This is the first part of an article for creating a successful process improvement program.These keys are based on my own experience plus interviews that I conducted with industry analysts and consultants. I hope these help you have achieve a success with your process improvement efforts.

1.    Choose the right business area to improve

Although every part a business will probably benefit from a business process improvement project, some processes will return much bigger benefits than others. However, it is very important that the first area chosen has the potential to return big benefits. Many successful BPI projects have been considered failures, simply because the return on investment wasn’t large.

Choosing a large complex area for the first project is not a good idea and significantly increases the risk of failure. There is high probability that your team will run out of energy and money before the project is complete. It is very important that you to learn to walk before you run.

By carefully selecting the first BPI project, you should be able to realize big benefits quickly. The attention this attracts will create momentum to tackle further BPI projects.

• Choose a high profile business process with potential for quick and large gains
• Don not choose a business process that is plagued with political problems
• Do not choose a process that is too large or complex
• Choose an area with a willing and able process owner

2.    Start with a problem statement, vision, objectives and scope

Business process improvement should be treated as a project and not a routine daily activity.  Organizations that treat BPI as something that their already over-stretched staff should simply fit in around their normal daily activities are not successful and nothing worthwhile actually results.

Starting with a well-written clearly defined problem statement, vision, and project scope ensures that the project team and stakeholders have a common understanding of what is expected. BPI needs to be set up as a project with the following attributes:

• A problem statement
• A clear, measurable set of objectives such as “reduce customer complaints by 10%” or “reduce processing time by 2 days.”
• A clearly defined scope.
• A clear plan of who is responsible for delivering what, by when.
• Properly allocated resources – (people and money).

3.    Use a Process Classification Framework

Today’s global companies face an unprecedented amount of change. Technology has blurred the lines between business segments, allowing ambitious companies to enter new industries with game-changing offers. And in the wake of the recent recession, emerging-market multinationals have gained strength, market share, and sophistication, presenting an increasing threat to incumbent players. However, recent advances in business process management (BPM) software, tools, approaches, and process reference models have made these goals more achievable. These changes have allowed organizations to become more responsive and improve core business processes as conditions change, using standardized, industry- and function-specific best practices.

For business process improvement, frameworks and reference models help support process analysis, design, and modeling activities. Starting with a process framework or reference model can significantly accelerate these activities, providing analysis professionals with a strong foundation on which to build.  A framework helps organizations in three key areas: benchmarking, content management, and business process definition. The cost of not using a process framework is the additional time it takes the process design team to develop their own process model and obtain process consensus from the project stakeholders.

There are a number of process reference models available, including: Accenture, APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF), SAP, Supply Chain Council, the Telecommunications Management Forum, and the Value Chain Group. The Process Classification Framework (PCF) developed by APQC in 1992, is a widely used business tool. This open source framework is commonly referenced in business books, incorporated into numerous consulting methodologies for process improvement and re-engineering, and has been translated into many languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Polish, and Portuguese.

Benchmarking and process measurement activities are generally too costly to undertake without the use of a process framework or reference model. Using a process framework or reference model as a common language reduces the effort required for benchmarking activities. Internally, organizations need a common way to describe the work they do so that it can be consistently and repeatedly measured. Externally, organizations normalize their internal processes against the process framework or reference model, and depend on the objective, standard definitions in the framework to enable the comparison of processes across organizational boundaries.

Content management activities rely on common taxonomies. Using a process framework or reference model as the basis for a content management taxonomy helps knowledge managers quickly build consensus among various stakeholders, even when the structure of the reference model doesn’t precisely map to existing enterprise process models. The process framework or reference model acts as an interface between the way the content is organized and the way work is performed.  Business analysts and process improvement teams should seriously consider using a process classification framework.

4.    Use Agile methods

The best way to mange a business process improvement project is to apply agile development methods. Break the project into small iterations that are of fixed duration (2-4 weeks) of time. Tangible deliverables should be produced as part of each iteration. The work performed in each iteration should be prioritized and the project team should focus their efforts on high priority items first. Retrospectives should be conducted at the end of each iteration to capture lessons learned and to make improvements for the next iteration.

5.    Get ideas and input from both workers and managers

Often BPI projects gather a lot of managers into a room. A facilitator draws various process maps on whiteboards; and miraculously coming up with the new process. This just doesn’t work in practice. Manager workshops have their place, but they are often best used at the start of a BPI project, in order to get  a high level view of a business processes and to scope out the project, and later in the project to work through a detailed model of the existing processes and to identify and agree on improvements. Other techniques such as interviews, observations, modeling, simulation, and benchmarking will most likely be needed to achieve the objectives

It is simply a bad idea for BPI projects to elicit input and ideas from only managers. Managers play a role in a business process improvement project, but the really key people are the people that do the work.  This is because the workers actually carry out the business processes on a day-to-day basis and know where the problems and workarounds are.  They often have good ideas for improving existing processes.  Listening to them keeps them involved and makes implementation much easier.  Managers often have a view of the business processes that does not actually reflect reality.

BPM project team members should observe workers going about their normal activities. Relying on people simply telling you what they do, often results in big chunks of a process being missed. Often people only discuss the ‘sunny day scenario’ when everything goes right. The biggest improvements are often associated with removing or reducing error handling activities and eliminating workarounds. Once a detailed model of the existing process has been prepared, it should also be reviewed with the workers to identify improvements. Workers often have excellent ideas for process improvement and getting their buy-in is essential.

With rare exception, today’s managers in most organizations spend most of their time reacting to problems or critical situations; this is often referred to as crisis management. BPM projects should spend considerable effort working with managers to determine what information managers require to manage the process and help them get out of crisis management and on to effectively managing operations.

BPM projects should ensure they have a thorough understanding of the process operates, what information is required to manage and monitor the process, and then determine the best method to provide the information in a timely manner to enable managers to move from reactive to proactive management and ultimately to predictive management. These changes will greatly enhance management maturity and provide the organization with a long-term continuous and sustainable increase in productivity.

I hope you have found these tips helpful.  Please provide comments and sugestions of your own experience below.