As last part of this series I have looked into the enhancement of using tabs in Corporate Publisher (CP). Since over 20 years Casewise developing  modeling tools that is leading markets in Enterprise Architecture (EA), Business Process Analysis (BPA), Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Business Process Management (BPM). The reason for this is the very strong capability to visualize content of the Corporate Exchange (Corporate Modeler Database on SQL or Oracle). Its flexibility makes is possible to use all kind of new technology, this post tries to show some possiblities. I have looked mainly into Google Technology like:

• Google Maps
• Google Charts
• YouTube Players

The graphical representation of textual information is very important in order to attract project members, stakeholders, and so on. Especially  the top management CEO, CFO, CTO, .. is looking for charts, dashboards on enterprise wide information. So why not make your content more attractive?

Google Maps with Corporate Publisher (CP)

As consultant I am using Google Maps nearly every day, to find my clients or to plan trips, so I was thinking how could I use the maps as part of an enterprise wide model? Since many years the Please Login or Register to see the link.model is around (watch here the full story)  the “L” stands for Location. So I have simple linked Corporate Modeler data with Google Map API (Please Login or Register to see the link.) and Corporate Publisher is displaying this in a very neat fashion on the HTML web site.

Google Maps with Corporate Publisher (CP)

As you can see in the image above the Corporate Modeler properties of the object type Location is on the left hand side and the different colour coded areas are showing where this data is used in the HTML output of Corporate Publisher. The great flexibly of this this solution is that it is complete customizable and e.g. the white info window can be filled with any data of Corporate Modeler!

Google Charts with Corporate Publisher (CP)

Google Charts is an amazing library of various charts, e.g. Line Charts, Bar Charts, Pie Charts, Venn Diagrams, Scatter plots, Maps, Goole-o-meters, QR codes. You can find here the full specification of these charts (Please Login or Register to see the link.). In my example I have used a bar chart and the google-o-meter.

Google Chart with Corporate Publisher (CP)

Similar to the previous example I have used the properties of the object type Applicaton (its the A of POLDAT). For the “number of licenses” I have used the bar chart, coloured in red. For visualizing the “System Uptime” I have used the Google-o-meter. Also here pretty much everything customizable on Google site but also in Corporate Modeler or in Corporate Publisher. With CP Scripting you can define the exact place of each HTML item.

YouTube Players with Corporate Publisher (CP)

I am using YouTube for publishing Please Login or Register to see the link. around Please Login or Register to see the link. – Please Login or Register to see the link. – Please Login or Register to see the link. – Please Login or Register to see the link.. The practical use for an enterprise wide modeling exercise  is to distribute knowledge to the stakeholders (team members, project sponsors, end users,..). It could be used as manuals for applications, guidance or “How to guides”, and so on.

You Tube with Corporate Publisher (CP)

In my example I have used the “user defined video player” of You Tube and used CP scripting to place the video player in a specific tab on the main index page of this HTML publication. You can also create your own player with You Tube API that allows you programatically load videos (Please Login or Register to see the link.) I hope you can apply these ideas to your own project and would appreciate your feedback.

What is Business Analysis and what the disciplines?

Business Process Analysis (BPA) is a system that helps organisations to operate more efficiently so that they may cut back on costs, save more resources and be of better service to their customers. Using different processes, businesses are able to revolutionize end-to-end activities that make a customers experience more useful and removing any unnecessary work for the business.

But Business Analysis (BA) is more than “just” process modelling, it can be enhanced to the following disciplines:

Enterprise analysis or company analysis focuses on understanding the needs of the business as a whole, its strategic direction, and identifying initiatives that will allow a business to meet those strategic goals. It goes more into the Enterprise Architecture area.

Requirements planning and management involves planning the requirements development process, determining which requirements are the highest priority for implementation, and managing change.

Requirements analysis describes how to develop and specify requirements in enough detail to allow them to be successfully implemented by a project team.

Requirements communication describes techniques for ensuring that stakeholders have a shared understanding of the requirements and how they will be implemented.

Solution assessment and validation describes how the business analyst can verify the correctness of a proposed solution, how to support the implementation of a solution, and how to assess possible shortcomings in the implementation.

Business process analysis is just one technique that is performed by business analysts, and it can offer valuable outputs that have nothing to do with implementation of new software packages or computerized systems, but everything to do with improving efficiency and ensuring that you offer an efficient, top quality service to your customers. How can you achieve this when not by modelling your end-to-end business process?

All organizations, whether they are huge multi-national corporations or sole traders, need to operate ‘business processes’ in order to carry out the day-to-day activities of the business. By carrying out a ‘process mapping’ exercise on these processes you can focus on what is being done, why it is being done and who is doing it. If you are interested in <<Login or Register to see the link>>. The process map can be a simple, static ‘snapshot’ of your business that will help you identify your logical process groups  or it can be a full-blown process analysis exercise which can allow you to recognize your organisation’s strengths and weakness and may help to identify a need for change.

What is a Process and how can the performance be measured?

A process is an ongoing chain of process steps with events and results. The first step to define a process is to identify the boundaries. This is where the process begins and ends. The beginning of a process starts with a trigger (Event) that causes a specific action to be taken by a person, another process, or work group. The ending (Result) occurs when the results get passed on to another person, process, or work group.

Compare Diagrams

When optimizing a process the first question is how to measure a process performance? The easiest way is to use modelling tools and their simulation capabilities to create scenarios for As-Is and To-Be. These simulation tools give you the following performance measures:

Process capacity, Capacity Utilization, Throughput, Throughput Time/Lead Time, Cycle Time, Process Time, Idle time, Work in Progress, Set-up time, Direct labour content, Direct labour utilization, and much more.

The process capacity is determined by the slowest series task in the process, this is known as the bottleneck and can be optimized as well.

Process Flow Simulation Run

The process analysis exercise can help you to identify faulty workflows that are causing bottlenecks in your process which may be costing you time and money, or processing delays that cause your customers to lose faith in your ability to deliver an efficient quality service. Techniques like process flow simulation, Six Sigma helps you to optimize your processes.

Or there may be areas of duplicated effort, for example, you may be capturing the same information in more than one process. Identifying these duplications will help you to streamline your processing to maximize the value gained from your resources.  This identification is easier if you use a central repository to store your information objects centralized and different Stakeholders can access the same set of information just from a different angle

A Business Process Map

In Principle you can think of BPA as a map. When you use a map, you are able to see the entire picture of where you want to go. However, each of those roads within the map is a link that will get you to where you want to go. You can then weed out the roads that may be inefficient with roads that make the trip easier and quicker. The same thing goes with a BPA. Once everything has been mapped out, a company is then able to see the entire picture. They can remove workers or materials that may not be needed in order to reach their goal; customer euphoria.

In Business Process Analysis (BPA), organizations will often look at not only textual information but more importantly process flows, graphs and charts to get more of a visual on the flow of information. For example, there are many different stakeholders (different departments, project teams,..) that make up a company.

Value Chain Diagram

Each stakeholder t in the organization is trained to document everything that is involved in the developing of a project. Each stakeholder will then give the demographics of their department so that the BPA Team t can map out what is going on within all areas of the company. A company is then able to see everything that is going on within the organization and can then analyze each department and how everything works together in unison.

Once the entire chart is mapped out, a organization can then analyze to see where improvements can be made to cut down on costs. They can see where more workers may be needed or what materials they may need more or less of. In turn, this makes the organization run a lot more efficiently and able to maximize their potential in every possible way.

Application Technology Diagram

Business Process Analysis (BPA)  can help business leaders to understand the business and develop resourcing, training and IT- and Business strategies. For this exercise you need to analyse the IT component Application, Interfaces, Hardware as well. It makes also sense to create relationships between the IT artefacts and the process documentation.

The more stakholders are involveld the more you can use spread the costs and create a faster return on investment. If you are interested in <<Login or Register to see the link>>.  Through careful analysis of workflows and business processes you can identify opportunities for increasing efficiency and profitability. You can use business analysis techniques to help you identify potential processing bottlenecks or under-utilisation of costly resources.

Any great organization needs to implement BPA system in order to maximize their chances of being successful. This will help create a more direct route to their goal just like a map is the way for getting to where you want to go.

Since many years I am implementing compliance regimes and the most common one is ISO/IEC 9001 and ISO/IEC 14001 as an Integrated Management System (IMS).
The system described in this article was implemented over 60 times in different organizations all with passing the initial certification audit in the first run!

1.0 Objective

The clear goal was to implement and achieve the certification of ISO/IEC 9001 (Quality Management) in all branches and ISO/IEC 14001 (Environmental Management) in the UK office until the end of 2007.
As there was no formal management system in place we had to start from scratch; completely from scratch? Of course not we used Best Practice Frameworks and different Casewise Software components to accelerate our implementation in order to achieve this challenging goal within 3 months.
Because we needed more guidance we have used the ISO/IEC 9004 and ISO/IEC 14004 standard requirements, it’s the same set of requirements as the ISO/IEC 9001 and ISO/IEC 14001 but has more explanations and examples of how to implement. Of course both Frameworks have associated audit question to support our initial assessment and surveillance assessment as well.

2.0 Challenges

The initial time scale was 2 months but because of the Christmas break we couldn’t get a date for our certification in 2007 so we had to extend to 3 months
Geographical spread – All offices (USA, France, UK) should be certified against ISO/IEC 9001 and UK office against ISO/IEC 14001. Time differences and differences in performing specific processes differently made the project even more challenging.
As it was the end of the year the
• business shouldn’t be distracted too much as end of year business needs to be closed
• Christmas holiday break needs to be considered in project plan

No formal management system was in place, so we had to start with our IMS System from scratch.
We decided that during the implementation we need to assign and train our IMS Manager as part of the implementation. A formal internal auditor training should be performed later.
Get the whole company up to speed with the ISO/IEC requirements. Train people, document and improve processes, assess the whole company.

3.0 Solution

3.1 Preparation

Like any project we have started to outline the IMS implementation in a project plan to make sure we haven’t forgotten any important tasks

IMS Project Plan

Every management system needs a certain amount of forms to show evidence of certain approvals, reviews or Audits.

Further preparations needed to be done
• We created a shared folder on our Server and assigned access right to its sub folders, so that manager could update their own forms.
• We installed different Casewise Software components
• We created Word template saved them on our Server and linked these documents to Corporate Modeler and to our process descriptions.
• We started with importing the APQC model, afterwards we imported the ISO/IEC 9004 and the ISO/IEC 14004 into the same model.
• We created new styles or adopted existing ones; we also defined the diagram levels and the different object palettes.
• Our managers got write access to the model to ensure each manager (process owner) can adapt, change and improve their processes after the initial process workshop has finished.

3.1 Select the certification body

There are plenty of those companies around, and it depends entirely up to your organization to choose a certification body and an appropriate auditor that suits you or that has specific knowledge in your industry.
We have spoken with two different auditors and have chosen Lloyds register afterwards. The contract is for 3 years and contains a certification audit and two surveillance audits.
As we have an IMS we have two auditors one for our Quality Management System and one for our Environmental management System. As there are huge similarities between those systems our auditors haven’t audited the same requirements twice, e.g. Management Review, IMS-Policy and so on.

3.2 QMS / EMS Forms

We used existing forms from my previous ISO implementations and updated them according to our requirements. We saved them all on our Server and linked them to Corporate Modeler repository where we are managing the version control that is necessary for both management systems.

IMS Documents

Some documents are listed twice as they are represented as document and as record.
The big advantage of linking documents to the process is that the process owner or new starters can explore the process and get the relevant forms straight away out of the system.

The necessary system documents are also cross referenced to the standard requirement which makes the maintenance easier.

Another advantage is the centrally stored documents, so none gets lost when we updated them in between the different audits (internal/external)

After the documents were completed and cross referenced we started to fill the forms out, e.g. Audit Plan, Management Review Form, ..

Other forms were transformed directly into Corporate Modeler, e.g. Business Continuity Plan/Assessment. So we have tried to reduce forms as much as we can and embed this information within Corporate modeler.

3.3. Process Modeling

IMS Process Map

As a high level “entrance” diagram we have chosen a value chain differentiating the core- and support processes of Casewise. All other processes and diagrams are accessible from this page.

We haven’t started from scratch as we used the AQPC Framework. Based on this framework we went through their framework during our process modeling workshops and we identified similarities and gaps, which we have modeled straight away during the workshops.

After the workshop people have added more description to the processes or associated documents or other information to their process maps.

Some of our departments have already drawn process maps or written procedures in Word and to embed this information we have chosen two approaches
• If it was an important process we have modeled it in Corporate Modeler.
• If the process was just “nice to have” we have linked the document to a higher level process.

After visualizing our process maps we could now start to link the ISO requirements to the appropriate processes. This shows us and our auditors how we fulfill the different compliance requirements. In addition to this we have also cross referenced the audit questions to the

IMS 9001 Requirements

different processes to make sure we can schedule the Audit Questions/Controls to the responsible people.

In the screen shot above you can see the visualized ISO 9004 requirements, on the left hand side you see the properties of requirement “6.2.2 …” and also the associations to processes, external documents and Audit Questions.
We ended up with consistent process model, clear responsibilities and transparency regards the compliance requirements.

Obviously there were a few iterations in quality check, of the modeled processes, especially if they are fulfilling system requirements such as “audit process”, “Management Review process” and so on.

3.4 IMS Optimization

As part of the continuous improvement you need to make sure you get feedback from your colleagues regarding process improvements, customer problems, supplier issues and so on.
Because of our tight time scale we started with a paper based system but we got already new ideas of how this could be embedded better in our IMS.
A very good source for process improvement is the starter process, as new starter needs to be introduced to their process we found possible improvement which we have done in our IMS.

3.5 IMS external revision and certification (audit)

A very valuable source for improvements is the internal and external audit. One reason why it’s so valuable is the fact that you can actually block some time from your normal job responsibility and focus only on the audit process itself. Just focusing on other processes opens your mind and let you ask the right questions, e.g. why are we doing this in this way?
After the external audit we got an audit report that acts as task list for our next audit and we got at the end the certificate for ISO/IEC 9001 and ISO/IEC 14001.

4.0 Lessons Learned

• Implementing a Management System or even two of them as in our IMS is NOT rocket science
• Following a structured, systematic approach reduces implementation time and guarantees a consistent documentation
• Having a collaborative solution helps to overcome resistance to change and get peoples buy-in
• Working in a repository based tool makes the maintenance extremely easy as you can easily share responsibilities with your process owners without losing control of the overall model.

2 years after the first certification audit the system is still in place and helps the organization to improve their efficiency and effectiveness by keeping the overhead of maintaining a standard as low as possible.

You are responsible for the IT Operations department, and to improve the functioning of the department. You want to reduce costs, higher productivity and better customer reach, and the best possible use of knowledge and experience. You look for the answer in ITIL, the famous collection of successful practices for IT Service Management. But documentation is in eight thick books and what may seem unpalatable out. Maybe you helped with a good set of process models.

There are several companies that prepare for ITIL process models. To help the process go forward in implementing ITIL, you have a great selection. One of the best known tools for building process models’ Corporate Modeler “of the company Casewise. This is a modeling tool that lets you build models for business and IT processes for the organization of the company (human and technical resources in the implementation of the processes involved), the sites of the company (where the various processes occur) and the stored data. But the software is also used for the technical aspect: the software applications, hardware and IT infrastructure.

The models in Corporate Modeler take the form of diagrams, with accompanying texts. All items are stored in a central repository. One can consult the models through the company intranet.

OVERLAPPING THEORIES
Companies and their IT departments have different theories. On the business side should not only take into account the ISO standards for quality: in companies listed on a stock exchange in the U.S. is one of each number in a financial report to identify the origin (Sarbanes-Oxley), banks are legally obliged to hedge against operational risks (Basel II), etc.. On the IT side, there are several frameworks successful practices that can be used, eg Cobit, ITIL and CMMI.

Casewise put a number of consultants working on the challenging assignment of several theories that process into process models, and in between also here take into account the considerable overlap. Thus arose the “Best Practice & Compliance (BPC) Accelerator”. Helmut Schindlwick, senior ITIL consultant: “Some companies have two or more of these theories implement.

From the cell “organization” than multiple audit teams. These teams investigate the state of the business and IT processes, and each other while running for the feet. Some business people and some IT people should also audit several times the same questions. That is absurd and expensive to avoid situation, a company can deploy BPC Accelerator. ” The tool also supports research through audits, reporting and monitoring of the actions taken.

“A process model approach has many advantages,” Schindlwick told, “First and foremost in the field of communication: the people who participate in the discussion to see and understand how the process is executed, if a step was missed, that rapidly observed. Even if two process descriptions are contradictory, it is notable. The process models can also be used to staff explain a new job or new staff to train. ”

“Our customers can also adapt the process models and create new models,” he continues, “When a clear view on the processes, one can quickly determine where to intervene first. Another advantage: a clear vision of the process also helps in the selection of tools. ”

MODELS FOR THE ITIL PROCESSES
ITIL is one of the theories presented by the consultants of Casewise was taken in hand, and translated into process models. BPC Accelerator translates the detailed guidelines from seven ITIL books to a visual model. The persons concerned may examine the processes through the intranet to navigate through the model. That way they can study the best practice processes, and subsequent introduction. With the same approach can also present in the business processes and document the differences between the current and future situation analysis.

<<Login or Register to see the link>>: “BPC Accelerator also includes questionnaires, which our customers can start work immediately. They ask the questions to the business and IT people. So they get a picture of the current situation in the field of IT Operations. They also see the processes where improvement is most needed and will yield the greatest results. ” BPC Accelerator compares the entered answers to ITIL Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). “BPC Accelerator can also collect performance data from other systems,” said <<Login or Register to see the link>>.

Suppose you’ve examined the current processes, and a process improvement project started. With this tool you can indicate where changes need to happen: in business (operations personnel, equipment and software applications), in the processes of IT Operations, the resources (personnel and equipment), databases, applications and hardware.

PROCESS DESCRIPTIONS

What you see, if you use this tool? We put it out on the basis of one example: the Incident Management process (one of the processes of Service Support). For each process you find the diagram, the process description (taken from the book on ITIL), the critical success factors, Key Performance Indicators, the audit questions and the roles.

The Incident Management process that:
- Description: The primary goal of the Incident Management process is to restore normal service as quickly as possible following loss of service, etc..
- The roles: Incident Manager, Service Desk Analyst, Service Desk Manager
- Critical success factors: knowledge base, close links with the Service Level Management, effectively automated system, up-to-date CMDB
- Key Performance Indicators: average cost per incident, incidents processed per Service Desk Workstation, average time (elapsed time) to solve an incident or a workaround to offer, number and percentage of incidents resolved remotely, percentage of incidents closed by the Service Desk without referral to other levels of support, percentage of incidents handled within the scheduled time, total number of incidents.
- The audit questions, for example: Is the process documented?
- The diagram

The chart above shows the breakdown of the process in processes of a lower level. The Incident Management process consists then of the processes’ Understand Incident Management “,” Plan and implement Incident Management ‘,’ Consider tool requirements for Incident Management “, etc..
For those underlying processes is always a model of the diagram, the process description, the critical success factors, Key Performance Indicators, the audit questions and the roles. And so it goes on.

ROLES

In IT Operations everyone one or more roles, one role for one or more persons. ITIL has a few dozen rolls, for example Chief Information Officer, Service Support Manager, Service Delivery Manager, etc.. For each role can find the description (taken from the book on ITIL), the roles of which this person was the manager, the role of the manager of that person and the processes whereby the person involved.

For example, the Change Manager role:
- Description: The Change and Configuration Management role is responsible for Change, Release, and Configuration Management, etc..
- The roles of which this person was the manager: Change Owner
- The role of the manager of that person: Service Support Manager
- Processes which that person is involved: TOP LEVEL Application Management

Christiane Vandepitte is an independent consultant.

This article was printed in Dutch by <<Login or Register to see the link>>