Process Mapping

Question

Hi,
I'm interested if anyone is
spending time, energy and $$ mapping processes in their
organization. Some of the presentations at the Primavera
Users Conference a couple weeks ago stressed the
importance of diagramming processes, and I'm interested if
anybody is doing it.
Rod

Answer 1

A successful implementation of a system, or changes to
an existing system, requires a clear understanding of
the business process. Unfortunately, this is where
clients balk when they hear what is involved in
business analysis and what the up front cost is,
especially if the client does not have a documented
business process. And even if it is documented, is it
really what happens day-to-day? The up front
investment in researching and documenting the true
business process 1) insures that the deliverable, such
as the implementation of Contract Manager or P6, meets
the needs of the organization, 2) that you do it right
the first time and don't have to do it again, and 3)
that any changes in the business process can be
analyzed to determine what changes need to be made to
the software to handle them.
<br
/>The business process should be mapped so that
there is a clear and unambiguous understanding of the
objects (people, data, systems,etc.) that impact the
process, their interaction, and their flow. A business
analyst skill set (<a href="http://www.theiiba.org
target="_blank">www.theiiba.org</a>) is what
you would need to do this.
<br
/>There are also Universal Modeling Language
(UML)software tools (<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language"
target="_blank">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language</a>)that
help diagram the business process. Most often used in
software and systems design, these UML tools work very
well in modeling the business process.