Roger Tregear et. al, in his book ‘Estabelecendo o Escritório de Processos’ (1998) (Establishing a Process Office), depicts the steps to establish an office that provides knowledge, methodologies, tools and infrastructure to a company with an aim at supporting the organization to operate by processes, not only by functions. Said steps are simple:
- Prepare and Plan: Treat the making of the office as a project. This project shall be conducted as follows: complete the opening terms for the project; prepare a detailed project plan; identify the stakeholders; establish the expectations for the project; confirm the logistics for the project, deadlines and resources; establish the physical and IT environments; revise and evaluate the history of “process working” in the organization.
- Define the Scope of Operations: This scope shall not include the control of the accountabilities of the line managers. The Business Units must not have their assignments altered by the scope of operations of the process office. The latter shall support the process mapping and improvements, verifying if such initiatives are being executed accordingly. The process office must be a central point for coordination, communication and coaching. It should enable and facilitate the utilization of process management tools. Depending on the level of maturity of the company, it can range from influence to intervention in the business processes of the organization.
- Create awareness of BPM: Make sure the stakeholders actually understand what is planned and the importance of this office. A detailed analysis of the stakeholders should be conducted so that communication can be established appropriately. Information should be centered on the management and continuous improvement of processes: This is the core concept of BPM (Business Process Management).
- Develop In-House Competence: First, it is necessary to create a process for managing processes – the so-called ‘metaprocess’; then, it is necessary to document the architecture of the company’s processes and organization; finally, a in-house community of BPM practices should be developed. So far, the preliminary steps to creating the office have been listed.
- Build and Operate an Office: Establish an effective office based upon three pillars, namely: creating a benchmark office in its field, implementing a development program on BPM competences, and implementing the office in waves. In the first wave, the office would be a disseminator of BPM concepts and benefits; in the second wave, a convergence would be conducted on the mapping initiatives as well as redesign and process management; and in the third wave, the office would be a consultant of the methodologies, an auditor of process management, and would be accountable for synchronizing the company’s processes with its strategies and projects, thus ensuring consistency in the transition between the company’s business and support processes.
- Communicate: Build and maintain employee interest, their urgency and commitment to process management based on a clear foresight, and periodic reports on the progress achieved.
- Manage Changes: Develop agents in several areas in the company to disseminate process culture. These agents will help run projects that deliver value to the company through redesign for improving their processes.
- Demonstrate Process Improvement: Conduct pilot-projects for quick improvements in critical processes (Early wins) of the various areas with the support from the Process office.
- Improve Continuously: Through process improvement suggestion programs, visits to the areas operating the processes to obtain the opinions of those who operate each subprocess (Day In the Life Of) seeking validation thereof, and conducting benchmarking in other companies to capture the perceptions that help optimize the processes.
In the end of the day, a Process office is like a doctor of the business and support processes of the company, which operates in joint agreement with the process owners, who can be regarded as the fathers of these structured sets of activities.
References
TREGEAR, Roger; MACIEIRA, André; e JESUS, Leandro. Estabelecendo o Escritório de Processos. Rio de Janeiro: ELO Group, 1998.
GASSENFERTH, Walter. Blog Gestão Empresarial em Gotas. Available in http://www.quanticaconsultoria.com. Consulted nn Feb, 20th, 2015.
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