Process doesn't only mean Process Flows

In recent customer discussions and projects I've seen an interesting focus on the process flow (a.k.a. work flow) aspects of process operation and yet little work on the organizational, process governance, and process performance (output and outcome) aspects.

Broad stroked characterizations can turn into oversight of very important areas.  For example, I've witnessed numerous projects where companies are 'implementing ITIL' that ITIL is 'about processes'.  Then the projects they have embarked on is really just digitizing their existing work flow with maybe some minor tweaks, and training their staff on ITIL foundations.

You may not know this, but best practices process flows exist.  Yep, you can actually buy them.  BMC for example sells a new product called BMC Service Management Process Model (SMPM)  http://www.smpm.info/.  It is a set of best practices used in nearly two hundred implementations world-wide.  It comes complete with roles and even detailed work instructions.  And it works with Remedy ITSM v7 to provide pre-defined, integrated process flows, roles, and work instructions right into the product.  And it fully leverages ITIL's best practice guidance.

What this means to you beyond taking the risk out of your process design, is the significant reduction in your process flow design time and costs, so there is significant benefits to taking this approach.  However, process operation is a change in the way management is approached, not only just a change in process flow and the enabling technology.  Implementing process without the proper process governance is a process that is bound to 'snap' back or be circumvented.  Is the process delivering what it needs to, to satisfy customers?  Is it running as efficient as it was planned too?  So just how many incidents did we think we could handle in day with our current staff?  Is the external service provider that is part of the process performing to the levels needed?  Have the people identified as 'process owners' actually equipped with the tools and training that they need to be able to govern the process?

And what about KPI's?  There are volumes filled with KPIs - but have you noticed that they never tell you what data stores they should pull the data from, what tools to use, what other KPI's they need to be coupled with, what actions should be taken when an indicator goes up/down or stays the same?

What about the organization?  Is it good enough to assign a person to a role? Might there need to be some structural changes that may be needed?  Are the right people in the roles?  And is the organization ready to change to a new process, tools, and accountability?  Who is and who isn't ready and able to change?

What about process performance?  Did we actually sit down and try to determine how many changes of a certain type that we need to be able to handle based on our business' requirements?

And I've purposefully stayed away from services - such as what services do we need to deliver to the business, what do the levels of service need to be, and how the processes need to perform to deliver those services.

And these are just things off the top, there are additional critical areas involved with 'Process'.

When embarking on your process efforts, I encourage you to think more broadly about what 'process' means.