How without serious consequences to implement process management in the company

Increase in level of the competition in the markets results in need of increase in customer focus for the company, and need of cost management requires coordination of work of the existing functional divisions. For the solution of these tasks the process approach within which there is selection of BP as a set of the connected transactions executed in several functional divisions and the subsequent fixing of responsibility for business process by appointment of the owner of BP is used. Thus, at the enterprise in addition to the vertical power of functional managers there is a horizontal power of the owners of business process interacting with the client and who are responsible for result of all of BP in general^[1].

Owner of business process

Project managers who in the same way concentrate a resource from different functional divisions for accomplishment of this or that project also get into a similar situation.

However insufficiently just to appoint this or that employee the owner of business process. It is necessary to confer it appropriate authority and responsibility, otherwise he will be able to make nothing in the company. And it is absolutely logical that conferring certain powers, we take away these powers from functional managers and therefore in practice they counteract implementation of the process approach, they lose a part of the power in the company.

Within the process approach the functional manager is responsible for the qualitative solution with the specialists of the tasks received within business process and also for sufficiency and qualification of the employees performing assigned tasks. At the same time a task of the owner of business process – to create optimal logic of execution and to bring it to the contractors provided to it by functional managers and also to provide approval and control of all results of works within process according to needs of consumers.

Need of organizational changes

But in life appearance of owners of business process often is not supported by organizational actions: receiving responsibility for results, managers have no necessary powers on management of employees and the necessary tools of motivation.

And for this reason implementation of the process approach without support of the CEO is doomed to a failure, and sometimes there is not even enough power of general to convince functional managers about need to delegate a part of powers to horizontal managers – owners of business process.

Also in practice often there are incidents by transfer of responsibility. For example, responsibility for result is transferred to the owner of business process, at the same time powers for resource management are not delegated. Or on the contrary, the power over resources is given to the owner of process, at the same time responsibility for result remains on functional managers. Such games of managers can be seen often in the companies.

Despite all organizational difficulties, horizontal coordination is necessary for the company, even in classical functional structures there are such tools. For example, direct and often informal communication between managers of one level from different functional divisions in holding structures. Such horizontal communications very much help at accomplishment of service duties, it is possible always to call and ask to carry out quicker this or that task within the next division. At the same time arrival of the new manager often terminates a set of informal communications of the predecessor that extremely negatively affects the existing processes.

But it is better if mechanisms of horizontal coordination are not underground initiatives of certain managers, and will become organizationally fixed in the company even if the company executive has yet no determination to select owners of business process. Thus, it is possible to implement separate elements of the process approach, without carrying out so cardinal changes of an organization structure. In life there is a set of "soft" managerial tools which allow to implement process management gradually.

Relevant cases of problems of process management

• During creation of model of processes it is not possible to provide involvement of specialists from data domains in interaction with model
• The model of processes is developed and passed the required examination. But it is not used and gradually becomes outdated, losing relevance. New knowledge does not find reflection in model
• As a result of implementation of BPMS the most obvious processes which were executed rather effectively also earlier were automated. On the contrary, the most difficult and problem processes were not identified as automation objects
• Business processes are described also proekspertirovana. But they are poorly joined to schedule systems and management accounting. It results in impossibility of use of processes in development of management decisions and control of their execution
• There is no process optimization methodology. The choice of the priority directions for a development project startup is complicated
• At the description of processes of analytics took an organization structure as a basis. As a result the model of processes reflects not that, business is kakrealno arranged, and how distribution of forces in the top management is arranged

Key origins of problems

Technology

• A large number of approaches to creation of models, lack of the commonly accepted standards and methodologies provide the high level of risk
• High qualification requirements to developers: existence of competences of area both modeling, and communications
• Architectural approach assumes modeling not only of a business layer, but also IT applications and technologies. Formation of uniform consistent model can be complicated
• There is no complete understanding that process automation represents. It is BPMS or something bigger?

Expert

• Representatives of all stakeholders should take part in the project of development of model of processes as experts (Shareholders, Top Management, Employees from different functional units, Experts, Consultants, Partners, etc.)
• The purposes and the interests of project participants do not match and can even clash
• Project participants can be not interested in representation of own knowledge
• The opinion of one expert as a rule contains incorrectnesses (incompleteness of knowledge, inconsistency, the different detail level of separate aspects, etc.)

Project of independent implementation of a BPM system

Managerial tools

At the first stage it is possible to enter institute of the business roles appointed to the existing official positions in functional hierarchy into the companies. It is necessary to fix powers and responsibility on management of business process in their framework, starting with its description and finishing it with continual improvement.

But in the Russian specifics it is more effective to make little changes to an organization structure: create positions for maintenance of interaction between the staff of different functional divisions within these or those business processes. And the easiest way is introduction of binding positions: they provide communications of the interacting divisions, passing vertical channels. These positions have no formal power over the interacting divisions, but the people occupying them are specialists in several adjacent areas and service different functional divisions. An example of such binding positions are: banking products technologists, account manager, specialist in a regulation of business processes or specialist in implementation of IT solution.

At the following level of a maturity it is possible to select the special groups used for simplification of mutual approvals and acceptance of joint decisions. It can be time group which is created for the solution of a specific objective, for example for improvement of purchasing process or implementation of this or that information system. Also the standing group which has the diagram of regular meetings and power of decision making in specific data domain, for example can be created: managing committee on improvement of business sales process or group on creation of new services.

At the following level it is possible to begin transfer of powers of authority on the horizontal level of management. So there will be managers integrators who provide coordination of worker threads and already have official powers of authority – on the processes affecting activity of several divisions, but still have no levers of impact on individual employees of this or that functional division. The head of the internal project on creation of new service or the head of the economic block (within activities for formation of the consolidated business plan) can be examples of such managers integrators.

The following gain level of the power of horizontal managers are array structures which form taking into account several principles of grouping of activity – functional and project/process, for example: design institutes where functional departments and project teams jointly get on. In such structures there is already no principle of one-man management that allows them to be effective in the conditions of variability of business and need of fast reaction to market changes, providing coordination in difficult multiple dependences in business.

As alternatives to the process approach it is not found yet, it is absolutely logical that many companies go on this way. At the same time these managerial tools are actively used in the Russian practice: the process approach allows not only to eliminate mismatch of actions of different functional divisions and to provide increase in customer focus in the company, but also to organize a cycle of continual improvement of business process that allows the company to survive in the existing turbulence.

Modern technologies of management

Corporate architecture

The instrument of representation of the organization as the systems of the interconnected components in the form of graphic models.

Advantages:

• Gives a system idea of how the organization as it functions as added value forms is arranged
• Graphic models create uniform conceptual space and allow to reduce asymmetry of information significantly
• There is a set of international standards on formation of graphic models

Shortcomings:

• Standards of modeling define rules of drawing, but do not contain criteria of applicability of models as management tools
• The model is limited to visualization of knowledge of business that narrows area of its practical application for acceptance of management decisions
• As a rule, models are property of a limited circle of specialists and managers. Most of employees are not involved in work with them.

The system of the integrated planning, accounting and control

Instrument of regular planning and monitoring. Operates with a single system of the corporate plans including metrics of all key business processes. When forming plans the algorithms considering dependences between separate processes are used.

Advantages:

• Provides the high accuracy of plans at the expense of what plays a key role in management process
• Uses the algorithms reflecting real interrelations between indicators. It allows to assess the consequences of management decisions in all spheres of activity
• Allows to assess the consequences of implementation of risks
• Allows to manage risks in a pro-active mode

Shortcomings:

• For creation of a system of the integrated plans it is necessary to have knowledge of all interrelations between processes and their metrics. Obtaining such knowledge is the complex work requiring special skills
• Lack of the universal principle of designing of algorithms of planning
• Application of a system requires a set of special data (standards, dependence coefficients, drivers, etc.). Their identification, calculation and regular updating require considerable labor costs
• Most of employees is directly not involved in process of work with a system and do not understand how she is suited. At the same time it formally duplicates their knowledge of processes

Knowledge management system

The instrument of formalization of knowledge of the company in unified information environment. Makes knowledge available for a wide range of employees and helps to apply them in regular activity.

Advantages:

• Does knowledge by the main control object
• Involves employees in work on system statement of own knowledge, their enrichment and application
• Uses a broad set of social tools to knowledge processing (forums, conferences, chats, wiki, etc.)
• Significantly reduces dependence of the company on knowledge of individual employees

Shortcomings:

• There is no uniform standard of formalization of knowledge.
• As a rule, knowledge is provided in the form of the text. It limits their universality, a verifitsiruyemost and a possibility of application
• In a system the "humanitarian" forms of knowledge processing based on their discussion prevail. Possibilities of the description of knowledge as components of a single technology system are extremely limited

Notes