Field Analysis
• Understanding the belief systems of individuals and organisations
• Avoiding unanticipated consequences
• The lowly procedure and its impact on organisational culture

5. Human-oriented process modelling

• Basic principles for completing just enough as-is modelling
• Recap of the three basic components – actors, steps, and flow – and terminology variations
• Five reasons (often ignored) Swimlane Diagrams (“Workflow Models”) are so effective?
• Common errors – what not to do to ensure your models are as effective as possible
• Examples of what happens when the modeller doesn’t know the factors for successful swimlanes
• How and when to model the “what” (the essence) of a process vs. the “who and how”
• “Scope before flow” – how and why to build a “Process Scope Model” before mapping
• The “Augmented Scope Model” and why it’s often an effective alternative to flow modelling
• Two core principles – (1) “make the flow of work visible” and (2) “simple but not simplistic”
• The cognitive psychology of diagramming – what people first see on a diagram
• When and when not to use BPMN, UML, and other technically oriented approaches
• Guidelines on maximizing readability – stick to boxes and lines, and avoid graphic “widgets”
• “Flow first, detail later” – a fast approach to building a first-cut flow model and then refining it
• Using The Three Questions to achieve “flow first, detail later” and avoid common difficulties
• Two levels of detail in swimlane diagrams – Handoff and Service – with practical guidelines
• Case study – the surprising amount learned from a minimalist Handoff Diagram
• When to stop modelling workflow and switch to techniques that are better for detail
• Knowing if you’ve gone too far and aren’t modelling workflow anymore, and what to do about it
• Summary – 3 core principles, 5 reasons swimlane diagrams work, and 5 common errors

6. A feature-based Process Design method – transitioning from as-is to to-be

• What to do first when you’ve done enough as-is modelling
• The role of “leverage points”
• Two common redesign problems, two techniques to avoid them
• The pivot from as-is to to-be – the structured (and fast!) enabler-based final assessment
• Capturing more knowledge about the as-is process and generating ideas for the to-be process
• For each of the 6 enablers – assessment questions, a real-life example, and a client quote
• More enabler examples – conflict within/between enablers, a problem in one surfacing in another
• Using points in the Assessment by Enabler to generate potential to-be Features
• (Note a Feature is a significant process change or improvement, or major factor in to-be design)
• Using Group Brainwriting to collect, reduce, and select 5 to 10 key features of the to-be
• Avoiding unanticipated consequences – assessing each feature, enabler-by-enabler
• Examples – implementable, sustainable process via enabler-based assessment of each feature
• Creating the new process design – realising the to-be features in a workflow model
• Starting with an Augmented Scope Model to determine the essential to-be activities
• A critical sequence – what the activities are, and only then who, how, and when
• Building a dependency diagram for to-be activities, then a workflow model for the new process
• A real-life case study illustrating the methodology
• A checklist for ensuring the process is sustainable
• Client observations on the value of a structured approach
• The contribution of each of the steps in the three-phase methodology
• A reminder – “process change is a process – don’t skip steps”
• Job aids for you – a one-page summary of each of the three phases, and a one-page summary of the whole methodology
• Retrospective – each participant identifies “One Key Point”.

Taking part in this hands-on workshop will only cost € 1935 when registering 30 days beforehand and € 2150 per person after the Early Bird period expires (excl. 21% Dutch VAT). This also covers documentation, coffee and lunch.

In completing your registration form you declare that you agree with our Terms and Conditions.

*) All pricing is VAT-excluded and EU VAT regulation stipulates that if you attend an event on-premise in The Netherlands, we are required to include local VAT. In case of discrepancy in registration fee between the website and the PDF brochure, the information on this page of the website always prevails.

Extra discounts
Discounts are available for group bookings of two or more delegates representing the same organization made at the same time. Ten percent off for the second and third delegate and fifteen percent off for all delegates when registering four or more delegates (all delegates must be listed on the same invoice).
This cannot be used in conjunction with other discounts.

Payment
Full payment is due prior to the event. An invoice will be sent to you containing our full bank details including BIC and IBAN. Your payment should always include the invoice number as well as the name of your company and the delegate name.
Payment by credit card is also available. Please mention this in the Comment-field upon registration and find further instructions for credit card payment on our customer service page.