Analyzing Process ImprovementsSupported by IT
This section will explain how the business analyst analyzes and
documents the process and identifies the benefits of applying an IT
solution. Keep in mind that the analysis requires both IT and functional
expertise and that both groups work together to identify ways that IT can
help improve processes.
Document the As‐Is (Current) Process
The first step is to understand how a process is conducted currently; this
is often referred to as the “as‐is” process. There are a few approaches
that the business analyst can take:
• observe the process;
• conduct interviews with the stakeholders (executives, managers, end
users, or even customers) and the people performing the process; or
• bring together representatives of the process stakeholders to
collectively define the current process, mapping out the process for
all to see.
The analyst begins with asking the stakeholders about the input, the
process, and the output. The input consists of all the resources
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(knowledge, skills, materials, information) needed for the process to occur.
The output is the result of the process. The process takes the input and
transforms it into the output.
Before dealing with a business, consider an example of something that
anyone can relate to—making lunch for a child to take to school. The
inputs consist of the bread, peanut butter, jelly, fruit, dessert, and the
packaging materials (food wrap and paper bag). The process is the
assembling of the bread, peanut butter, and jelly into a sandwich and
combining it with the fruit and dessert in the lunch bag. The output will
be a peanut‐butter‐and‐jelly sandwich, an apple, and cookies for dessert,
all in a small paper bag to be placed in the child's backpack.
• The supplier is the supermarket.
• The inputs are peanut butter, grape jelly, white bread, a piece of
fruit, a small pack of cookies, food wrap, a small paper bag, and a
knife.
• The process is collecting all of these items, selecting bread slices,
spreading on the peanut butter and jelly, putting the bread together,
slicing the sandwich, wrapping it in the food wrap, and placing the
wrapped sandwich, fruit, and cookies into the small paper bag.
• The output is the packed lunch in the paper bag, ready to be placed
in the child's backpack.
• The feedback at this point is that the supply of peanut butter is low
and more should be purchased. The child (the customer) eats lunch
and when he gets home, he provides additional feedback when he
says that lunch was great, but his sandwich needed more jelly.
This simple example illustrates the three main components of a process
(input, process, and output), the high‐level steps in completing the
process (in this case, of making a school lunch), and the importance of
feedback.
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Once listed, the steps in the process are then put into the sequence in
which they occur, even though the interviews and other sources of
information may not clearly indicate the order in which the steps are
performed. The analyst documents the current process as it is actually
performed.
In the school lunch example, the inputs, process, and output of packing a
child's lunch have been defined, but how is the process carried out? In
this scenario, Mom and Dad plan a short vacation away from the kids, and
Grandma comes to visit. When asked to define the process, Dad omits
several pieces of information that are in his head. Assuming Dad is
primarily responsible for making school lunches, he knows where all the
necessary supplies are kept, the fact that his son prefers apples and his
daughter prefers bananas, and that beverages are provided at school.
Grandma has been left a list of what is to go into the lunch, yet important
information is missing: Where is the peanut butter kept? What kind of
fruit should be included? How do they prefer their sandwiches to be cut:
cut the crust off or leave it on? What about drinks?
So, Grandma does her best, and this is what the analyst observes and
how he documents the as‐is process that Grandma uses:
• She reviews the list.
• She goes to the cupboard and gets out a loaf of bread.
• She goes to the refrigerator and gets out the jelly.
• She opens several cupboards to find and retrieve the peanut butter.
• She takes out two slices of bread and makes one peanut butter and
jelly sandwich.
• She goes to another cupboard and gets the wrap.
• She wraps the sandwich.
• She goes back to that cupboard and gets the paper lunch bag.
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• She puts the sandwich in the bag.
• She assembles the second peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
• She wraps the second sandwich and puts it in its bag.
• She goes to the refrigerator and gets two apples.
• She washes the apples, dries them, and puts them in the bag.
• She goes back to the cupboard where the bread was stored and gets
the cookies.
• She wraps two cookies and puts them into each lunch bag.
• She goes to the refrigerator and looks to see if there are any drinks
that look like they should be packed in the lunch bags; she finds
nothing.
• She hands one lunch bag to Bill and one to Maria as they set out for
school.
• Grandma puts all the supplies away and cleans up the kitchen.
Look for Problem Areas—Process Analysis
The next step is to analyze how the process operates in order to
determine possible improvements by eliminating inefficiencies and
duplication of effort. Before the business analyst makes any assumptions
about where the problem areas are, he will talk with the people involved
in the process and ask them about the issues they see. These interviews
are documented for future reference.
Returning to the school lunch example, the analyst asks the children and
Grandma about how things went:
• Billy said he does not like crusts on his sandwich.
• Maria said she does not like apples and always has a banana instead.
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• Both said that the apple had squished their sandwich, which "never
happens when Dad packs my lunch."
• Grandma says that it took her way too long to prepare the lunches
and that she felt like she was running back and forth the whole time.
She asks how she could improve this process. Not only does she
want to be more efficient, but she wants to prepare each child's
lunch the way each likes it.
Of course, in observing the process, the analyst saw that she really was
very inefficient in preparing lunch. After reviewing the documented list of
steps, the analyst came up with the following improved (streamlined)
process:
• Gather all ingredients and supplies
◦ Bread, peanut butter, and cookies from food cupboard
◦ Jelly and fruit from refrigerator
◦ Food wrap and paper bag from supplies cupboard
• Make two sandwiches at once
◦ Lay out bread
◦ Spread jelly on two slices
◦ Spread peanut butter on two slices
◦ Assemble sandwiches
◦ Cut crust off of one
◦ Wrap sandwiches
• Put fruit in bags first (to prevent them from mashing the sandwich)
◦ Wash and dry apple
◦ Put banana in one bag, apple in the other
• Prepare and pack cookies
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◦ Take out two cookies, wrap, and place in bag
◦ Repeat for other lunch bag
• Place wrapped sandwich into each bag, ensuring the crust‐less one
goes in with the apple
• Put everything away and clean up kitchen
The analyst’s suggestions also include that Dad should tell Grandma
where the supplies are located and how each child likes their lunch (crusts
cut off; what kind of fruit). In this case, she now knows all that and is
ready to make lunch the following day, using the steps in the streamlined
process.
Now how would this relate to a workplace situation? Everyday employees
perform tasks and complete processes in their organizations that may be
duplicating the efforts of others, or they may be doing them very
inefficiently. Each employee may be performing as efficiently as possible,
but the order in which they are performing the tasks or how they interact
with each other may introduce significant inefficiencies. All steps in a
process need to be evaluated together to ensure the flow from start to
finish is as efficient as possible.
Improve the Process
Improving the process means that
• extra steps are combined or eliminated
• resources (including time and people) are more efficiently used
• quality of the information collected and used is improved
Prior to implementing an IT solution, the organization should first ensure
their processes are optimized.
Let us look at a business process example of creating an invoice, which
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consists of many more tasks or steps than the lunch example required.
The tasks involved in creating an invoice may include:
• locating a customer's record
• confirming that shipment was made
• calculating cost (price x quantity)
• adding appropriate shipping charges and possibly sales tax
• updating the customer's record and the accounts receivable ledger
• generating hard copy of the invoice to be mailed
Back in the old (not really so old) days, a clerk manually performed the
necessary calculations, inserted a preprinted invoice (typically a multipart
form) into a typewriter and entered the information. Then the original
invoice was mailed to the customer, a copy went to the accounts
receivable department to update the ledger, and another copy was filed in
the customer's file folder. This typical manual process provides numerous
opportunities for human error along the way. It is also an ideal situation in
which to use technology to improve the efficiency of the process.
Certainly, having an electronic system that enables all of the parties
involved to receive updated information simultaneously would expedite
the process. The current process is cumbersome and inefficient, however,
and automating it would mean only that the invoice is now inefficiently
created more quickly.
This is where business‐process reengineering (BPR) comes into play.
Instead of taking the existing invoice‐creation process and automating it,
one looks at what is trying to be accomplished (the output):
• to inform the customer of his obligation to the firm
• to update the accounting records so that the firm is aware of a
customer debt, update the customer record to document the sale,
and get payment from the customer.
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Because the ultimate goal is to get payment from the customer. The
question now becomes, "How can this goal be accomplished more
accurately and efficiently?" rather than, "How can an existing process be
automated?"
Automating the process will provide additional benefits to the company.
The system can be used to ensure the correct and immediate flow of the
work from one person to the next, improving communication, and
strengthening relationships among everyone involved in the process.
• Workflow relates to defining roles and process steps—who is
responsible for what—and how information, documents, and tasks
flow from one step to another in a defined process. Information
systems can define this flow of information and tasks, and can
include specific rules (who does what, how, and when) to provide
consistency and greater efficiency. An effective technology solution
can automate some of these steps, as well as route information and
provide specific timelines. A system could support the workflow in
the invoice example above such that when the clerk entered the
invoice into the system, the accounting department would receive a
notification, and an accountant could approve the invoice, which
would update the ledger. The customer support team would be
notified by the system that the invoice had been posted and that an
email had been sent to the customer providing them with the
invoice. The customer support team could then follow up with the
customer to ensure their satisfaction. Each person involved in the
invoice process would receive their notifications instantly and be
able to efficiently conduct their part of the process. The system
provides a consistent structure for the invoice process to be
performed the same efficient way each time, and all participants can
be certain that they have played their role as expected.
• Using the automated system and the workflow capability improves
internal and external communication as well. Each person with a
role in the invoice process automatically and instantly receives
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notification of a new invoice; there is no time delay from when the
invoice is created until the accountant is notified. Since the
accountant is able to update the ledger very soon after the invoice is
posted, the company’s accounts receivable and cash flow situation
are kept very current, improving communication throughout the
company of the current financial status. The automated sending of
the invoice in a timely way to the customer provides an improvement
in external communication. And, the customer support team has
access to real‐time information and is kept informed of events
involving the customer, and is therefore able to communicate in a
timely way with the customer.
• Automated systems can also improve relationships both within the
company, and, importantly, with customers and suppliers. Using a
workflow system to communicate among employees can have a
positive effect on morale since they are not dependent on the other
employees to let them know when an invoice is created. Each person
is able to perform their steps in the invoice process and carry out
their responsibilities. When the system automatically sends an
invoice to the customer and the customer support team is able to
follow up, the relationship with the customer is strengthened. From
the customer’s viewpoint, the company is functioning as one entity,
and the customer support person knows exactly what is going on,
can access the internal files and records, and provide efficient and
effective customer assistance.
As the business process is improved, the additional capabilities that an
automated system can provide should be considered and included. These
capabilities may allow the organization to further optimize their processes
and are important considerations in determining whether a system
solution is required, or whether simply improving some manual processes
will meet the need.
The business analyst will document the improved, optimized ("to‐be")
process for use in determining whether a system solution is required, and
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to begin defining requirements for a solution.
Implement or Change the System
The "to‐be" process should be defined before seeking a technology
solution. Otherwise, it is possible to implement a technology solution that
only succeeds in performing a bad process faster rather than actually
gaining the improvements desired to help achieve the organization’s
strategy. If a technology solution is needed to support the to‐be process,
there are some questions that should be answered, such as:
• What is the work to be done?
• What are the tasks or steps?
• How is the system going to help with the tasks?
• What can the system do to help work get done?
If the process currently involves use of a system, then an evaluation
should be done to determine whether to modify the system to include
the optimized process, or build or buy a new system. If a new system is
required and the determination is made to purchase it, then the business
analyst will identify areas where the system can help improve the
business process(es), providing a competitive advantage to the
organization. The analyst then documents how the processes will change
and how that will benefit the organization.
Document the New Process
The new, improved process is documented so that employees know how
to perform their parts of the process and so that IT support personnel can
use the document as they make system changes that may be needed.
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