General scheme of business processes. How to quickly describe the business process

Personal information:

He advised in the field of regular management of more than 70 companies: from 10 to 9.000 people (including: Holdings, chains of stores, factories, service companies, builders, civil servants, web agencies, online stores). Pupil Alexander Friedman.

One of the co-authors of the book "Social technologies of the Tallinn school of managers. Experience in business in business, management and private life": http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/140084653/

cEO

"Three ways lead to knowledge: the way of reflections is the path is the most noble, the path of imitation is the path the easiest and way of experience is the path is the wrongty"

Confucius

to whom: owners, top managers, managers

Process management through regulations leads to the management of "hand through the leg"

I have repeatedly talked about the benefits of regulations that solve such important tasks for business owners and managers as:

• minimizing employee errors;
• standardization of quality of work;
• liquidation of personnel dependence;
• the possibility of each employee to perform work in the most efficient way.

And rarely met the head, who would not consider the regulations useful. It would seem that the regulation is a panacea from all troubles! But ... Attempts to "manage only for regulations" often fail.

Why? Now I will try to explain. Regulations - This is a description of any part of the workflow (sequence of actions) flowing into the company: either the process of entirely or several processes or part of the process.

Process (Synonym "Business Process") is a sequence of actions to solve any typical task (non-type tasks relate to projects).

Processes effectively manage directly, and for their formalization - draw diagrams

Processes are divided into simple and composite. Compound - contain several simple processes. There are still through processes. So called processes, the different stages of which pass through several departments of the company. This is usually their complex.

If you manage employees within the framework of the Regulations, it is possible to manage processes through the regulations - it's still what to try to manage your hand through the leg. Then how much more efficiently manage your hand directly.

In the management of processes, their graphical and schematic representation (for example, in the BPMN notation) is directly helped. Before studying the study of the match, I propose to figure out why regulations are not enough to manage processes.

Why regulations are not enough

• Not all are linear processes. Many have many conditions "if ... then ...". It is difficult to quickly understand the "towel" of the text of the regulations and understand as the stages of the process are interconnected. For example, the regulation on the selection of employees is replete with such developments in almost every stage. Depending on the position of the applicant, the interview can be remotely or in part, with the involvement of his direct supervisor or without.
• If the process passes through several units, the problem arises "who is responsible for the final result." In case of failures and jambs, employees will blame the blame on each other And on the circumstances, there is a pie chapter.
• Employees cannot agree among themselves About who do what work.
• Due to low visibility (the same giant volume of the text of the regulations) is extreme not easy to optimize the process.
• Significant staff time For reading, learning, and understanding of the general picture and all relationships. The regulation rarely describes the whole process. Often the process passing through several departments corresponds to different regulations.

Introduction to processes: In what form to describe the process?

Process management - Whole science. But I will purposefully simplify many things to be clear how it works. If briefly, the essence of the theory of process management is that all the company's activities can be divided into processes (unexpectedly, yes?)

In order to understand how the process is arranged, it is necessary to draw a scheme on which all the relationships between the actors (by divisions, employees performed by the roles) and the stages of the process will be shown. From the scheme should be unambiguously clear what kind of process the subdivision should be performed, from whom the input data must be obtained to execute the step and to whom the result will be transmitted.

Not all schemes are equally useful. In my opinion, there are important requirements for the process diagram (and therefore, the system of the designations used, which is called notation):

• Unambiguous interpretation of the scheme by the participants of the process.
• The presence of a sufficient number of educational video material on this system of designations (notation).
• Prospects for notation: whether it develops how much is used, whether it will be used in the future or already "dies"

All these criteria, in my opinion, is responsible for BPMN notation (version 2.0). To draw the schemes, I recommend using a free Bizagi Modeler program.

And once again about simplification. Starting to draw diagrams, you do not need to comply with the standard for all 100%, it will only complicate the introduction. In the initial stages, the main thing is that the schemes are understandable to the participants and definitely interpreted them. You will still have time to bring the schemes in line with the standard.

TOTAL, process schemes solve the following tasks:

• Transparency. As performers, and the manager are clearly understood by the relationship between the stages of the process, as well as in the responsibility zone of which employee / division are these stages.
• The ability to optimize the process due to the detection of the most critical and / or least effectively performed steps.

Do not forget to set the goals of optimization and calculate how much the resources spent in the new version of the process will change!

Key chip process management - responsible for the whole process

One of the most essential headaches of any owner and top manager - the situation of a circular order, when no one in what happened is not to blame, and employees and departments fall blame for each other. How closed a pie handpiece?

There is an exit. When you see that you have a cross-cutting process (for example, the execution of the client's order), think: who can be responsible for the process, and who is for a separate copy of the process.

Responsible for the whole process (sometimes it is called the "Process Owner") - this is the head (or employee), which is responsible for the improvement and development of the business process; solving global arising collisions and analysis of failures; Help and learning those responsible for a copy of the process.

A copy of the process is one of the implementations of the business process in practice. For example, there is a cross-cutting business process "Production of kitchen to order for the client." Copies of the process are specific orders. In this case, the Director of Retail Sales Director may be responsible for the entire process, and the Salon Manager, which oversees a particular transaction.

If the manager faces the problem of his copy of the process (order) and cannot solve it, then he refers to the retail sales director.

For the development of the process and the execution of all of its copies should answer one person

So there is a person who is responsible for the whole process (including for the work of those responsible for copies), and there are people responsible for performing copies. Within the framework of the process management, those responsible for copies are subject to the "Process Owner", and the participants in the process are responsible in turn.

In order for the "process owner" and those responsible for its copies could solve emerging problems, take care of the empowerment of their powers (for example, request information about the status of the order in adjacent units: delivery services, collectors; make decisions when problems arise).

Algorithm for describing and developing a business process using schemes and regulations

It's time to go to practice. I think that you have already tanned the idea of \u200b\u200bdrawing schemes of key processes. How to do it, and will be discussed below.

Stage 1. Draw and coordinate the process scheme

1. Draw the process diagram together with the responsible for the development of the process and experts from among those responsible for the performance of specific copies of the process. Select the most critical points of the process. Each process and each stage in the diagram has "input" and there is a "output". When writing the rules, consider what will be applied to the entrance, and what will be the result of the work.
2. Consider the scheme with all the participants in the process or heads of the participants' units.

Example number 1. The scheme of the "selection of employees" in the notation BPMN

Example number 2. Part of the "Selection of employees" in the notation BPMN

Stage 2. Write the rules for performing the process stages

For each stage of the process displayed in the diagram, it is necessary to create a separate regulation or subsection of any global instruction. In the regulations you need to paint all the nuances in detail: in what sequence work will be performed; What small steps it consists of; What requirements are presented to the quality of the result; What technology do work.

Example description in the regulations of one of the stages of the process scheme

Stage 3. Run the process management

Questions arise: how to see the current stage of the process that arise problems, and whether it was generally completed successfully, or hung forever on some of the stages? And it may be completed, yes half of the stages are made with deviations and errors, and some of them were missing at all.?

There are bulky (and useful for large companies) software solutions in which you can not only draw diagrams, but also to run processes for execution. But at the initial stage, I would rather recommend to refrain from global implementations. Take off to start employees to work with processes. Start with checklists in Google Spreadsheet.

In the future, go to business processes in Bitrix24 or 1C. It is possible that they will be more than enough for your company.

Stage 4. Develop and optimize the process in order to increase efficiency and quality

As I have already mentioned, his "owner" must be responsible for the development of the process (I draw attention that this is not the category of "I want / do not want," and the employee's honorary duty).

Any adjustments of the logic (links) of the process, adding or removing steps - perform at the beginning in the diagram. After coordinating the planned changes with key participants in the process, it will be possible to finalize the regulations, check-sheets and make changes to customized business processes.

It is important to keep a list of schemes for which automated business processes are configured, check-sheets are made and there are regulations (it is possible for this separate table or a special area at the beginning of the regulations). This will help the "Process Owner" synchronize changes at all levels, as well as perform them without excessive actions.

For example, in the absence of automated business processes, minor supplements of parts for the steps can be made immediately into the regulations. Unless of course these additions do not affect the links and steps in the scheme.

It is also important to inform about all changes in the process not only of its immediate participants, but also of all interested parties. Informing about the changes is characterized by the fact that people will only see changes, and they will not need to study the entire regulations to re-find additions.

Conclusion, or why "everything immediately" is the path in the cemetery of projects

About processes can be told a lot, enough for a whole book. But ... the cemeteries of the dead projects are filled with attempts to introduce "everything immediately" and on the most expensive and / or multifunctional software. At best, employees did not use the implemented technologies, or the systems were so cumbersome that it was impossible to work with them. At worst - difficulties in introduction did not allow to complete the work to the end.

And one more important point. If your subordinates do not fulfill an agreement, you will not help or regulations nor the drawing of processes. The only option is to create a "solid" zone in the form of compliance with agreements and further expand it. This will help.

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Let's consider the main approaches to the horizontal description of business processes. Currently, there are three main ways to describe:

1. Text: "The sales department constitutes a contract and agrees it with the legal department."

2. Tabular.

3. Graphic.

The first way is nothing but a text consecutive description of the business process. An example of a text description of the fragment of the business process is given above.

Many Russian companies have developed and use regulatory documents in their activities, some of which are process regulations and represents nothing more than a textual description of business processes.

But for the purpose of analyzing and optimizing the company's activities, this option is not optimal. The fact is that the description of the business process in text form systemically consider and analyzing is impossible. Text information is perceived by the human brain sequentially. For example, when a person reads the regulations and comes to its end, he almost always forgets about what was at the beginning of the document. The second drawback of the text presentation of the business process is that the human consciousness is arranged so that it can work efficiently only with images. When perceiving and analyzing textual information, the human brain decides it to a number of images, which the extra time and mental efforts are leaving. Therefore, when using a text description of business processes, the performance and quality of solutions to optimize activities leave to desire the best, which is particularly manifested when the decision is made by a group of people.

At one time, information technology professionals have developed a more structured approach to the description of business processes. They were asked to break the business process on the blocks of a structured table, in which each column and line have a certain value. This table is easier to read, it is easier to understand from it who is responsible for which the sequence in the business process work is performed, and, accordingly, the business process is easier to analyze. The table form of descriptions of business processes is more effective compared to the text and is currently being actively used by experts on information technology to describe business processes in the attachment to the tasks of their automation.

Recently, they began to develop intensively and apply graphic approaches in the description of business processes. It is recognized that graphic methods have the greatest efficiency in solving problems in description, analysis and optimization of the company's activities.

It turned out that the graphics are good in that the graphic information located in the field of view of a person is perceived by its brain at the same time. The second advantage is that the manager, like any person, has the ruling thinking and thinks in the form of images. He translates any text information into images. In the case when information is presented in the form of graphic images, its ability to analyze and decision making is significantly increasing. The article will consider the graphic approaches to the description of the processes, as they have proven themselves well and can be used effectively to optimize the activities of the organization.

Description of the business process environment

The first step of the business process description is a description of its environment, which represents a set of inputs and business process outputs indicating suppliers and customers. Suppliers and clients of the process can be both internal and external. Internal suppliers and clients are divisions and employees of the company that interact with this process.

Example 1.

In the business process "Search, selection and reception of an employee to the staff of the company", the entrance is an application for the selection of an employee coming from the profile unit, which in this case is an internal process provider. The process output is the employee who is sent to this profile unit, and in this case the profile unit is simultaneously the internal client of the business process.

Due to the clear designation of inputs, outputs, suppliers and customers, the horizontal description of the business process allows you to more accurately submit a business process and its border. This is one of its advantages over the vertical approach.

Example 2.

A vertical description of the activity was carried out in one company, under which the list of processes and works implemented in the company was formulated. Among the data of business processes was the process called "Commissioning". New employees who come to the company for a long time could not understand what kind of business process. Interestingly, employees who have worked for several years in this organization, confusedly and differ in different ways.

For a vertical description of the activity, this is considered a completely natural situation, since only with one name it is impossible to clearly define the business process. When this organization applied a horizontal description, within which the environment of this process was described, it turned out the following. The entry of the business process "Commission" was an application for a set of an order that came from the internal supplier of the process - the sales department. The output of this process is the assembled order, the internal client of which was the delivery department, then delivering an order to the external client. Now you can guess that the business process "Commissioning" is a set of order for the client and that this process occurred in stock. Only the description of the inputs and outputs allows you to accurately and specifically describe the borders of the business process, and often without a horizontal description of business processes in difficult situations, it is almost impossible to do.

Classification of inputs and business processes

When describing the environment of the business process, it has its inputs and outputs to divide into two types: primary and secondary. As a result of this division, primary and secondary inputs are obtained, as well as primary and secondary outputs.

This is done in order not to violate the Pareto 20 on 80 principle. The fact is that when the environmental environment is described, the number of different inputs and outputs is very large, as a result of which the set environment is extremely bulky and saturated. It takes a lot of time and strength, and the information that is unnecessary for analysis and decision making will be without the need to impede the vision, which can later lead to the failure of the project to optimize the company's activities. In order to separate the essential of insignificant, the division of inputs and business process outputs to primary and secondary are used. To carry out such separation, you need to use the definitions given in the table and examples.

Characteristics of primary and secondary inputs and business process outputs

Element	Definition and characteristics
Primary output	· The main result, for which there is a business process. · Determined by the purpose of the purpose of the business process.
Secondary output	· A side product of a business process that can be in demand by secondary customers. · Not the main purpose of the business process.
Primary input	The flow of objects, initiating the "start-up" of the business process, such as the customer order, the procurement plan, etc.
Secondary input	Flows of objects providing the normal flow of a business process, such as standards, rules, mechanisms for performing actions, equipment, etc.

Primary input - This is an input that initiates the start of the business process. In the example with the business process "Commissioner" the application for the order kit is the primary entrance. In this process, the playgrounds that are gaining an order use the container, which is also the input, but this is secondary input, it does not initiate a business process.

When describing the business process, it is necessary to focus on the primary inputs and show them. About secondary inputs can be forgotten. They will be automatically described in the further detail of the process, since at a lower level there are operations for which these inputs are primary.

The same applies to the outputs. The primary output is called such an outlet, for which the process exists. In the example with the business process "Commissioner", the primary output is the assembled order. When performing this business process, there were other outputs. If a warehouse cell, containing a certain heading, turned out to be empty, then the search service officer informed about this warehouse workers, whose obligations include the business process of "feeding cells". This information is also an output, but this output is not primary for the "Commissioning" business process, the process does not exist for it. Consequently, it is secondary.

This toolkit of primary recycling needs to be used to simplify, speed up and improve the quality of work on the description and optimization of the company's activities. The rule of its use is as follows: when describing the environment of the business process, it is necessary to emphasize on the description of its primary inputs and outputs; Secondary inputs and outputs need to be described at a more detailed level when there are subprocesses for which these inputs and outputs will become primary.

Classical methodology for describing business processes

After describing the environment of the business process, a queue of describing its internal structure comes. At the vertical description, the work was shown from which the business process consists. At the horizontal description stage, the interactions between work, including material and information flows, are described.

Currently, there are several dozen approaches, or standards, descriptions of business processes - ARIS, IDEF0, etc. In this case, in front of people who want to master the description skills and optimization of business processes, it often gets difficult task: to understand all this manifold and take the final The decision on which standard in this situation is used.

Apparent at first glance the complexity of the description of business processes is exaggerated. The classic technology of describing business processes, which was developed at the dates of the process of process management technologies, is quite simple and consists of only two standards for describing business processes - DFD and WFD. Most of the other modern standards, despite other names, represent varieties and additions to two classic DFD and WFD approaches.

According to the classical approach, the DFD standard that is decrypted as Data Flow Diagram is a data stream diagram that is used to describe top-level business processes. In turn, the WFD standard is decrypted as Work Flow Diagram and is a diagram of workflows that is used to describe the lower level business processes. The workflow chart has another name - the diagram of algorithms. Let's consider the two of these standards that make up the classical methodology for describing business processes.

Construction Data Thread Charts - DFD

The data stream diagram shows the works that are included in the described business process, as well as the inputs and outputs of each work. These inputs and outputs are informational or material streams. At the same time, the outputs of one work may be inputs for others.

Inputs and outputs that were shown when describing the environmental environment (see Fig. 1), are external. External inputs on the DFD scheme comes from the outside from the process provider, and external outputs go out to the process client. When constructing a DFD schema of the business process, they need to be transferred from the process of environmental environment scheme to a DFD diagram. For the final description of the business process, only internal information and material flows remains to describe. Each of them is the output of one of the works and at the same time input for another (Fig. 2).

When constructing a DFD schema of the business process, it must be remembered that this scheme shows material and information flows and in no case speaks of a time sequence of work. In most cases, the temporal sequence of work coincides with the direction of movement of flows in the business process. In general, it is incorrect, since there may be cases like the example shown in Fig. 3.

In this example, the second work on time began to be performed earlier than first work, but the document moves from the first work to the second. That is why the DFD standard is appropriate to describe the top-level business processes or macroprocessses, when in general it is not possible to specify a temporary sequence of work, since all work is performed simultaneously or there are several variants of various sequences, which, moreover, depend on different points of view. Let's consider an example of a business process shown in Fig. four.

If the company uses the work scheme "to the warehouse", then the question of what happens earlier is a purchase of products or its sale, two answers may be given depending on two different situations. If a specific product is in stock, then its purchase by time happens earlier than the sale. If there is no client when accessing the customer's client and the client is ready to wait until the purchase is made, the sales process begins in time earlier than the purchase, and ends later. Therefore, when describing this business process and it is advisable to use the DFD standard, which does not focus on the temporary sequence of work.

When building a DFD scheme of a business process, it is also necessary to show units and positions involved in the work of the process and responsible for their implementation. Each job is recommended to assign a number or identifier, as well as use two rules when formulating the name of the work.

Rule 1. The names of the work should be formulated according to the following formula:

Work Name \u003d Action + Object, over which the action is carried out.

For example, if this work is an action for the sale of products, then it needs to be called "Sale of products", and even better to specify what kind of products. In this case, "Sale" is an action, and "Products" - an object over which the sales action is produced.

Rule 2. When formulating the name of the work, you need to try to use a concise wording, which will increase the effectiveness of further work to optimize the business process. The ideal option is the case when the name of the work is formulated using 2-3 words. As a last resort, you need to strive to use no more than 50 characters in the title. In difficult cases, it is recommended for each brief work name to make its detailed description, which is placed in the glossary.

When formulating the names of material and information flows, you also need to use similar rules. In this case, the second rule is used unchanged, and the first rule is expressed as follows:

Flow Name \u003d Object that provides stream + object status.

For example, if we are talking about the products that shipped the client, this stream should be formulated as follows: "Products shipped" or "Products shipped by the Client." In this case, "products" is an object representing the flow, and the "shipped by the client" is the status of an object.

Building a network of business processes

The project to describe and optimize the activities of the organization it is advisable to develop a DFD scheme at the top level - the level of the company as a whole. When the business processes are allocated, business processes tree is being developed, in which the processes are classified as basic, providing and managerial. The main tasks of this classification are to facilitate the work on the allocation of processes, reducing the likelihood of the skipping of important processes, as well as a visual representation of the allocated business processes, broken into small groups.

Another visual representation of the company's business processes is a network of processes that represents a DFD scheme built on the basis of business processes that make up a tree.

When building an environment of the business process, inputs and outputs were described. The input and output of each business process, respectively, is an output and input for another business process or an external entity, with which the organization interacts. The interactions between the business processes constituting the tree are shown using the process network (Fig. 5).

Hierarchical links and classification of business processes on the network of processes are not shown in order not to clutter the model. Unlike the business processes tree, the process network gives a more complete system idea of \u200b\u200bthe activities of the organization, as it allows not only the elements of the organization, but also the interaction between them. In addition, the process network provides an audit of the developed model of the organization's activities for the integrity, the correctness of the allocation of business processes and the descriptions of their environment. If the output of one of the business processes, such as a document, nowhere is not used, that is, it is not an input for another business process or an external subject, this means the following: The described output of the business process is either erroneous or superfluous. Otherwise, you need to find a business process for which this output is input, and reflect the scheme of the environment of this business process.

In practice, the network of processes is often called a network or scheme for the interaction of business processes. The difference between the process of processes from the classic DFD scheme is that the network needs to show external actors with which the company's business processes interacts - customers, suppliers, banks, etc. in fig. 6 shows an example of a network of business processes for a manufacturing company.

Business Process Decomposition

When constructing a DFD schema of a business process, you must use the "7" rule, according to which you need to select this level of abstraction and detail, in which the business process scheme will be average from seven works. The use of greater detail and, accordingly, the number of works will lead to a significant complication of the scheme and reducing the possibility of conducting high-quality analysis of the business process. This is caused by the fact that a person can effectively operate no more than seven different objects. The use of a small detail and fewer work on the business process scheme will lead to the fact that the work will be excessively enlarged, and it will also reduce the possibility of their qualitative analysis and optimization.

If it requires a big detail to achieve the objective objectives of the business process, it needs to be done through the decomposition of the work constituting the process. For this, each or some of the work of the process is considered as a subprocess and describe in the form of a separate scheme of the business process of the second level (Fig. 7).

With a classic description of business processes, the developed second-level scheme can be used both DFD and WFD format description depending on the level and global work. If the work is global and it is impossible to present in the form of a temporary sequence of smaller works, then the DFD standard is used. Otherwise, it is advisable to describe the work via WFD model.

If necessary, work on the second-level process scheme can be decomposed on the third-level business processes schemes, etc. The business process decomposition must continue until the purpose of its description is reached. In this case, it is convenient to use the concepts of "nested process" or "subprocess". In fig. 7 Processing scheme 3 is an invested process or subprocess of the top-level process. Similarly, process schemes of work 3.1 and 3.4 are nested processes or subprocesses of the second level process.

As a result, the business process is a hierarchically ordered set of DFD and WFD schemas, in which the upper level circuits refer to the low-level schemes. In this case, the DFD schemes used at higher levels are decomposed or referenced to the DFD and WFD schemes. WFD schemes used at lower levels are decomposed or reference only on WFD schemes .

Building Work Flow Chart - WFD

When describing the lower level business processes, several other process schemes are used - WFD. These schemes appear additional objects with which the process is described: logical operators, events of the beginning and end of the process, as well as elements showing time delays (Fig. 8).

With the help of logical operators, which are also called decision-making units, it is shown in what cases the process proceeds by one technology, and in what - on the other. For example, using these elements, it is possible to describe the situation when the contract, the cost of which is less than a certain amount, is consistent with one group of employees, and the contract with the greater value is consistent with a more complex technology or chain in which a larger number of employees participate.

Using the events of the beginning and end of the process, it is shown when the process begins and when it ends. For rigidly formalized business processes, for example, such as budgeting, time can act as events.

In cases where the description of the business process is carried out in order to further optimize it, use the time delay elements that show the places in which there is a temporary gap between consistently performed operations. In this case, the subsequent work begins only after a while after completing the previous one.

In the classic WFD approach, this scheme does not show documents. These schemes are used to describe the lower level processes containing detailed work, by the name of which it is clear that is the entrance and what is the output.

A distinctive feature of the WFD diagram is that the arrows between the business process operations indicate not the flow of objects (informational and material), and the streams or the temporary sequence of work.

So, with the help of two classic schemes - DFD and WFD - you can describe all the company's business processes in detail.

CM. Kovalev, General Director of Bitek, V.M. Kovalev, lead consultant of Bitek

Today, the general place was the fact that the business process approach to the organization of work is considered to be a modern, innovative solution, which in case of implementation helps improve the quality of work and increase the profit of the enterprise. About business processes and systems work with them (BPMN, BPMS) I also wrote and more than once. For example, in the article "What is a business process" I describe the basic concepts, features and advantages of this approach. And now I decided to talk about the shortcomings of the implementation of the process approach, how negative effect is waiting for the company and its employees in the event of this approach.

It would seem that a specialist was hired by a business consultant, or a business analyst, he knows his business. You can relax, the specialists will do everything "as it should". But in fact, everything is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. And in case of erroneous solutions, the problem is waiting for the client and its employees.

Before reading this article, I strongly recommend reading my previous publications on this topic:

Of course, you can try to describe the work of the company with text, even algorithmization, i.e. In essence, the description of the processes can also be implemented in text form. For example, some experts prefer this approach to work. And this is their right.
But to call the text list of employees actions to solve different types of tasks is unacceptable. The description (notations) of business processes is subject to certain rules, have, as any language, its own "syntax" and "vocabulary". But if, for example, in the "Rules" and "words" programming languages \u200b\u200bare a set of text commands, then in BPM notations is, first of all, the graphics.

Why is it so important? In addition to the established and established rules, there is also a logical explanation. The graphic picture is easier perceived as a whole. But only after we saw and managed to understand the overall picture, we can say that we have described business processes. The situation that is depicted in the picture begins to exist only after we painted it. Such is the essence, including when describing business processes.

So I propose to negotiate:

If I'm talking about the description of business processes, we are talking about business processes described in graphical form in one of the notations.

But back to the main topic of the article, and let's try to figure out what are the cons of the use of business processes in practice, why they arise and what can lead to.

How is the description of the business process

Most often on creating a description of the business process, an invited business consultant works. This specialist knows his work, and, of course, before creating notation, he studies business work, its features. But it is necessary to understand that even the best guest specialist for a short time, which is spent on studying, can not be an expert in the field of activity of this company. I immediately explain this to the customer in order to remove the negative and misunderstanding:

For example, I was invited to describe business processes of the sewing enterprise, but at the same time I do not have expertise in the sewing case, i.e. I can not sew anything on your own. I also worked with a tourist company, but the process of escorting a child to rest in the summer camp for me and is now simply a "a kind of process", on my own it never did it. I worked with a medical center, and here I can also not tell how the patient's patient is accurately collected for the operation, because I am not a doctor.

A little about the terms used in this article.

Before you continue, you need to make clarity in the picture of what is happening and the role of a person or group of people in optimization work.

Employee is an essence representing a person or a group of people who are a source of information. The employee is competent in the business process, has no decision to make decisions and is usually not competent in modeling.

Business Analyst is an essence representing a person or people who simulate a business process and can in some cases provide recommendations for improving business process. In most cases, it is not initially not competent in the process and do not have the right to make a decision.

The head is the essence representing a person or a group of people who are responsible for making a decision. The head is competent in decision making, and is uncompetentient in business process and modeling.

Notation / Business Notation - Business Process Description Language.

Someone can correct me that one person can be like a good employee and good business analyst. I will immediately say that there were no such people, and it is difficult to imagine a person who would be equally good in two such disciplines as a business analysis and all the activity of the company.

For clarity, I give you a table (sequence of columns and rows does not matter):

Why do you need a guest business analyst?

Business modeling is necessary in order to get a visual picture of how business works now, i.e. "as it is". At the same time, "subtle places" and segments in which it is possible to optimize are becoming noticeable.

For the compilation of notation, the analyst examines the work of the company, is a description of the business process "as is". Next, taking into account the wishes and issues described by the company's management (Customer) defines "as it should be." And with the help of graphic elements, notation can reveal where and what to actually change to go to the second state.

To compile competent notation, the following components are needed:

1. Knowledge of business analysis and ability to work with notations.
2. Information about the operation of a specific process.
3. Optimization Requirements: What result is the management of the company.

Knowledge and ability to work with notations is the competence of a business analyst. Information about the work of the company is provided by employees and management. In this case, the business analyst performs a certain data collection work. He uses the company's reporting, conducts an interview with managers and employees of various divisions, seeks to get as a complete picture as possible. From how qualitatively this work is being done, and as actively ready to help obtain the necessary information from the company, the result depends largely. This is a separate work, with its own specifics and techniques.

It is also important to understand that the decision on which of the proposed options for optimization of work will be implemented in practice, accepts the head of the business, and this is not less dependent on this result than on the quality of the business analyst.

Examples

Next, I will show you on the examples how wrong initial data lead to incorrect outputs. And why such aspirations to get rid of a person often end sadly. I brought the first example to demonstrate how it works.
The second example in order to be clear that even the scale of the company may not save from problems.

Example 1. Automation of the online store

Very common situation - optimization of the online store.

Initially, several people worked at the processing of orders:

• Operators that manually transfer orders received from the site to the accounting system.
• Warehouse worker engaged in directly shipping orders.

After optimization, the need for operators disappeared, as the order is automatically transmitted to the accounting system, where all the necessary documents are also created without the participation of a person and reserves the goods.

As a result, a person engaged in shipment of orders can independently print the documents without the help of operators and prepare a list of goods to dispatch. Operators are not needed at all.

"On paper" it all looks perfect. The system is introduced, operators are dismissed. A warehouse worker add a list of duties (printing documents), and if you are very lucky, increase salary. The company saves funds by reducing several rates, errors associated with the human factor are excluded. Everything should work better than before.

In practice it turns out that the situation is far from so rainbow.

If earlier the number of orders arrived at the collector to the warehouse was limited to the speed of the work of people operators, now orders are formed automatically, almost instantly, and accumulate "in stock".

The number of orders processed per day is now limited only by the possibilities of a warehouse worker. A person sees the constant "order queue." It also observes his authorities, and habitually expresses discontent.

Even if there is no negative "from above," a person himself sees the permanent "challenge", it is necessary to work more than before. Of course, it is partially compensated for the increase in salary. But still, due to the increased load, fatigue is copied, including psychological. Man is not a car, he can not work perfectly every day without breaks. Each person has a certain maximum - how many orders it is able to handle for shift.

As a result, warehouse workers begin to dismiss one after another. Teachka arises, leading to additional problems, delays in sending orders, errors associated with the work of inexperienced and tired employees. Instead of the expected optimization of work, the company carries losses and reputational losses.

And all because, carried away by a beautiful "simplified" notation, the analyst and the company manager did not provide for some mechanisms for regulating the speed of operation, did not take into account how much load increases, i.e. Perceived employees not as real people, but as abstract "business processes".

Example 2. Taxi Automation

Today, conversations are very often audible that in the near future a taxi will work without a driver. This is reasoned by Uber and Yandex-Taxi specialists. In principle, both of these companies are already walking along the path of automation and abandonment from the human factor wherever it succeeds.

As a result, you can come to the following scheme:

1. Taxi order - automatically, through the site or application without the participation of the dispatcher.
2. Client delivery to destination
3. Payment - automatically, from a bank card or online money after a GPS data basis.

Of course, in this case, people still work in the taxi service (technical support operators, software service specialists and equipment moderators, etc.). But in the business process described above, in case of refusal of drivers, they cease to take part in general.

On the one hand, everything turns out conveniently and profitable. No people - no random errors, costs for job creation and wages.

On the other hand, if people are completely excluded from the chain, many risks arise. What will happen if the driver of the driver-machine will fail, and the person will not take a person? But how will the robot be reacting in the event of an accident, especially if, because of the accident damage some hardware node? And if criminals or terrorists decide to capture and use a robot taxi for their own purposes?

As you can see, with all the external benefit, an exception from the human chain leads to unpredictable consequences and requires the introduction of any protective mechanisms, as a result of the introduction of which (or not even implementation), the Company is increasing additional costs, i.e. The result is opposite to the one that was planned.

The main causes of errors and problems

It is necessary to understand that in the process of creating notation, any business consultant tries to simplify the notation, "reducing" the stages and actions that from its point of view are not too important and may prevent an understanding of the picture as a whole. After all, he makes a process that should be understood by the consumer and specialists. One of the principles does not sound "should not be multiplier without having necessary" (the so-called OKKAM razor).

From the side of the company notation studies business manager. On the one hand, he knows a lot more about his field of activity than an invited specialist. On the other hand, it is also not an expert on the work of each unit and employee. As a leader, he sees a picture of the whole, and also inclined to simplify. In addition, it is necessary to understand that in business is now a large number of random people who have fallen into business or accidentally either have a profile education.

As a result, a simplified business model is created, which is created by a person competent in modeling, but not competent in the peculiarities of the work of a particular activity. Accepts his work (business notation) The head of the company, which is not an expert in business modeling, and therefore without attentive joint study of all parts cannot say for sure where the simplifications are permissible and where - no. In addition, the business leader is also not an expert in various processes in the company. He can be an excellent organizer, but not a doctor. Or fashion and style connoisseur, but not seamstress, etc.

Unfortunately, in the process of working on optimizing business processes, usually the main goal is not so much improved performance (as it should be), and first of all - reduction of expenses. The management of the company that appeals to a specialist in optimizing business processes seeks to reduce costs. And it almost always means - to cut a regular unit. It usually sounds like a "reduction of the human factor".

There are still many examples of the like above, all of them combines several important factors that lead to sad results:

• Insufficient competence Analytics in matters of specific business;
• Insufficient competence of the head in understanding business processes and reluctance to delve into the details;
• Too much confidence in graphic notations (they give the degree of freedom that allows you to cover the process as a whole and see the optimal solutions, but do not take into account people who in reality perform the functions of "arrows" and "black boxes");
• Excessive confidence in technology (a mistake peculiar to many modern people).

As a result, a business process is obtained, which in the theory looks perfect, on one or another stage begins to malfunctions.

Another important factor that combines the examples described above:

In compiling the notation and implementation of the process approach, the analyst and the head of the company did not take into account that the organization necessarily consists of people. As soon as people are excluded from the process, it ceases to be a business process, becomes technological process. And for this type of processes, there are own rules for the description, safety requirements, etc. Describe them as business processes is unacceptable.

Simple solution to the problem: appreciate people

The easiest and most obvious way out - take care of employees and treat them humane. Determine the adequate standards of work, do not exclude completely people from the business process, reduce the number of functions, for example, let them control, check and print documents or perform other auxiliary types of work. Reduce your working day, for example, make shifts for 6 hours. People will not be overworked, they will have time to do everything on time, the process will be controlled.

Of course, so saving funds will be less compared to the full refusal to participate in certain processes of employees. But you are guaranteed to avoid many problems.
At the same time, the reduction in the burden on employees with a high probability in itself will bring you a profit. A person who is not overloaded and has time to relax well, it works much better. It is more efficient, less often makes mistakes, ready to work creatively to work more and better.

However, this will be confirmed by any experienced leader. If you force a person to work 8 hours in a row without breaks, then it falls significantly. To force employees to work "on wear" not only inhumanly, but also, in most cases, it is not profitable. People will dismiss either, in certain cases, you will be forced to dismiss them, as they begin to do the work very bad, as they say about such employees, "burn out." We will have to spend time and strength to search for a new person, his training, and so from times at times. Permanent loyal companies Employees will bring much more benefit and will cost less than regularly changing personnel.

Be careful with technology

At the very beginning of the article, I pointed to the main mistake - excessive confidence in modern technologies, including business modeling, in combination with the desire to simplify everything that can only lead to the accumulation of errors.

Innegraten into the details, especially if you plan on some kind of site to replace a person with a program. Make sure that it will not lead to a loss of control or natural adjustment of the adjacent units. It is not worth the "blind" to trust modern software and technological solutions simply because we live in the age of mass automation.

Business modeling and IT-sphere

In the end, I would like to say a few words about how business modeling and related features relate to the work of IT specialists. I believe that it is just IT to specialists these tools can be very useful. Business modeling helps to understand how the organization works in general, see the overall picture before the start of automation.

Such an analysis helps to offer and implement optimal solutions for the work of various organizations and individual divisions.

Despite the fact that the article is devoted to the shortcomings of business modeling, I personally believe that it is not possible to use business processes and notations when optimizing and automating organizations, but is really needed.

But it is important to understand that, like any tool, business modeling can also work in both directions, and bring not only benefit, but also harm. As you know, from the fact that a knife can be cut down, not one person has flushed all the knives from his kitchen. So here, learn how to the tools as possible, remember the possible disadvantages of the use of business processes notations, avoid excessive simplifications. And do not forget that these notations describe the work of the organization, i.e. First of all, people, and only then - their work with technology.

I would also like to note that when I am writing about the insufficient competence of a business analyst or business manager, I do not claim that one of them is a low qualified specialist. I say that in certain areas they may have a lack of knowledge.

Thus, the business analyst may not be sufficiently competent in the field of client's activities. And if it coincides with the insufficient career of the company's head for details, with reluctance in difficult or dubious cases, consult with employees responsible for or another direction of activity, then this may end in the sadly described. Moreover, as you can see examples, negative factors can equally affect a small business (example of an online store) and on a large company (an example of a major taxi service). It is necessary to understand that this is simply another example of labor separation for greater efficiency in solving the problem.

A description of the business processes of the enterprise is one of the methods of combating inefficiency. Activities of any company can be described as the sum of the multiple processes that are performed sequentially and in parallel. After formalization on paper it becomes easier to plan them, represent "how should be". Read in the article how to describe them and see an example of describing financial service business processes.

Why describe business processes

Any enterprise faces in its activities with various losses (time, marriage, disadvantage of management, lost opportunities) and is losses.

Considering the amount of damage at the end of the year, sometimes there is a sharp desire to return to the past and correct the error, make part of the work differently. But the past will not return, and how often when and next year the company comes on the same rake? Errors that were not properly analyzed and behaved before the staff, arise again and again and reflected on profits.

One of the methods of combating inefficiency is the introduction of a process-oriented approach and a description of the business processes of the enterprise. Activities of any enterprise can be described as the amount of many business processes that are performed sequentially and in parallel.

Why do you need it?

1. When a chaotic idea of \u200b\u200bthe activity of the enterprise is developing into business processes and formalizes on paper, it becomes crystal clear what actions are performed correctly and on time, what you need to adjust, and from which you can also refuse. Points are noticeable - error generators.
2. After formalization on paper it becomes easier to plan them, represent "how should be".
3. Each business process has an owner and each action is enshrined in it for any employee (group). If an error is detected, it will be easy to identify the "guilty" and to prevent its re-appearance together.
4. According to the described business processes, it is easier to enter into a course of new employees. And even if 60% of the team replaces, the threat to business will be minimal.
5. The introduction of an integrated information system is always accompanied by writing business processes.
6. Business with the described processes is incomparably easier to scale. Opening of branches (), divisions, partnership, sale of franchises - you are open to any opportunities.

What is a business process

The business process is a set of actions that must be performed for the production of the product or the provision of services. At the same time, the actions are not chaotic, but keeping the specified sequence.

It is convenient to represent them graphically in the form of flowcharts. Each business process has consumers, no matter, internal or external. The consumer sets the requirements for the business process, to the final result. The consumer can also affect the existence of the business process itself. At the entrance of everyone will require (demand) from the consumer, at the output - satisfaction of this requirement.

The business process has an owner - one official in the company that is responsible for the result of the process. In large companies, another process manager can be appointed - the one who leads the implementation of the process, but is not responsible for the result.

For example, consumers will be a financial director and commercial director. The result will be the amount of overdue debt at the end of the period and the amount that you managed to get from the debtors. The owner will be a financial controller. Consumers can set the requirements for the process, such as the frequency of verification, a set of action to recover the debt, the planned amount of the return.

Business processes are:

1. Basic.
2. Auxiliary.
3. Manager.

The main one includes those that create a product (the product is produced, the service is provided). Without their fulfillment, the existence of an enterprise is impossible, so they cannot be eliminated, only to optimize.

Auxiliary are performed in parallel with the main and need to maintain the activities of the enterprise. These include the recruitment of personnel, the calculation of wages, quality control, etc. In auxiliary processes, the source of savings lies. They can be optimized, synchronize, combine, even sometimes eliminate.

Managing business processes are the most difficult to describe and the most suitable group of processes. They satisfy the requirements for control, planning and forecasting, the development of the company. On the one hand, control is a very creative sphere, which is not always possible. But on the other hand, in the management there is a lot of processes that can and need to formalize and optimize. It. eg:

1. Drawing up an annual budget.
2. Planning cash flows.
3. Check potential partners, etc.

They form a significant proportion of management costs, so they must be analyzed and are shown to the optimal result.

How to describe business processes

Start a description Always need to compile a list of functions "as is" (what is actually executed). And for the enterprise, first encountered with the process approach, and for where part of the processes is already described.

The list is preparing three steps:

1. Examine (create) Organiza enterprise.
2. For each division, write down the functions, affairs, in the execution of which it participates. It is important to note that in order to list all the processes performed by employees, you need to communicate with these employees personally. Only in the process of communication "Tet-A-Tet" can be obtained an adequate picture.
3. Learn the list of functions or skipping any functions. There are situations where two units are made by one and the same work, for example, the calculation of KPI sales staff makes the financial service and sales department itself. It happens that the function is, and the staff performing it is not.

As a result, you must have a list: a function - an employee (group), in which there are no intersections and unfilled fields.

To form business processes from the pool of functions, you need to decide on what a sign of them to group. The main goal of the business process is to create a "finished product", satisfying user requirements. If you look at, then the goal of each function will also create a specific "product". Therefore, business processes are created from the functions as shown in Figure 1.

Picture 1. How to create a business process from the function

Having done these actions, you will get a list:

• Business process 1 and further functions
• Business process 2 and further functions
• Etc.

Give the name to each process that would reflect its essence. Preparatory work on this is completed and it is time to draw a process card.

The process map resembles something with a water stream, which begins with small sources, then replenished with new streams that merge and fall into the sea with a full-flowing river.

Place the shapes on the slide in the sequence of their execution. It is customary to draw a map from left to right using the figure of the figure - arrows to indicate.

Figure 2.. Designation

Those processes that can be performed in parallel, place the above and below the main one.

Connect them with arrows. It is not necessary to use only an arrow for one process. The input to the process can be both from one and from several. At the outputs, a similar situation.

Now that the card is ready, the inputs and outputs for all processes are clear. You can proceed with the image of each specific process.

1. To do this, place the input and output from the process.
2. Divide the sheet horizontally on the area - the role of the participants.
3. By the roles of the participants, place the main blocks - the process functions. Keep the sequence of execution.
4. Add the development and additional features.
5. Place documents on the diagram to be formed during execution. E-mail, Excel Table This is also documents from the point of view of the process.
6. Recognize used programs and databases. It is advisable to write not the name of the program, but a specific block of software (for example, not 1C and payment calendar 1c, etc.).
7. Add performance indicators to the process where they are checked.
8. Tie the resulting scheme with other processes.

Having done all these actions, you will get a complete scheme (see Figure 3).

Figure 3.. An example of a description of the business process

In the description of the business process, your main goal is to ensure that even "man from the street" can read it. Therefore, detail, guided by the principle of efficiency. The business process written by common strokes is vague, will be incomprehensible without additional explanation. And excessive detail will bring you (and reader) a lot of additional work, but there will be few additional value in it.

And at the end add a very important rule: you can never mix the concepts of "as is" and "as it should be" in the description. Many employees who participate in the data collection seek to embellish the reality and add functions that, in their opinion, should be, but are not fulfilled in reality. Strive to clearly distinguish such "wishes."

The first stage you write business processes "as is", in the second stage, change them on "how it should be".

How to find unfavorable business processes

To identify the company's business processes that bring additional losses, and calculate the perpetrators, use management reports. Spread it on business processes and appoint each responsible top manager. So you can understand who is responsible for the success or failure of a process, and coordinate the management team for future periods.

See the step-by-step algorithm, how to act to find and eliminate inefficient business processes. Experience is divided by the financial director of the production company "Stan".

Cons description of business processes

In addition to many advantages, the description of business processes carries a number of minuses.

The first, and the most weighty, is the highning of the implementation of the process approach. You can describe processes as our own and with the help of invited consultants, but in both cases the implementation costs will be a substantial amount. The management of the enterprise must be interested in the description and know how to apply the results of the process approach. Otherwise, the enterprise money will be wasted.

The second, no less weight, is the development of the enterprise and its business processes, which will also need to describe. The decision "described - received the result - forgot" is not suitable for the process approach. Otherwise, after six months - the year the processes will become irrelevant and the money will be wasted spent again. Be prepared for constant maintenance costs.

The third minus is the duration of the introduction. The project can take from 6 months to 1 year.

The fourth minus is the resistance of employees and managers. Like all projects to improve efficiency, the implementation of the process approach leads to the optimization of the cost of the enterprise, including to reduce the state, and to increase the burden on the employee.