When speaking with project managers
I often hear their frustration in having to not being able to fully complete
the documentation often required as part of a formal process, often a Quality
Control process. I often hear that we have the “right approach” but “not the
budget” when trying to incorporate Quality Control strategies into their
production process. Managers are pressed to produce deliverables on a tight
budget within a compressed timeframe, time spent filling out documentation
associated to a formal process are often seen as an inconvenience, a low
priority, or even a waste of time. The pressure of having to deliver product, along
with the challenges of inconsistency in team members and design changes
outweigh the perceived need to fill out forms or follow a process they feel is
not necessary.
We spend a lot of time developing
process and building the associated resources, having a clear path and the
tools available for people to make their goals successful is very important,
however we need to also include educating the decision makers on the “why” of
any new process, those that have an impact on how budgets and resources are
assigned and ultimately contribute to the success of any implementation.
By implementing process during the
early stages we dramatically increase the success rate of projects, success
rely’ s on having, and implementing, a plan early on so as to avoid having to
address issues that could have been easily been avoided or recognized through proper
planning earlier on.
We need to start addressing issues before they become problems, the key to
this is through the education and implementation of process, at all levels of
the organization, especially at the higher management level where decisions on
timelines and budgets are made making available the time and resources so we
can be successful.
We don’t develop process just for
the sake of creating paperwork, or to satisfy the needs of a contract,
processes are developed after learning from previous mistakes and learning from
lessons learned from past projects.
What do you
need to know about implementing a new process?
Do your homework, find out what the
driving factors are for making any changes to your existing process, and spend some
time finding out the current understanding of the process and where the current
breakdowns exist.
Deliverables: Specify exactly what your
organizational deliverables are, regardless of whether that’s a service or
product your organization should have specific goals and expectations on what
is delivered to your clients. From this you will clearly be able to provide
what is required and recognize opportunities where additional services can be
promoted.
Create
specific policy objectives and measureable milestones separating current status
from a quantifiable future target. Through this you’ll be able to gauge success
and improvement.
Drivers
& Champions: These
are individuals who are excited about the prospect of developing an innovative
system/process and engaging in the implementation process.
How will
improving your process play into your business strategy?
Review your objectives and
strategies, you may have to adjust your goals and objectives to suit the needs
of your organization.
Here are some of the benefits of improved
process you can take advantage of as part of your business strategy:
- Sustainability
- Innovation
- Quality – Efficiency in process
- Competitive advantage
- Collaboration, opportunities to collaborate with similar
businesses
- Risk Mitigation – Information management, time
efficiency, saving $$
- Data Management
Often implementation fails not due
to the lack of staff participation but rather the failure of management to
fully understand what the adoption really means. There is a lack of
understanding of how the new process will have an impact on how business is sourced,
procured and executed. Management need to fully realize the short term cost of
implementation versus the long term benefits of adoption of a new process.
A successful implementation strategy
needs to be customized and assessed for each unique situation, however, looking
at it from a high-level, there are four distinct stages that can be
identified and help shape the outlines for a successful adoption.
Continue reading part 2 on the next blog posting, "The Four Phases of a Successful
Implementation of a New Process"
No comments:
Post a Comment