Business Case for Process Mapping

[shirshen]

What are some of the tried and tested approaches to successfully "selling" things like 1)process mapping, 2)documentation, and 3)roles and responsibilities definitions to business sponsors who expect immediate and hard financial benefits/savings from process improvement/change professionals and yet do not have the basics in place ?

[Jennifer Kirley]

The business case is usually avoiding cost of failure. Many examples can be found using Google, including this short list:

Software: The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing
Medical, specifically surgery: Prevention of Retained Sponges and Towels Following Surgery
Human resources: High Cost for No Procedure and Confusion over Holiday Pay

Of course not all benefits for planning our work bring immediate reward, and similarly failure from lack of planning isn't immediate either. Consequences of failure can take time while one's luck (or resources) runs out, so to speak. The more complex the work/the more people with which the work is to be done, generally the less time failure takes.

But again, there is no set rule because personal craftsmanship (sheer skill and pride to do work fastidiously) can ward off failure. Of course fastidious craftsmen wouldn't dream of doing critical steps out of sequence or assigning fine work to unskilled people. They just didn't often find it necessary to write all that stuff down. When the assembly line (maybe even dating as far back as the pyramids) craved replacable people doing work without deviation, the need to formally define what they do was realized.

From how your post read I do not envy your position. Are you an employee?

[AdamP]

Others may have a different experience here, but I have never seen a successful case for "selling" management on the need to map processes, define roles and such all on its own merit.

What's you're proposing is like telling a person that the foundation of their house has some flaws and needs to be repaired even though the house is in no immediate danger of collapsing. You'll go in, jack the house up, put in a spiffy new foundation, set the house back down and no one will be aware as nothing will be visible. That's a tough sell.

What I have seen however follows this mantra: When you take time to do something over, you prove that you had time to do it correctly the first time.

Reactions to major audit findings, being shut down by a regulatory body (FDA, FAA, etc.) or missed financial results are some of the best "burning platforms" to get the OK to characterize your processes.

What business managers ("leaders") need is a good degree of predictability in their views. If they can't predict or forecast well, they pay the price for it over time. Good process management is foundational to predictability.

So if you are going to try and convince your managers to let you map and characterize, are there any examples within your industry of other companies who have taken these actions after poor audits or missed earnings? Since most managers are money focused, look for companies that started improvement programs after they had poor financial performance.

Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Adam

[Rickser]

If your management hasn't bought into the commitment to quality, you will never sell process mapping, documentation or anything else.

[p1stonbroke]

A Bit of thread neccromancy, but try just doing it for a single process.
Get the buy in of the people in the area.
Ask them to tell you how it works, then map it, and reduce the procedures to the map and some supplementary information (75% reduction in word count is typical)
Make sure it has inputs (parts/materials/requests from other departments) identified
make sure it likewise has outputs identified (deliverables to other departments or the customer)
Think about colour coding it to identify responsibilities for the tasks identified
And take a copy of it and stick it on the wall.

The buy from users will help them to follow the process once published.
This will probably increase productivity/efficiency
The colourful chart will attract attention and interest
the two together will strengthen the argument that the approach should be used else where
then make sure the inputs and the outputs from the different departs ments match each othehr and you've process mapped the whole business!

Simples.....