Drawing up a workflow to map out and organise your business processes
may seem straightforward, but underestimating the level of accuracy and
detail required could cause major problems after implementation.
Carefully consider the following factors if you want to see positive
productivity results and avoid headaches further down the line. It’s
important to remember that rather than just mapping out business
processes, you have the potential to improve them for better business
results.
To automate or not?
Divide the steps that make up your workflow into two categories;
tasks carried out by employees, and those which are automated using the
software itself. It’s important to note that these are not always
mutually exclusive. For example; you might want to allow a staff member
to override an automated work process if there is a specific person
suited for a job.
Making a clear distinction on what can and can’t be automated is
important, your decision needs to be based on a realistic understanding
of what your system is capable of, and also what tasks are better suited
to human judgement.
The order of events
Carrying out a task in a specific order every single time isn’t
always optimal. A sequence of events may have to change based on certain
conditions. If one person or resource is not available at a designated
stage, do you put the entire task on hold, or move forward until that
issue can be resolved later?
Some steps in a workflow may not even be mandatory and can be skipped
over depending on work circumstances. But be aware that this has the
potential to create greater complexity further down the line if a later
stage compensates for what was missed.
The entire process
One trap workflow designers fall into is omitting a stage in a
process because it either happens before the task has begun or after it
has finished. You might think work needs to start at a certain point,
but is there anything before your “first” stage that has an impact? For
instance, you a workflow might begin when an employee arrives at an
address for an appointment, but how was that appointment arranged in the
first place?
This problem often arises because the administrative and trade
components of an organisation are treated as doing separate jobs, but in
fact, are all working towards the same goal in different capacities.
SwiftCase is a powerful, cloud-based business process management
platform, get in touch
with us today, for a free, no-obligation demonstration.