Where do YOU begin process improvement when there is no process to begin with?

Michael Hoard Founder & CEO| Michael Hoard Consulting Hope Valley, Ri, United States

I'm often faced with this exact conundrum. I will typically start with assessing current state and developing a baseline. Something to build metrics around and measure to. Ideas? Thoughts?

Posted: May 23, 2018 11:23 AM (Updated by author: May 23, 2018 11:28 AM)

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Hani Gasim Managing Director| Khotawat Consultancy Khartoum, Sudan

First of all, the As-Is documentation is the starting point which will give the overview of the current processes. Eliciting these process through Interviews will make it easier to make sure everything is documented.
Next step is to analyze the processes according to the benchmarked and best practice. Once analyzed processes can be monitored to review outcomes and measured according to the given KPIs. A baseline has to be set for measurement and improvement for the processes.

Posted: May 31, 2018 2:52 PM

Kevin Drake Perth, Western Australia, Australia

May 24, 2018 2:24 AM

Replying to Anton Oosthuizen

...

Have no problem with applying agile principles but the idea of process improvement does imply that there must be a current process in place right? If something is being done at the moment then there is a process. It might be so crappy that people would comment that they do not have a process but this is not true. Doing something wrong does not mean there is no process.

So I would start by baselining an 'AS IS'. Based on this you will be able to determine if you need to jump into the 'People & Interactions' over 'Processes & Tools'. Remember the agile principle does not say that the one should be neglected over the other, it says that if you have to choose. If you sit with a really broken process you need to pay attention to that fist otherwise you might sit with an Olympic swimming team and an empty pool.

I agree with your approach

Posted: Jul 4, 2018 6:25 PM

NITIN MITTAL Sr. Project Manager - Professional Services| USA Denver, Co, United States

understand people intelligence level and start interogating yourself if you are aligned with the same thoughts. If you find gaps , then start identifying those to work out improvement.

Posted: Jul 6, 2018 6:35 AM

NK Shrivastava AI Strategy & Transformation Consultant| RefineM Cary, NC, United States

There is almost always a process. It may not be documented, it may not be practiced consistently or people may be looking at exceptions all the times and saying there is no process. It is hard to believe that a team is doing the work (however productive or dysfunctional it may be), and there is no process. The first step will be to talk to people and create a VSM of the current process that is followed 70-80% times (don't map exceptions, that's a trap). Develop a Kanban board to have team start visualizing and as they work on their items/tasks thru the process and put them on the path of continuous improvements. This can happen for any kind of team/organization whether they are using Waterfall or Agile or even non development or operations. Join me on Oct 6 at PMI Global conference for an hour at 11:30am and learn more. Here is the link for more details- https://www.pmi.org/global-conference/program-schedule. Look for my topic 15-40% gains in Just 4-8 weeks.

I am also delivering a full 2-day workshop on the same topic at PMI Seminar World in Chicago in November. You can find more details here - https://learning.pmi.org/in-person-course/...t-and-business/

I hope this was helpful.
Thanks
NK

Posted: Jul 6, 2018 7:08 AM (Updated by author: Jul 6, 2018 7:10 AM)

Shweta Pai Scrum master| ResMed Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

I started with observing what's there and started introducing what I thought was missing. For example, I joined a new team in which there were no definitions of ready, done and stories were written without acceptance criteria. I slowly started introducing one concept so that the team is able to learn and digest these. It worked well as they were able to understand why I suggested the same.

Posted: Jul 10, 2018 3:21 PM

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Where do YOU begin process improvement when there is no process to begin with?

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