BPM Blog

Business Process Modeling

TaskMap — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:37:00 +0000

This brings us to the major activity for many business process analysts, project managers and consultants; that of Business Process Modeling. While many organizations don’t want to start there, we have to start somewhere. And that somewhere is the “as is” process. How things are done today, warts and all. When an organization wants to [...]

Education

TaskMap — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:59:00 +0000

Teaching and communicating others about your processes might seem like a no brainer for most of us, yet many look at processes and employee training as separate items. If investment is made in developing and successfully documenting processes, it makes perfect sense to communicate those processes to those that need them. Training new staff, linking [...]

The issue of organizational culture

TaskMap — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:43:00 +0000

Processes are pervasive throughout every organization, even the smallest ones. The operation of an organization relies heaving on either institutional (sometimes called tribal) knowledge of these processes and procedures or will have spent a good deal of time ensuring that the process is known and training ensures everyone uses it in the same way. The [...]

A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF PROCESSES

TaskMap — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:43:00 +0000

Why we need processes In any organization we need processes for four main reasons: 1. Increase efficiency; 2. Control quality 3. Ensure the organization is meeting Governance or Compliance requirements 4. Help manage change In early stages of process technology and method development, each reason for using process technology was different. If you have been [...]

Process Dashboards: Identifying and flagging risk levels

TaskMap — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:55:08 +0000

Identifying and flagging risk levels within tasks can be easily accomplished with TaskMap 4 Professional. There are two ways of flagging risk levels, manually and automatically through TaskMap Capture for Excel. In the image below, you can see that different colors are used to indicate the level of risk on a scale of 1 to [...]

Process Dashboards: Analyzing timeframes

TaskMap — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:19:00 +0000

In addition to creating dashboards the general progress of a project, it is also possible to create a dashboard for the analysis of an existing process. The first steps will include: The number of tasks and their specific path in the process and The time taken for each task and Elapsed time between each task [...]

THE CASE FOR PROCESS DASHBOARDS

TaskMap — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:53:00 +0000

Much is being written on the topic of process dashboards, but in reality there is not as much being done as is possible. I will start today by making the case for a process dashboard and we will pick up how best to go about doing this in detail in the coming days. Process dashboards [...]

Is 2012 the year that version control finally takes hold?

TaskMap — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:55:00 +0000

How many times have you saved a file, and had the system shut down or power run out, creating a moment of flat panic. At our firm we have automated back up on our systems, use SharePoint for version control and an online back up service as well. However at the weekend, I worked on [...]

How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 8)

TaskMap — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Following skills (the details) Door-openers A door-opener is an non-coercive invitation extended to another to talk. Open-ended questions An open-ended questions is one which allows another to answer in any way or in any depth he or she choses. This kind of question does not invite a “yes” or “no” or a short response. Open-ended [...]

How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 7)

TaskMap — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:03:00 +0000

Following skills (overview) The three biggest barriers to more effective listening are: The listener talks too much The listener doesn’t listen for long enough before starting to talk The listener remains silent and entirely unresponsive All the tendencies make it hard for the other to tell his or her story or opinion. If the listener [...]