Organisations, departments and/or product teams may engage in some form of process design when they begin to think about the ways they will produce, deliver, and sustain their products and services. Process design is applicable to system/process redesigns, migrations, greenfield projects and or unit (single component) implementations.
Whilst commonly associated with IT/architectural design, process design is applicable to operations, procurement, HR, and any other area in which processes are assessed with the view of improvement.
Process design specifies how functional requirements will be realised using a series of individual programs or software components that will be built and how they will interact with each other. Process design is therefore a systematic, often diagram led, means to an end. We can often split process design into two categories:
- High-level system design – This is focused with identifying the discrete components needed to realise the functional requirements and the interfaces necessary to enable them to cohesively communicate with each other.
- Detailed program specification – Defines how each component is identified in the high-level design is to be built internally.
Effective process design must be scalable and capable of being replicated because a lack of structure could result in workers resorting to routine/habit rather than the new process(es). The likely result is an inconsistent and inefficient mix of neither old nor new; a difficult mess to manage.
Why is process design important?
Process design is important because you can build in and improve efficiencies across business procedures. Chief Operating Officers for example may embark on enterprise/company-wide process design projects with the aim to create a more homogeneous set of processes and architecture. This would (in theory) reduce costs, drive efficiencies, and harmonise workflows in otherwise disparate teams.
Each step in a new process represents an activity that can be delegated to an individual or team or department; subsequently, process design plays a critical role in quality assurance.
Process design can be used to:
- Highlight weaknesses, leakages, and potential bottlenecks in internal activities
- Identify where process automation could be used to improve a new business procedure
- Educate team members understanding of an existing or new workflow
It’s important to standardise the steps in a common workflow for the following reasons:
- Scalability – Any start-up looking to evolve into a scale-up would need to ensure certain practices that were ‘cute’ during the early days can now be standardised to ensure they can scale. Standardisation ensures cohesion and consistency across many, often related processes.
- Ensure repeatability – Repeatable processes reduce complexity. When you can repeat something that was successful those steps/process(es) become sacrosanct. You’re able to formulaically do something again with predictability. This can reduce complexity, making the process more efficient, less wasteful and freeing up resources that could be used to better use elsewhere.
Process design also promotes unity within a team. Having clearly agreed upon and defined processes requires collaboration, discussion, transparency and accountability, all ingredients of a self-powering and high-quality team.
Furthermore, good process design will usually ensure:
- Clearly defined start and end points
- Repeatable and therefore predictable practices and processes
- Activities are streamlined because steps are actionable, and value driven
- Malleable and flexible behaviours, systems, and processes due to transparency of team inclusion
By designing work processes in a way that supports everyone to follow the exact same path, you potentially prevent people being left behind or not understanding what needs to be done; this can lead to lost output and mistakes and potentially low morale.
Process Design Example
Let’s an online logistics/e-commerce process. For this scenario we would only need to map out a single executable component as the diagram below shows.
Now the designer/business analyst/solutions architect has outlined the high-level outline of what the process looks like you’d expect a more detailed drill-down to take steps, with outcomes communicated with the rest of the team every step of the way.
Stepwise refinement is a process in process design that breaks larger components into smaller, more refined pieces for better understanding.
Once we refine, we usually get something that could look like this:
The UML sequence diagram takes a single part of the high-level process, i.e., ‘place order’ and it expands upon it in greater detail.
We can see once we elaborate on the high-level steps, we have a refined version with more detail. Due to the additional detail a more accurate allocation of resources can now be implemented, greater understanding of the process can be shared and more accurate timelines, planning and other operational considerations can be highlighted due to the extra level of detail.
Process Design Principles
The main aim of process design is to achieve performance consistency across specific business practices. Whilst there’s no universally agreed outcomes for process design, the following list are some binding principals that hold process design together
- Predictable outcomes – By working towards common outcomes, achieved by astute process design we can structure an approach
- Efficiency – Process design enables both building in and improving efficiencies across business processes. Efficiency can usually be incorporated into TOM modelling, something covered here, but process design can be a standalone design exercise too. When process design is crafted with efficiency in mind you can maximise resource and keep costs to a minimum.
- Consistency – Companies can be chaotic and difficult to navigate due to the leakages in many areas. Process design could be used to systematise repeated processes to create repeatable, trackable, united operations across teams and departments respectively. Example: many companies use process design to ascertain the best practices and achieve uniform learning and training outcomes for their employees.
- Accountability – Process design usually makes tasks and roles explicitly clear. The result of this is higher levels of accountability from the whole team. Moreover, interactions are more likely to be more professional because it is clear who is responsible for what, leading to richer interactions with fellow staff and or clients.
- Collaboration – In Scrum the principles are inspection, adaptation and transparency and good process design promotes identical principles. Closer collaboration between team members inevitably leads to more cohesion, greater shared understanding, higher quality, and better and improved morale.
Process Design Tools
Now we have discussed what process design is, why it’s important, provided an example and run through some principles, it would be good to show how you go about creating design artefacts you and your team can benefit from.
There are plenty of SaaS tools out there today here are some popular options:
- Lucidchart
- Draw.io
- Miro
- Microsoft Visio
- Sketch
In all honesty most tools boil down to personal preference as they all do the same thing, and the user is mainly in charge of what take places. For many years Visio was the market leader but newer tools like Sketch, Miro and Lucidchart have changed the conversation.
Lucidchart
Lucidchart is a popular tool and the Analyst Exchange tool of choice. The rich array of templates streamlines the creation process considerably, plus the excellent YouTube channel really explains process design concepts well. Since switching from Visio to Lucidchart going back has never been a consideration.
How to ‘process design’
By now you have understood what process design is, why it’s important, the core principles and some of the popular tools, so now we look at how you go about implementing process design yourself.
Problem Statement
At the absolute core, a business provides a solution that solves a problem. The solution is deemed valuable to the buyer who exchanges something valuable (i.e., money) in exchange for the solution. We can’t solve a problem if we don’t know what the problem is, hence, the importance of a problem statement.
In Six Sigma, the DMAIC acronym which stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control focuses solving problems with efficient, waste-reducing measures, the very first step is Define.
A successful project outcome usually depends on how well a problem has been defined. This can often be the most time-consuming and resource heavy part of the process design process, but it will be time well spent when conducted properly.
It’s important to remember the following:
- Start by considering the output of the process and the desired state
- Define and document the requirement that must be delivered
- Identify and manage your stakeholders
- Refine your high-level requirements as you proceed, breaking them down into granular, smaller, more detailed components that will eventually form user stories ready for development
Voice of the Customer
One reason we champion agile product development here at Analyst Exchange is because the agile methodology is malleable and can accommodate change quicker and more efficiently than waterfall models.
This is critical because incorporating customer feedback into the solution means you’ll keep customers happy and loyal customers usually means a sustained and profitable business.
Astute process design fuses customer feedback and ensures the customer is brought along the journey as opposed to being brought in much later in the process.
Whilst recording requirements always ask questions like “does this actually add value?” The consistent scrutiny will drive efficiencies into your process design practices and because the customer has been remembered, you’ll not only have richer and more engaged requirements, but you’ll also have happier customers because the solution, which is built around the process design, reflects their needs, and wants in a bespoke and empathetic way.
Good tools and practices like focus groups, brainstorming sessions, requirements workshops, and interviews can really help keep you informed of the customer and keep you focused on a solution that solves their problem, not reflects the stakeholder’s idea of the customer.
Mapping The Process
A process map is a planning tool used to visually depict the flow of tasks, activities, dependencies, decisions, and outcomes in a business process. There are several styles of process maps, all with their specific uses. One central benefit of process maps is that they can convey a lot of often complex information is a simple way.
Whilst all process maps are different and vary in terms of complexity here are some central tenets of all process diagrams include:
- Actions
- Decision points
- Inputs and outputs
- Functions
- Stakeholders
- Process measurements
- Time
All the above should find a home in most of the processes you design, after all, a process is a description of how to go from A to B and what that looks like.
As you can see from the procurement process above all the essential elements are represented. What could realistically be a decent sized document is portrayed here in one single diagram. Process flow diagrams aren’t necessarily used in lieu of other forms of documentation, rather used with these docs to promote collaboration and transparency.
Rolling out the Process
Once you’ve designed, agreed, and signed off the process it’s time to roll it out into the business, after all, there’s no point in process design if you don’t implement it.
At this critical step stakeholder management is critical because if key stakeholders don’t buy in and support, the process(es) will fail and the effort will be for nothing, so put your stakeholders/end-users first.
Getting feedback is also another important step. By assimilating constructive feedback you’ll be able to tweak and pivot accordingly, not only does this keep stakeholders onboard, but it also refines the process(es) further. You’ll have a robust, stakeholder friendly process, thus improving workflows within the targeted area of improvement and happy and engage end-users.
Summary
Process design is essential to any operations, business analysis, product management, change management, HR, and architecture function. A lot has been covered here because of how important understanding process design is and how it spans across teams, departments, organisations, and enterprises alike.
It is important to remember that good process design, with stakeholder buy-in will drive efficiencies, improve worker morale, potentially boost profits, and provide an explicit view of how business processes can improve.
