TPPI - Methods

This complete listing of Methods is intended to be replaced by a simple index linking to each of the methods individually. A sample of the listing style is included on the Discussion page.

Action Learning
Action learning is an approach to problem solving and learning in groups to bring about change for individuals, teams and organisations. It works to build the relationships that help any organisation improve existing operations and learn and innovate for the future. It involves learning by taking action and reflecting upon the difference between the expected outcome and the realised outcome.

The elements of the action learning process include meeting in small groups or “sets” to support each other in action on problem and in learning from this action. The urgent problem or enticing opportunity is the starting place for enquiry and action, and this must be an interest, concern, issue or task on which the participant genuinely desires to see change. The Pedlar's (1996) Action Learning Problem Brief is a resource developed for action learning and is designed to help participants think through the problem or opportunity...:

1. Describe your problem situation in one sentence 2. Why is this important? 3. How will you recognise progress on this problem? 4. Who else would like to see progress on this problem? 5. What difficulties do you anticipate? 6. What are the benefits if this problem is reduced or resolved?"

Source: Auto Action Learning: a tool for policy change: Building capacity across the developing regional system to improve health in the North East of England, Author(s): Alyson Learmonth and Mike Pedler Health Policy; Volume 68; Issue 2; Pages 169-18; May 2004 Source: Action learning for managers Author(s): Pedler M.             London: Lemos and Crane 1996

Activity Based Costing (ABC)
Activity-based costing (ABC) is a method of allocating costs to products and services. It is generally used as a tool for planning and control. This is a necessary tool for doing value chain analysis.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity-based_costing

Affinity grouping
Grouping brainstormed ideas into 'like' groups - usually done in order to grasp an understanding of the higher level concepts.

Affinity grouping is used to group similar ideas or items into categories, when a large number of items or ideas must be sorted and prioritized. It is useful after a brainstorming session in order to establish meaningful category headers.

Source: http://www.qualitytrainingportal.com/resources/problem_solving/problem-solving_tools-affinity.htm

Analogies
Analogy plays a significant role in problem solving, decision making, perception, memory, creativity, emotion, explanation and communication. It lies behind basic tasks such as the identification of places, objects and people, for example, in face perception and facial recognition systems.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogies

As-is modelling
The act of modelling the existing process.

As-Is Modelling is the act of modelling an existing process in its current state within an organisation. From the perspective of process improvement, this is done to so that the process can be analysed in order to identify points/areas where it can improved. It is performed according to the rules and conventions of process modelling.

Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
Balanced scorecard is simply a concise report featuring a set of measures that relate to the performance of an organization. The challenge with Balanced Scorecard is, and has been since it was popularized by an article in 1992 published in the Harvard Business Review, deciding on which measures to choose. From the outset, the Balanced Scorecard has been promoted as a tool to help organizations monitor the implementation of organizational strategy.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_Score_Card

Benchmarking
Benchmarking (also "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking") is a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice, usually within their own sector. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to adopt such best practice, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often treated as a continuous process in which organizations continually seek to challenge their practices.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking

Best-practice
Best Practice is a management idea which asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_practice

Blue sky thinking
Blue sky thinking is an approach that attempts to remove any boundaries that may hinder creative thought. It can be applied to different contexts of problems or tasks to enable the consideration of the particular context without its associated constraints. Within the context of process models, it enables them to be created while excluding organisational constraints, such as resource or policy constraints.

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a creative problem-solving approach. It involves generating ideas either on an individual basis or in a group. It can be used within many techniques and for different purposes. Brainstorming works best in an environment devoid of critisicm.

Brown paper flows
Brown paper flows involve a physical large sheet (or number of sheets taped together) of brown paper, used for mapping the flow of a process. The tool is useful for mapping the As-Is process, where existing business objects such as an invoice or personnel appointment form (or appropriate placeholders for the object, if not available) can be attached to the brown paper, and lines drawn to depict the flow. In this way, they can represent system transactions or inter-personnel transactions. Once a brown paper flow is made, and preferably spread out on a wall, the process flow can be seen/understood with convenience.

Business goal analysis
Business goal analysis is done to understand how strategic initiatives can be made to work towards those goals. The analysis can be used to identify the actions needed to achieve those goals.

Concept mapping
Concept mapping is a technique for visualizing the relationships, among different concepts using a diagram or a map. The concepts are connected in a network, which can be hierarchical, where the connecting lines or links represent the relations between concepts. The relationship between concepts can be articulated in linking phrases, e.g. "gives rise to", "results in", "is required by," or "contributes to". The links can be non-, uni- or bi-directional.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_map Source: http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm

Constraining capability analysis
Constraining capability analysis is the study of the possible constraints that could pose a risk to the desired functioning of a given business process. The constraints capable of potential disruption of a process could include system, resource, market, or policy constraints, or obsolescence of particular activies.

Contentious suggestions
Contentious suggestions are used in discussions in order to challenge the participants, as way to further stimulate critical thinking. It can be said to be a "devil's advocate" or "black hat" tactic (see Six thinking hats).

Context Modelling
Context modelling involves breaking down the overall problem domain into a hierarchical map. This creates a tree structure of the contextual domain of the problem by breaking it down into its constituent parts. By doing this with the problem context, it can be very helpful in clarifying what is and what is not in the project scope. The technique is used by starting with a broad understanding of the problem at hand, and then identifying different themes surrounding it. Those that are most relevant within the context are then selected and their attributes are identified. It provides a visual means of communication of the problem and its various aspects.

Source: http://creatingminds.org/tools/context_map.htm

Control charts (used by Six Sigma)
The control chart, also known as the 'Shewhart chart' or 'process-behaviour chart' is a statistical tool intended to help assess the nature of variation in a process and to facilitate forecasting and management. A control chart is a more specific kind of a run chart. The control chart is one of the seven basic tools of quality control, which include the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, cause-and-effect diagram, flowchart, and scatter diagram.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_chart

Cost-benefit analysis (used by Six Sigma)
Cost-benefit analysis is a term that refers both to: (1) a formal discipline used to help appraise, or assess, the case for a project or proposal, which itself is a process known as project appraisal; and (2) an informal approach to making decisions of any kind. Under both definitions the process involves, whether explicitly or implicitly, weighing the total expected costs against the total expected benefits of one or more actions in order to choose the best or most profitable option. The formal process is often referred to as CBA, or Benefit-cost analysis in the United States. Closely related, but slightly different, formal techniques include cost-effectiveness analysis and benefit effectiveness analysis.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_benefit_analysis

Day-in-the-life scenario's
Scenario planning or scenario thinking is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and generalization of classic methods used by military intelligence. The basic method is that a group of analysts generate simulation games for policy makers. The games combine known facts about the future, such as demographics, geography, military, political, industrial information, and mineral reserves, with plausible alternative social, technical, economic and political (STEP) trends which are key driving forces. Scenario planning can include anticipatory thinking elements that are difficult to formalize, such as subjective interpretations of facts, shifts in values, new regulations or inventions.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenario_planning

Dialogue mapping
Dialogue mapping is an approach for maximizing communication and coherence among diverse stakeholders. It is of particular use with “wicked problems”, where the understanding of the problem is said to change, or evolve, with each attempt to create a solution. These problems are said to occur in a social context, such that the “wickedness” of the problem reflects the diversity among the stakeholders in the problem.

The mapping is a structural augmentation of group communication, and involves maintaining a record of the discussion in the form of a map. It provides an environment which both de-emphasizes personal dynamics (e.g. right/wrong or win/loose dynamics) and creates a coherent shared space for crafting and negotiating shared understanding. As the conversation unfolds and the map grows, each stakeholder can see a summary of the meeting discussion so far. The map serves as a "group memory," virtually eliminating the need for participants to repeat themselves to get their points made.

Understanding a wicked problem is about collectively making sense of the situation and coming to shared understanding about who wants what, in a way that each person understands the position of everyone else.

Source: http://www.cognexus.org/id41.htm Source: http://www.cognexus.org/id42.htm

DMAIC (Six Sigma methodology)
DMAIC refers to a data-driven quality strategy for improving processes, and is an integral part of the company's Six Sigma Quality Initiative. It is an acronym for five interconnected phases: • Define the core business process, identify and understand the customer, and their “Critical to Quality” (CTQ) issues from a business perspective. • Measure the current state and performance of the core business process. • Analyse the data and process map to determine root causes of the gap between current performance and the goals, the defects and opportunities for improvement. • Improve the target process by designing and implementing creative solutions that best suit business needs in fixing and preventing problems. • Control the improvements to keep the process on the new course and ensure that sustainability is achieved.

The use of DMAIC allows for creative thinking but within given boundaries - this is important because the use of this tool helps to ensure that any changes made add value and meet business needs.

Source: http://www.segla.com.au/Lean-Six-Sigma/DMAIC Source: http://www.ge.com/capital/vendor/dmaic.htm GE's DMAIC Approach Source: http://www.isixsigma.com/me/dmaic/

Deloitte Enterprise Value Map
?DuPont value maps?

An Enterprise Value Map (EVM) is a Deloitte industry-specific overview of how stakeholder value is created within the business or nonprofit organization. An EVM is essentially a comprehensive matrix that maps value drivers (revenue growth, operating margin, asset efficiency and stakeholder expectations) against the operational processes that can effect change in each of those value drivers.

Process decomposition and benchmarking comparisons help focus attention with EVMs on those operational processes that should be changed and where companies can improve what they are already doing.

Source: External Service Providers' SOA Frameworks and Offerings: Deloitte. Author(s): Michele Cantara. September 26, 2005. Deloitte uses EVMs as a tool to enable the portfolio management of multiple strategic initiatives. In the context of SOA solutions, EVMs provide road maps for project execution. Process decomposition and benchmarking comparisons are done using IndustryPrint. . When coupled with IndustryPrint analysis, EVMs provide framework for return on investment (ROI) calculation so that initial SOA implementations optimize investments. The resulting road map is called a ValuePrint.

Source: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/section_node/0,1042,sid=59402,00.html

Fishbone diagrams (cause & effect)
A Fishbone Diagram, or Cause-and-Effect Diagram, is a graphical technique for grouping people's ideas about the causes of a problem. It helps to think through causes of a problem thoroughly. Their major benefit is that they push you to consider all possible causes of the problem, rather than just the ones that are most obvious.

A possible approach is to: 1. identify the problem's characteristics 2. brainstorm the reasons why the problem is occurring 3. group the causes by relationship using an Affinity Technique 4. create a Cause-and-Effect Diagram

The 5-why technique can help identify levels of reasons, and further analysis of the diagram can be achieved with a Pareto chart to identify the more important causes.

Most diagrams have a box at the right hand side in which is written the effect that is to be examined. The main body of the diagram is a horizontal line, from which stem the general causes, represented as "bones".

Source: http://erc.msh.org/quality/pstools/pscsefdg.cfm Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishbone_diagram Source: http://erc.msh.org/quality/example/exampl20.cfm Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_03.htm

Five Whys (used by Six Sigma)
The five whys is a question asking method used to explore the cause/effect relationships underlying a particular problem. Ultimately, the goal of applying the 5 Whys method is to determine a root cause of a defect or problem. The following example demonstrates the basic process. My car will not start. (the problem) Why? The battery is dead. (first why) Why? The alternator is not functioning. (second why) Why? The alternator has broken beyond repair. (third why) Why? The alternator is well beyond its useful service life and has never been replaced. (fourth why) Why? I have not been maintaining my car according to the recommended service schedule. (fifth why, root cause) The five iterations are not gospel; rather, it is postulated that five iterations of asking why is generally sufficient to get to a root cause. The real key is to encourage the troubleshooter to avoid assumptions and logic traps and instead to trace the chain of causality in direct increments from the effect through any layers of abstraction to the first or root cause. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys)

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) (used by Six Sigma)
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a risk assessment technique for systematically identifying potential failures in a system or a process. It is widely used in the manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle. Failure modes means the ways, or modes, in which something might fail. Failures are any errors or defects, especially ones that affect the customer, and can be potential or actual. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures. In FMEA, Failures are prioritized according to how serious their consequences are, how frequently they occur and how easily they can be detected. An FMEA also documents current knowledge and actions about the risks of failures, for use in continuous improvement. FMEA is used during the design stage with an aim to avoid future failures. Later it’s used for process control, before and during ongoing operation of the process. Ideally, FMEA begins during the earliest conceptual stages of design and continues throughout the life of the product or service. The purpose of the FMEA is to take actions to eliminate or reduce failures, starting with the highest-priority ones. It may be used to evaluate risk management priorities for mitigating known threat-vulnerabilities. FMEA helps select remedial actions that reduce cumulative impacts of life-cycle consequences (risks) from a systems failure (fault).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode_and_effects_analysisg potential failures in a system or a process. It is widely used in the manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle. Failure modes means the ways, or modes, in which something might fail. Failures are any errors or defects, especially ones that affect the customer, and can be potential or actual. Effects analysis refers to studying the consequences of those failures. In FMEA, Failures are prioritized according to how serious their consequences are, how frequently they occur and how easily they can be detected. An FMEA also documents current knowledge and actions about the risks of failures, for use in continuous improvement. FMEA is used during the design stage with an aim to avoid future failures. Later it’s used for process control, before and during ongoing operation of the process. Ideally, FMEA begins during the earliest conceptual stages of design and continues throughout the life of the product or service. The purpose of the FMEA is to take actions to eliminate or reduce failures, starting with the highest-priority ones. It may be used to evaluate risk management priorities for mitigating known threat-vulnerabilities. FMEA helps select remedial actions that reduce cumulative impacts of life-cycle consequences (risks) from a systems failure (fault).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode_and_effects_analysis

Helicopter approach
A helicopter approach describes taking a top-down view of a given situation or concept. In an organisational context, it involves looking at the hierarchy at the highest level, and drilling down to a more detailed view of the organisation. In the context of a process, it would involve considering the business process framework from its highest enterprise-perspective, and drilling down to the lowest level activity.

Ideas Register
An ideas register is a record of all ideas generated by a team of individuals working on the improvement of a business process. This way the value and feasibility of the ideas can be assessed as a follow-up, after they have been recorded, so as to not interfere with the generation of the ideas. It can also be used as a point of reference or source of inspiration.

IGOE processes
? IGOE Service I.O - supporting processes ? IGOE is a modelling approach that is similar to IDEF0 modelling. It is an acronym for the Inputs that are processed into Outputs according to Guides using Enablers, or when Events occur. It used to understand the scope or components of a process.

Info/data mining
Data mining (DMM), also called Knowledge-Discovery in Databases (KDD) or Knowledge-Discovery and Data Mining, is the process of automatically searching large volumes of data for patterns using tools such as classification, association rule mining, clustering, etc.

Investment logic maps
On a single page the Investment Logic Map depicts the drivers for the investment and the objectives and benefits that would be required to respond to these drivers - “the problem”. It then identifies the business changes and any enablers that would be needed to meet the objectives and provide the benefits - “the solution”. The development of an investment logic map provides the foundation logic that is used throughout the investment lifecycle.

Outside of investment management, this tool has proven to be an effective means of clarifying the underlying logic and priorities of an organisation's existing or potential activities. Organisations are now using investment logic maps to support improved portfolio management.

Source: http://www.treasury.vic.gov.au/CA25713E0002EF43/pages/the-investment-management-standard---chapter-4

Issues resolution
Issues resolution is the act of mitigating or eliminating identified issues that contribute towards a problem or inefficiency in a business process. The improved process is later checked to see whether recorded issues have been resolved.

Match-Fit assessments
Match-fit assessments evaluate competence needs to capability existence.

Mind Mapping
A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, and decision making.

It is an image-centered diagram that represents connections between portions of information. By presenting these connections in a radial, non-linear graphical manner, it encourages a brainstorming approach to any given organizational task, eliminating the hurdle of initially establishing an intrinsically appropriate or relevant conceptual framework to work within.

The elements are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts and they are organized into groupings, branches, or areas. The uniform graphic formulation of the semantic structure of information on the method of gathering knowledge, may aid recall of existing memories.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Mapping

Moments of truth
A Moment of Truth (MOT) occurs when a customer comes in contact with your company and experiences your level of quality.

A customer experiences many Moments of Truth during the process of doing business with you. Strung together, these create a Cycle of Service along which you and your customers interact.

Customer's business is strongly influenced by their perception of the quality of the product and service offer. A positive MOT with a customer leads to satisfied customers, high Share of Inputs (SOI) and repeat business. A negative MOT creates dissatisfied customers who look elsewhere to get their needs met. If SOI with a customer is low, there is work to be done at better understanding his real needs and developing solutions to satisfy those needs.

Thinking about MOT in business helps focus attention on areas that customers are evaluating in terms of how well their needs are satisfied.

Source: http://apply-mag.com/mag/farming_moments_truth/ Moments of Truth Author(s): Bill Keogh Jan 1, 2004 Disney realizes that creating a positive experience for employees enables it to create a positive experience for its customers. The Disney culture empowers employees and views every opportunity to touch a customer as a "moment of truth." The degree of attention to detail includes making certain that employees are comfortable (for example, refreshment vendors stand on a rubber mat rather than concrete), so they are pleasant to customers, which will make for a more positive customer experience.

Source: How to Approach Customer Experience Management Author(s): Ed Thompson, Esteban Kolsky December 27, 2004.

Object flow analysis
Object flow analysis is the observation of the flow of business objects through organisational processes, in order to study the findings of the observations and use them to achieve a desired conclusion or outcome. These business objects are studied from their inception in the process to the fulfilment of their purpose. They can take different forms, e.g. documents.

Process capability analysis
?Opportunistic capability analysis? Opportunistic capability analysis is the study of potential opportunities that can be leveraged for the improvement of a given process.

Process capability analysis is an important technique used to determine how well a process meets a set of specification limits. A capability analysis is based on a sample of data taken from a process and usually produces: 1. An estimate of the DPMO (defects per million opportunities). 2. One or more capability indices. 3. An estimate of the Sigma Quality Level at which the process operates.

Source: http://www.statgraphics.com/capability_analysis.htm

Organization Capability Analysis is a thorough and honest assessment of the capability or “readiness” of the organization’s people and supporting processes to achieve the newly stated objectives or goals.

Source: https://www.theseergroup.com/Models.html

Organisational strategy (goals & outcomes)
Organisational strategy deals with how to make management's strategic vision for the company a reality. It represents the game plan for moving the company into an attractive business position and building a sustainable competitive advantage.

Organizational strategy is concerned with envisioning a future for a business, creating value in the eyes of your customers, and building and sustaining a strong position in the marketplace. It can be seen in terms of four key components: • Vision, Mission and Competitive Advantage: describe the business a company is in, it's current and long term market objectives and the manner in which it differentiates itself from the competition. • External Assessment: reflects an organization's approach to gathering and analyzing essential market data, including opportunities and threats. • Internal Assessment: reflects the company's ability to objectively evaluate its own strengths and weaknesses. • Objectives, Initiatives and Goals: illustrate a company's ability to articulate what it wants to accomplish, how it will do it, and when it will be achieved.

Source: http://www.family-business-experts.com/organizational-strategy.html Source: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072443715/student_view0/glossary.html Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, Author(s): Arthur A. Thompson Jr., University of Alabama. A.J. Strickland III, University of Alabama

PARETO principles / analysis
Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It is used to focus problem solving activities, so that areas creating most of the issues and difficulties are addressed first. Pareto’s law says that a small proportion of causes produce a large proportion of results. Thus frequently a vital few causes may need special attention wile the trivial many may warrant very little.

A Pareto chart is a graphical representation that displays data in order of priority. It can be a powerful tool for identifying the relative importance of causes, most of which arise from only a few of the processes, hence the 80:20 rule.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_Analysis Source: http://www.managers-net.com/paretoanalysis.html An organisational problem may involve a large number of customer complaints, a lot of shop floor accidents, a high percentage of rejects, and a sudden increase in costs etc. The first stage is to carry out a Pareto analysis. This is nothing more than a list of causes in descending order of their frequency or occurrence. This list automatically reveals the vital few at the top of the list, gradually tailing off into the trivial many at the bottom of the list. Management’s task is now clear and unavoidable: effort must be expended on those vital few at the head of the list first. This is because nothing of importance can take place unless it affects the vital few. Thus management’s attention is unavoidably focussed where it will do most good.

Source: http://www.managers-net.com/paretoanalysis.html

Parking lot
A Parking Lot is a temporary storage place for ideas, concepts, desires, and thoughts that are tangential, but often related to the objectives of the meeting. They may not be appropriate for a present meeting goal, but in the case that they are definitely relevant to the overall project, they will need to be discussed at some point. Just by making the team aware that such items will be “parked” or placed in a holding space for future conversation (in this meeting or a future one) a mechanism is established for keeping the discussion on track. As these items come up, they are to be made visible (on a flipchart, whiteboard or projected screen) so the meeting participants know their thought has been heard and captured. Attempting to ignore these related, yet slightly off-track ideas will ensure that they continue to come up randomly throughout the meeting disrupting and delaying overall progress. (or that potentially important issues can be missed).

This technique can be used to keep people focused, on track and on topic during a meeting. Intractable disagreements can be put in the parking lot in order to solve the easy problems first (low-hanging fruit).

Source: http://www.bpminstitute.org/articles/article/article/the-other-bpm-being-productive-in-meetings-3.html The Other BPM: Being Productive in Meetings, An Excerpt from the upcoming book “The Project Meeting Facilitator”. Author(s): Tammy Adams, Jan Means, and Michael Spivey. May 22, 2007 Source: http://www.cio-asia.com/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=3887&pubid=5&issueid=92

Porter's 5 Forces
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis is an important tool for assessing the potential for profitability in an industry. With a little adaptation, it is also useful as a way of assessing the balance of power in more general situations. Strategy consultants use Porter's five forces framework often to evaluate a company's strategic position.

It works by looking at the strength of five important forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market and affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit:

• Supplier Power: The power of suppliers to drive up the prices of your inputs; • Buyer Power: The power of your customers to drive down your prices; • Competitive Rivalry: The strength of competition in the industry; • The Threat of Substitution: The extent to which different products and services can be used in place of your own; and • The Threat of New Entry: The ease with which new competitors can enter the market if they see that you are making good profits (and then drive your prices down).

By thinking through how each force affects you, and by identifying the strength and direction of each force, you can quickly assess the strength of the positionyou’re your ability to make a sustained profit in the industry. You can then look at how you can affect each of the forces to move the balance of power more in your favour.

Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_5_forces_analysis Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm Martin Johnson is deciding whether to switch career and become a farmer – he’s always loved the countryside, and wants to switch to a career where he’s his own boss. [He does a 5 forces analysis] This worries him: • The threat of new entry is quite high: if anyone looks as if they’re making a sustained profit, new competitors can come into the industry easily, reducing profits; • Competitive rivalry is extremely high: if someone raises prices, they’ll be quickly undercut. Intense competition puts strong downward pressure on prices; • Buyer Power is strong, again implying strong downward pressure on prices; and • There is some threat of substitution. Unless he is able to find some way of changing this situation, this looks like a very tough industry to survive in. Maybe he’ll need to specialize in a sector of the market that’s protected from some of these forces, or find a related business that’s in a stronger position.

Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm

Process and stakeholder impact analysis
Process and stakeholder impact analysis is used to evaluate the impact of a generated idea on other processes and the involved stakeholders

Process architecture
A process architecture is a representation of the organisation using key end-to-end processes as a basis. If the organisation already has a defined process archtiecture, this can be used to identify and define the scope of related process(es) and to understand the linkages between the processes and also with other architectures such as risk management or information technology.

Process forums
A process forum is a gathering of committed and like-minded individuals, with a similar area of interest in a Community of Practice. Such a gathering is a useful means of transfering knowledge among people, which is enrichened by the diversity of skills and experiences of the various attendees.

Process improvement patterns
A process improvement pattern is an abstraction of solutions that have proven to be successful in the improvement of processes. Such a pattern is repeatable, in that it can be applied to improve other processes in a similar context under certain conditions. Some examples of such patterns are deletion, specialisation, and postponement.

Process mining
Process mining is extracting formal knowledge about processes out of process executions. Every process execution is based on specific transactions: activities (what) done at a specific time (when) at a specific location (where) in a specific way (how). Knowledge about process execution is transferred into models and schemes in order to reuse it.

Knowledge is gained from event logs in order to analyse the underlying processes. Process mining aims to provide techniques and tools for discovering process, control, data, organizational, and social structures from event logs.

The goal of process mining is to extract information about processes from transaction logs. We assume that it is possible to record events such that (i) each event refers to an activity (i.e., a well- defined step in the process), (ii) each event refers to a case (i.e., a process instance), (iii) each event can have a performer also referred to as originator (the person executing or initiating the activity), and (iv) events have a timestamp and are totally ordered.

Source: ITN298 lecture. Michael R. Source: http://is.tm.tue.nl/staff/wvdaalst/BPMcenter/process%20mining.htm Source: Business process mining: An industrial application. Author(s): W.M.P. van der Aalst, H.A. Reijers, A.J.M.M. Weijters, B.F. van Dongen, A.K. Alves de Medeiros, M. Song and H.M.W. Verbeek Information Systems; Volume 32; Issue 5; Pages 713-732; July 2007 The audit trails of a workflow management system or the transaction logs of an enterprise resource planning system can be used to discover models describing processes, organizations, and products. Moreover, it is possible to use process mining to monitor deviations (e.g., comparing the observed events with predefined models or business rules in the context of SOX)

Source: Gaining Knowledge through Process Mining Document Actions Author(s): Craig S. Mullins Jun 29, 2006

Process simulation
Business process simulation is the use of computer simulation models to mimic a business process so as to consider changes before their implementation.

Simulation of As-is Processes is done to • Understand the dynamic interrelation of processes • Establish the semantic correctness of process modelling • Find the throughput times and waiting times of processes with given resources • Locate resource bottlenecks / weak points • Identify percentage of resource utilization • Understand the number of completed processes within a determined period of time

Business processes simulation helps in understanding, analysing, and designing processes. With the use of simulation the (re)designed processes can be evaluated and compared. Simulation provides quantitative estimates of the impact that a process design is likely to have on process performance and a quantitatively supported choice for the best design can be made.

Source: Business Process Simulation - A Tool Survey. Author(s): M.H. Jansen-Vullers and M. Netjes 2006 Source: ITN298 lecture. Michael Rosemann

Process walkthrough
A process walkthrough is a physical traversal of the workflow of a business process, discussing and observing how it performs.

Purposefully incorrect design
Purposefully incorrect design is done in order to observe the worst-case scenario, or "what not to do". It is similar to the concept of the "anti-pattern".

RASCI
RASCI charts can be used for identifying and depicting roles and responsibilities during an organisational change process. RASCI can be used to solve many problems that may first appear to be personnel problems. Often people disagree or are in conflict without realizing the root cause is that they hold conflicting understandings about what each is supposed to be doing. RASCI can quickly bring the problem to light and lead to a resolution.

R = Responsible - person who owns the problem/project/process; A = to whom “R” is accountable - must sign or approve the work before it is declared to be ok; S = can be supportive - can provide resources or can play a supportive role in implementation; C = should be consulted - has information and/or capability necessary to complete the work; and I = Should be informed - must be notified of results but need not be consulted.

Source: http://www.12manage.com/methods_raci.html Source: http://www.tbzmed.ac.ir/MEP/eng/Modules/PI/Process-Unit3C.pdf

Reference models
Process reference models integrate the concepts of business process reengineering, benchmarking, and process measurement into a cross-functional framework. They are generic depictions of large complex processes, and provide standards against which business processes can be compared.

A process reference model contains: • Standard descriptions of management processes • A framework of relationships among the standard processes • Standard metrics to measure process performance • Management practices that produce best-in-class performance • Standard alignment to features and functionality

Once a complex management process is captured in standard process reference model form, it can be: • Implemented purposefully to achieve competitive advantage • Described unambiguously and communicated • Measured, managed, and controlled • Tuned and re-tuned to a specific purpose

Source: http://www.supply-chain.org/galleries/default-file/SCOR%2080%20Overview%20Booklet2.pdf Supply-Chain Operations Reference-Model SCOR Overview version 8.0 Corporate authorship – Supply-Chain Council

Relationship Map
Relationship mapping is a method of visualizing, describing and analysing all the relationships is an organisation, or between the key organisation and its partners, or between partners. It combines flow charts and entity diagrams to portray interrelations.

The technique…: • describes the organisational scope of all companies involved; • shows all contacts between them; • highlights potential areas of conflict or “pinch points”; • and enables the analysis of opportunities and risks at those “pinch points”.

Source: Managing the relationship portfolio Author(s):Alan Eilles, Matt Bartels, Barry Brunsman Journal of Business Strategy; Volume: 24; Issue: 4; 2003 Case study

Role play
Roleplay is a learning method where learners take on the role profiles of specific characters or organisations in a contrived setting. Participants adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Roleplay is designed primarily to build first person experience in a safe and supportive environment. Roleplay is widely acknowledged as a powerful teaching technique in face to face teaching and role play online is also powerful, with some added benefits. Roleplay simulation aims to revive the ease and joy of experiential learning.

It models human interactions in a constructed environment by 1. creating an artificial social structure (or simulating some known social structure) 2. enforcing that structure 3. providing plausible scenario for players to react to

Roleplay can be performed face-to-face or through online simulation, which is said to add anonymity and asynchronicity. Venturehaus has created training programmes around business process role-play simulation games: • LoanHaus™ - for business performance improvement Training in the Retail Financial Services Sector, London • Activator™ - for business performance improvement training in the Banking sector.

Source: http://www.venturehaus.com/news/news.htm Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roleplaying Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roleplay_simulation

Root cause analysis
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a methodology for finding and correcting the most important reasons for performance problems. RCA is directed at underlying issues.

The practice of RCA is predicated on the belief that problems are best solved by attempting to correct or eliminate root causes, as opposed to merely addressing the immediately obvious symptoms. By directing corrective measures at root causes, it is hoped that the likelihood of problem recurrence will be minimized. However, it is recognized that complete prevention of recurrence by a single intervention is not always possible. Thus, RCA is often considered to be an iterative process, and is frequently viewed as a tool of continuous improvement.

• As a business process improvement tool, RCA seeks out unnecessary constraints as well as inadequate controls. • In safety and risk management, it looks for both unrecognized hazards and broken or missing barriers. • It helps target CAPA (corrective action and preventive action) efforts at the points of most leverage. • RCA is an essential ingredient in pointing organizational change efforts in the right direction. • Finally, it is probably the only way to find the core issues contributing to your toughest problems.

Source: http://www.bill-wilson.net/root-cause-analysis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis Source: http://www.bill-wilson.net/root-cause-analysis

Scenario walkthroughs
A scenario walkthrough is a method to understand a given situation, through a demonstration or sample of the execution of a sequence of activities. In the case of business processes, it can demonstrate how, or how well, a business process works. It is similar to dropping a marble into a sequence of connected conduits, and observing its behaviour till the end. A scenario walkthrough is usually make-believe and serves to illustrate the workings of a process, rather than affect it. Different scenarios can be "played" out in order to see how well the variations are catered to.

Seven Wastes
The Seven Wastes is a tool that contributes towards eliminating waste in manufacturing organisations, in accordance with the concept of Lean Manufacturing. To eliminate waste, it is important to understand exactly what waste is and where it exists. For each kind of waste, there is a strategy to reduce or eliminate its effect on a company, thereby improving overall performance and quality.

The seven wastes consist of: 1. Overproduction - to manufacture an item before it is actually required prohibits smooth flow of materials and degrades quality and productivity 2. Waiting - whenever goods are not moving or being processed, a product’s lead time is tied up in waiting for the next operation 3. Transporting - cost incursion which adds no value to the product 4. Inappropriate Processing - using expensive high precision equipment where simpler tools would be sufficient 5. Unnecessary Inventory - hides problems on the plant floor, which must be identified and resolved in order to improve operating performance 6. Unnecessary / Excess Motion - related to ergonomics and is seen in all instances of bending, stretching, walking, lifting, and reaching 7. Defects - direct impact to the bottom line

In the latest edition of the Lean Manufacturing classic Lean Thinking, Underutilization of Employees has been added as an eighth waste to the original seven wastes. It is only by capitalizing on employees' creativity that organizations can eliminate the other seven wastes and continuously improve their performance.

Source: The 7 Manufacturing Wastes Author(s): David McBride, EMS Consulting Group. August 29, 2003 Toyota is famous for their use of low-cost automation, combined with immaculately maintained, often older machines

Shared understanding
Shared understanding is achieved when all stakeholders have a common consciousness of the problem or issue at hand, and are “on the same page”. A shared understanding ensures that, in spite different value systems and experiences, each individual perceives the situation in the same way as far as possible. It provides a strong basis of shared commitment in working towards the next step(s), and drastically reduces chances for misconceptions.

A shared understanding between relevant individuals is necessary for the sake of consistency, common purpose and good relationships between them. As people are a critical part of any process, project or system, it is important that they work harmoniously and not in conflict as far as possible in order to ensure successful results.

Site visits
Stakeholders of a project may need to physically be at a geographical location of its execution, for a site visit. This may be done in order to observe or perform an activity or set of activities, which cannot be done easily, or at all, while not present on site.

Six Thinking Hats
Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique that helps look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives. It helps you make better decisions by forcing you to move outside your habitual ways of thinking.

Hat           Headline          Usage White       Information        Asking for information from others Black       Judgement        Explaining why something won't work Green      Creativity           Offering possibilities, ideas Red          Intuition             Explaining hunches, feelings, gut senses Yellow      Optimism         Being positive, enthusiastic, supportive Blue         Thinking            Using rationalism, logic, intellect

Source: http://creatingminds.org/tools/six_hats.htm Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm

Stakeholder identification
The primary aim of stakeholder identification is to recognise all those who could and should have a stake in a management process. Edward Freeman stakeholders as “any group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization’s objectives”.

Stakeholder support is needed to create winning coalitions, and to ensure the long-term viability of organizations, policies, plans, and programs. Once stakeholders are identified, analyses can be carried out to help frame problems or issues that are solvable in ways that are technically feasible and politically acceptable, and that advance the common good.

The identification of potential stakeholders is an essential first step in getting stakeholders to participate in organisational activities – particularly change activities – so that they are involved in and committed to the process.

Source: Stakeholder Identification In It Standardization Processes Author(s): H. De Vries, H. Verheul, H. Willemse MIS Quarterly Special Issue Workshop; Dec 2003 Source: What To Do When Stakeholders Matter: A Guide to Stakeholder Identification and Analysis  Techniques Author(s): J. M. Bryson February 4, 2003 Source: Strategic management: A stakeholder approach Author(s): R. E. Freeman Boston: Pitman 1984

Start-end chronological analysis
Archaeologists use the term 'chronological analysis' to refer to the analysis of an object, set of objects, archaeological site or set of sites in terms of its temporal characteristics; that is, when and in what order events occurred, artifacts were made, structures were built.

Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis is done to mathematically aggregate and analyse quantified/quantifiable findings of an assessment activity.

Sticky Walls
Sticky walls involve spraying a sheet of canvas or sail-cloth type material (3m x 1.5m) with 3M Repositionable glue and attaching it to a wall using masking tape. This can be used as medium to represent models or concepts "at a glance". Where/whenever a dynamic (movable) set of written ideas or images are created and need to be reassembled in different ways.

Story Telling
Storytelling is the purposeful use of narrative to achieve a practical outcome with an individual, a community, or an organization. Storytelling can be applied in a practical environment…: • to ignite organizational change • for communications • to capture tacit knowledge • to embody and transfer knowledge • for innovation • to build community • to enhance technology • for individual growth Potential benefits (by Katalina Groh - filmmaker and head of Groh Productions) described briefly: • Communicate quickly – communicates ideas holistically and all at once • Communicate naturally – native language which we know how to do at the age of two (abstract communication comes years later) • Communicate clearly – connects us with time and space and human purpose of a sequence of events so as to make sense • Communicate truthfully – communicates deep holistic truths, while abstract language tends to slice off fragments • Communicate collaboratively - invites us gently to follow the story arm-in-arm, rather than invading our space and directing us to adopt a mental framework established by another being. • Communicate persuasively – possibility of getting the listener to invent a parallel story in the listener’s own environment, for which they feel a loyalty • Communicate accurately – provides context in which knowledge arises, becoming vehicle for accurate knowledge transfer • Communicate intuitively – through storytelling, we can tell more than we (explicitly) know • Communicate entertainingly – enliven and entertain, unlike dull abstract communications • Communicate movingly – eliminates knowing-doing gap and starts process of implementation • Communicate feelingly – discussion of emotions in culturally acceptable and elegant way • Communicate interactively – listeners can co-create the story in their own minds

Source: http://www.creatingthe21stcentury.org/ Source: http://www.creatingthe21stcentury.org/Intro6-benefits-story.html Source: http://www.stevedenning.com/learn.htm

Strategy Maps
A strategy map is a diagram that describes how an organization creates value by connecting strategic objectives in explicit cause-and-effect relationship with each other in the four Balanced Scorecard objectives (financial, customer, processes, learning and growth). Strategy Maps are a strategic part of the Balanced Scorecard framework to describe strategies for value creation. All of the information is contained on one page; this enables relatively easy strategic communication.

Strategy mapping helps in describing the strategy and communicating strategy among executives and their employees. This is done by connecting things such as shareholder value creation, customer management, process management, quality management, core capabilities, innovation, human resources, information technology, organizational design and learning with one another in one graphical representation. In this way alignment can be created around the strategy, which facilitates the successful implementation of the strategy.

Source: http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_strategy_maps_strategic_communication.html

Success criteria & metrics identification
In order to manage business processes, it is important to identify the criteria and metrics against which its success can be measured, and to provide explicit proof of the performance of a process. To ensure consistency throughout the life of the process, the various stakeholders need to reach an agreement of these criteria and metrics, and this shared understanding will guide the process improvement activities. Using these success criteria and metrics, the performance of the existing process can compared to that of the improved process in order to observe the degree of improvement.

Swim lanes
A Swimlane is a visual mechanism of organizing different activities into categories of the same functionality. There are two different swimlanes: • Pool: A Pool is represented with a big rectangle which contains many Flow Objects, Connecting Objects and Artifacts. • Lane: A Lane is represented as a sub-part of the pool. The lanes are used to organize the Flow Objects, Connecting Objects and Artifacts more precisely.

Swim-lanes show visually how responsibilities in a process are transferred between different roles, or where data items or computer applications are used.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BPMN Source: http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/business-process-reengineering.html

SWOT
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.

SWOTs are: • Strengths (internal): attributes of the organization that are helpful to achieving the objective. • Weaknesses (internal): attributes of the organization that are harmful to achieving the objective. • Opportunities (external): conditions that are helpful to achieving the objective. • Threats (external): conditions that are harmful to achieving the objective.

Identification of SWOTs subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective are to be derived from the SWOTs. First, the decision makers have to determine whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is NOT attainable a different objective must be selected and the process repeated. If, on the other hand, the objective seems attainable, the SWOTs are used as inputs to the creative generation of possible strategies.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis

Value chain
The Value Chain framework of Michael Porter is a model that helps to analyse specific activities through which firms can create value and competitive advantage.

The goal of these activities is to create value that exceeds the cost of providing the product or service, thus generating a profit margin. These primary activities may be vital in developing a competitive advantage: • Inbound logistics - receiving, warehousing, and inventory control of input materials. • Operations - transforming the inputs into the final product. • Outbound logistics - to get the finished product to the customer • Marketing & Sales - getting buyers to purchase the product • Service – maintaining and enhancing the product's value

Support Activities: Porter identified four generic categories of support activities: • Procurement - purchasing the raw materials and other inputs used in the value-creating activities. • Technology Development - research and development, process automation, and other technology development. • Human Resource Management - recruiting, development, and compensation of employees. • Firm Infrastructure - finance, legal, quality management, etc.

Source: http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_porter_value_chain.html Source: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/value-chain/ Logistics activities are critical for a provider of distribution services, and service activities may be the key focus for a firm offering on-site maintenance contracts for office equipment.

Source: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/value-chain/

Value chain mapping
Value chain mapping illustrates points at which given business processes (and corresponding information systems) within one enterprise, mesh with the business processes and technology of other enterprises. It facilitates the recognition of value sources and sinks within the organisation.

The focus of value chain mapping is the product - following the product through the process and categorising and quantifying the cross-functional activities through which it passes can help identify sources of inefficiency.

Value chain maps help to optimise the value of existing operations, and identify opportunities for future value creation and areas of potential risk.

Source: http://www.soe.unimelb.edu.au/Content.aspx?topicID=483 Source: Value chain analysis: an approach to supply chain improvement in agri-food chain Author(s): David H. Taylor 2005 Source: The Value Chain Approach - Linking National Producers to International Buyers and Markets. Executive Forum on National Export Strategies Author(s): John Humphrey 2002

Variant analysis
Variant analysis is used to understand how an exception differs from a rule. In business process modelling using ARIS, a "variant copy" can be made of an element (e.g. event or function) so that its attributes may be compared against those of the "master". The differences contribute to the understanding of a standard element compared to its variant, or an existing situation compared to what is expected or desired.

Verb-noun approach
The verb-noun approach can be used for naming, as an action-object approach, which involves the selection of an action, followed by selection of the object to be acted upon.

It can be used …: • to differentiate between business functions (noun) and processes (verb) • as part of a naming convention in process modelling to label events

Source: http://www.uidesign.net/1999/papers/UIA3.html

Viewpoint analysis
Viewpoint analysis is used to identify the various stakeholders in a system and view the system from each of their viewpoints.

Viewpoint analysis offers a solution to analysis of system requirements, with respect to different perspectives, possibly conflicting goals, and different vocabulary and ways of structuring descriptions of problems or problem viewpoints, by diversified stakeholders. This multi-perspective analysis is important as there is no single correct way to analyse system requirements

A viewpoint combines the idea of a view (or perspective) of a problem domain together with an owner for that view. Inconsistencies may arise in the overlaps among viewpoints, permitting local reasoning within each viewpoint; therefore inter-viewpoint consistency checking can be carried out.

Source: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/FSE-10/tutorial-VA-RE.html Source: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july05/arms/07arms.html Source: http://www.cs.odu.edu/~zeil/cs451/Lectures/02reqts/analysis/analysis_htsu8.html Source: A Viewpoint Analysis of the Digital Library Author(s): William Y. Arms D-Lib Magazine; Volume 11; Number 7/8; July/August 2005