Chaos in Process Management
T he term “business processes” is just a fancy word to describe the collection of routine activities your company does every day. All departments have processes, and they often include requests, approvals, and forms. But whether those processes are well-designed or running smoothly is another story. When we talk about business process management, we love to see processes that are mature, meaning that they are well-documented, diagrammed, and optimized within the organization, perhaps with the assistance of a software. However, in many organizations, there exist another class of business processes: the ad-hoc process. Ad-hoc business processes are those business activities that are poorly defined, poorly documented, respond to current needs rather than standard requirements, and do not have a uniform structure. Often ad-hoc processes are entirely paper-, email-, or Excel- based. Take the example of the ad-hoc paternity leave request process. You email someone to request leave. ...