Process Success Requires Sound Process Management

Process management is the monitoring and continuous improvement of end-to-end process performance. It entails ensuring the process meets enterprise goals and includes ownership and accountability for the process design, supporting systems, resource requirements, budget, and tending to process interfaces. No matter how well a process is designed and implemented, it will wither and die on the vine if it is not carefully and passionately managed.

Many people roll their eyes when I tell them managing a process requires love and devotion. They need to take me literally and see processes as living, breathing, temperamental, and fragile artifacts of the enterprise. For all intents and purposes, processes never grow up. Though they may mature, they stay infants forever—in constant need of care and feeding. Their survival is completely dependent on the diligent, flexible, adaptive and responsive act of process management at the hands of a capable Process Owner.

The act of process management is illustrated in the process management lifecycle diagram, shown below.

 The process management lifecycle is comprised of four major activities:

• Ensuring process  compliance
• Process monitoring
• Process assessment
• Process improvement

Each of these activites must be performed in perpetuity if an organinzation is to have any chance of institutionalizing a process and making it second nature to the enterprise it serves. If any of these activities is neglected or ill-performed then all of the hard work and achievements of the process design and implementation will go for naught. The people once liberated to perform in the governance-driven customer-focused end-to-end process work will eventually revert back to their functional silos. 

Assigning a Process Owner who is devoted to the success of the process management lifecycle is essential to the success of every process. I regret to say that I seldom encounter Process Owners assigned to processes, which means I seldom see this process management lifecycle in practice. The lack of devoted and passionate Process Owners and the associated neglect of the process management lifecycle makes it no surprise that many enterprise processes fail to empower workers and fail to meet enterprise goals.

~ Steve ~

Comments

[Daniel Bobke]

Does this mean that "This is the way we have always done it" is NOT a valid answer? LOL...Great post - the hardest part in my experience is establishing and maintaining the engagement of the business process owner. As you note, the process is a living, evolving entity but so many process owners do not give the requisite attention on a regular basis that a good process needs.

BTW - this is the biggest barrier to an agile appdev approach - ongoing engagement with the business owner.

[Allan Mills]

The passion for Process Ownership is so essential, but overlooked in many organizations. Many times there is a huge effort to develop the process documents and then they are left static. Everyone starts to compain that the process gets in the way. This essential step you have defined makes sure the processes are in tune with the business and help make the organization become more effective and consistent. Great blog!!