Best practice of business process automation projects from a professional. Part 1

Andrey Kochetkov - Head of Consist Business Group Consulting Projects *

Any project in consulting practice related to the development of technical specifications, functional requirements or optimization of business processes is a laborious task, but necessary to provide a comprehensive project base, to bring the customer's expectations and predicted results into a single picture. Andrei Kochetkov, Head of Consist Business Group Consulting Projects, will talk about what you should pay attention to, what difficulties can arise in projects and how to overcome them, share the project management features of diHouse, a large wholesale distributor.

- Andrew, please tell us in general about your project experience. Do all of your projects include the stage of describing business processes?
')
“I represent the consulting department of Consist Business Group, and almost all the projects we carry out are related to the survey of business processes, the business architecture of organizations, and the identification of functional requirements for process automation. The specific result of the project depends on what exactly the customer expects to receive as a result of the project. As a rule, our clients are interested in such services as organizational diagnostics, optimization of business processes, development of automation concepts, architectures of complex information systems of organizations, technical tasks for automating specific business processes or functional areas. Since we are IT business consultants, we are usually invited to projects related to the implementation of automated systems. At the same time, almost any automation project is inextricably linked with changes in the company's business processes, no matter what size or scale they are. We begin with a survey of the organization as a whole, a survey of the organization’s activities, the identification and description of business processes, the search for current shortcomings in the organization’s processes and their automation.

- Let's mark some of the most universal stages that are present in most projects. Briefly describe them, please.

- At the moment, we have developed and is developing our own methodology for conducting consulting projects, which has absorbed the experience of dozens of major projects and has proven itself in working with companies and organizations in various industries. Any project begins with the fact that we reveal what the customer expects to receive in the end, i.e. in which view or format the result is expected. We meet, offer our options, both according to the schemes of the processes presentation, and according to the description of the processes (in text form, as a process map), we discuss the options for the presentation of subsequent documents (functional requirements, functional architecture, automation concept, etc.), discuss and fix all the agreements reached in the form of an agreement on results. Thus, at the initial stage of the project, the client receives confidence in the final result, and the joint project team - a common understanding of the goals and results of the project.

The project team is formed from our employees and employees of the customer. A project charter is developed, initiating meetings are held, a project management approach is developed that allows for possible risks. Next, a project plan is formed, a schedule of meetings with key employees. And only after that our team is ready to begin the main design work. In the course of project work, we familiarize ourselves with the documents, conduct interviews or surveys, travel to customer sites, use other methods to identify objective and subjective information, prepare reporting documents (process descriptions, process diagrams, analytical reports and other documents). Further, all the materials and documents developed are coordinated with the customer according to special developed procedures.

If the project requires in-depth research, we conduct interviews not only with key key personnel, but also with those who directly or indirectly influence the process.

After the process description stage, the project team (which includes the customer’s employees) understands the organization’s business architecture perfectly and presents all the shortcomings and strengths of the organization. Thus one more task is solved - the formation of the Center of Competences at the customer.

Further project stages depend on the customer: if process optimization is required, the project team conducts internal sessions and analyzes what the company would need to improve, using its experience, deficiency detection techniques, optimization criteria. All this is worked out taking into account the strengths of the organization and business constraints. In any optimization there are limiting factors, such, for example, as: features of top management, limitations of the organizational environment, technical constraints, market constraints. The strengths of the organization and its competitive advantages in optimizing are the most severe constraints, because it is the most valuable thing that needs to be maintained and developed, helping the company to make a qualitative leap in achieving its goals.

Next, the project team develops optimization proposals, projects of optimized business processes for discussion with key employees of the client company. We meet with the customer, we work together on new projects of processes and come to a common opinion how to improve them.

- Does it often happen that existing business processes change when information systems are introduced?

- They always change, it is impossible to avoid. The question is how big these changes are. Each organization has its own specifics. Some organizations strive to improve competitiveness and are ready for large-scale changes in the complex process. Some companies focus more on optimizing costs in individual processes or on improving certain process indicators. We are always together with the customer looking for the best option for the company or organization, which will quickly help to achieve their goals.

In a number of cases, as a result of optimization, only certain functions of the process can change, but not the whole process. However, in organizations aimed at improving competitiveness, if the head of the organization or a key person accepts our proposals, the company is ready to significantly change existing processes, build new processes, as there is an understanding that changing each process affects the quality of service for customers (external, internal) that ultimately affects tactical and strategic competitive advantage. Companies focused on optimizing internal costs are often not ready to significantly change processes. As a rule, they are interested in improving certain process indicators: increasing the speed of operations, reducing the costs of processes, etc.

- What is the most important thing that needs to be taken into account in the work on optimizing business processes?

- After the process models are optimized, it is necessary to analyze their integrity and to coordinate with processes that have not been optimized. Business architecture with new processes should provide a clear, transparent, reliable operation. At this stage, all discrepancies in the business architecture between adjacent functional areas are identified. After analyzing the integrity of all the final processes are agreed with the customer.

- Is this model enough to start an automation project?

Not really. This model is sufficient for developing an automation concept that is developed in the next stage and used as a starting point for subsequent automation projects, as well as for choosing IT solutions. The concept of automation is necessary for the customer to understand in what time and with what budget automation projects can be completed. If the client needs the concept of “top level” to understand the terms, budgets, then the information obtained in the previous stages is enough. If a more detailed concept is needed, for example, to understand the functional scope of an automation project, then the concept includes functional requirements and requirements for integration, security. These requirements are also used in the process of selecting the optimal software platform. The next stage is the development of technical specifications.

In the development of technical specifications, work is underway to analyze the identified requirements for compliance with the limitations of a specific information system. All requirements are analyzed and detailed in terms of using a specific software platform. In addition, the detailed requirements for information security are included in the TOR, the requirements for integration between information systems are carefully worked out, and the required indicators of the future information system are specified.

- If we compare the projects of different customers, do clients differ from each other depending on, for example, this is a state-owned company or a commercial structure?

- Yes, of course, different. Depending on which category the customer belongs to, we need to pay more attention to certain stages, stages of the project. Each customer is individual, but certain differences between government structures and commercial organizations exist. For example, differences in procedures and terms of coordination, the breadth of powers of the designated responsible persons, the specifics of decision-making. Thus, in state-owned companies, a decision is almost always taken by a group of employees or a formed commission, and in order to coordinate the issues, one has to pay increased attention to the formal part of presenting the results, bringing the final documents in accordance with internal policies, methods, standards, etc. -architecture organizations in our projects to achieve results, take into account the risks and build a project structure that will bring high-quality results Welcome to our customer.

- What mistakes are most often made, in your opinion, at each of the stages? And what do you suggest to avoid them?

- When examining business processes, it is important to correctly build work with the Customer, correctly build a meeting schedule, and think through the procedures for coordination. The use of terminology that is not familiar to the customer can be a big mistake, so we carefully study the internal regulatory documents of the customer and use the usual terms and formats. In some cases, it is worthwhile to conduct a pilot survey of a single process or a process block and, when discussing it together, consider the result. We also conduct brainstorming to review the information received with the assistance of leading experts in the field of business of this customer to bring the results in line with the terminology adopted in this business area.

When designing business process diagrams and descriptions, difficulties may arise due to low attention to detail or the lack of relevant information from the customer. Here it is important to understand that the client is well aware of their processes, but for some reason either could not convey the nuances, or the project team could not identify them. The art of the consultant in this case is that during the examination everything “secret” becomes “obvious”. You need to be able to competently work out the information received and analyze all the reasons for which something was distorted, including when interacting with the customer.

Another "pitfall": the process of coordinating business processes with the customer can be endless if it is not built correctly. To avoid this, it is important to understand in advance how it is more convenient for the customer to coordinate the processes. It is necessary to conduct either a pilot agreement and adjust the approach, or at a joint meeting with the customer, try to consider them and choose the best option for agreement. In our experience, the fastest negotiation is joint sessions to discuss processes.

At the stage of examination and development of recommendations for optimizing processes, it is critical not to miss the important. To eliminate errors at this stage, we always use expert methodologists with experience and expertise in the business of the customer, people with a fresh perspective, who are not familiar with the business of the organization being surveyed. Since we are a large company, we have the opportunity to attract leading methodologists in almost any business area.

Process design is a very important stage, because at this stage the future structure of the organization’s business is projected. In the design of processes in any case can not design processes in isolation from the customer. The design of processes is carried out exclusively in close cooperation with the client: we offer options, discuss and look for the optimal process models.

When developing recommendations on the modernization of corporate information systems and the schedule of modernization of the corporate information system (CIS) of an organization, it is important to pay special attention to the IT department of the Customer. An IT department may have technical limitations (architectural limitations, technical policies). When developing the concept of automation, it is also necessary to take into account the accumulated own experience of IT department implementation.

At the stage of developing functional requirements for automating business processes, you may encounter the fact that the developed functional requirements will not be sufficiently high-quality and detailed. In such cases, it is necessary to involve system analysts in order to correct the direction of the project team in the right direction.

At the stage of development of technical specifications, the biggest mistake is the lack of completeness and completeness of the solution. In this case, it is necessary to involve architects of information systems, which may indicate obvious errors in the structure of the TK.

Continuing the theme - in the second part of the article. Here you will find:

- Case of project implementation of IP in the company diHouse;
- Work with the customer: “we look at things the same way”;
- Experience of using effective tools for the preparation of TK for automation.

The continuation will be released soon on the pages of our corporate blog.

* Information about the company:

Consist Business Group combines the leading consulting assets of SC LANIT and Systematika Group. The business group is built on the basis of LANIT Consulting, TOPS Consulting, Sciener and LC Europe, and combines a management consulting, development, implementation and maintenance of IT solutions for working with customers from key sectors of the Russian economy into a diversified IT holding.