Business Process Improvement
(course code BANI2)

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Overview

Perhaps no other skill can yield such immediate results and payback than learning how to improve business processes. This course explores the need for a business process focus, the essential steps for process improvement, and the critical success factors for making the effort successful. It provides a practical framework for improving process and describes many tried and true process improvement concepts and techniques. Lastly, it provides valuable tips and techniques to introduce process changes effectively, to get the most from your process improvement effort. Presented in a methodology-neutral way, participants can easily apply the knowledge and skills to any environment, and use the techniques immediately upon leaving class.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the purpose, benefits, and critical issues of Business Process Improvement (BPI);
  • Name several critical success factors that lead to effective BPI, and describe how to utilize them;
  • List the essential components and steps of process analysis;
  • Employ industry-standard techniques for analyzing the root cause of process problems, such as Fishbone Diagrams, Pareto analysis, Inter-Relationship Diagrams, Value Stream Analysis, etc;
  • Discover appropriate metrics for analyzing business processes that provide sufficient insights into process effectiveness;
  • Use process maps to discover and analyze process problems;
  • Design new processes using lean techniques that eliminate waste and maximize business value, using three standard objectives to optimize process design;
  • Identify the parts of a process that give rise to functional requirements for projects that automate processes;
  • Discuss the importance of monitoring and managing processes;
  • Choose critical metrics for the ongoing monitoring of process performance and efficiency, including the use of Business Intelligence for monitoring and reporting;
  • Describe and develop a control plan to assure the continued effectiveness of processes;
  • Describe the components of an industry-standard Business Process Management framework and how BPI fits into it;
  • Identify process risks and how to mitigate them;
  • Discuss the interdependence of people, processes, and systems and how it relates to effective introduction of process changes;
  • Facilitate the introduction of process change in the organization, using accepted and practical techniques;
  • Describe how impact analysis can help to understand true cost of change when planning for change introduction;
  • Use effective motivation to increase your chances of success when introducing process changes;
  • Make consulting-like process recommendations that get adopted and accepted.

Who Should Attend

Process analysts, business analysts, project managers, business process owners, general business staff, and anyone who needs the skills to improve and/or manage business processes.

Prerequisites

Experience or training in modeling or mapping business processes. The Business Process Modeling course satisfies this prerequisite.

Course Content

This course covers:

  • Business Process Improvement (BPI) Foundation:
    • Discussion: Challenges of inefficient or “poor” processes;
    • Challenges of improving processes;
    • The Case for Business Process Improvement;
    • Three types of Business Activity;
    • A Business Activity formula for improvement;
    • Discussion: What is the potential impact of process improvements? What is the cost of process improvements?;
    • Process improvement impact illustrations;
    • Justifying the cost of Business Process Improvement;
    • Cost of Quality Rule;
    • Benefits of process improvement;
    • Why seek process standardization;
    • Continuous process improvement;
    • BPI Critical Success Factors (CSF’s);
    • A Framework for Business Process Management (BPM);
    • The net positive effect of applying BPM layers;
    • How BPI fits into BPM – Modeling, Analysis, Design, Transformation and Performance Measurement;
    • Process Improvement Process;
    • Common principles and steps of multiple BPI disciplines;
    • Brief history of process improvement movements;
    • Introduction to Case Study and Workshop.
  • Business Process Analysis - Metrics:
    • Discussion: What is analysis? What is measurement? How do they contribute to process improvement?;
    • The iterative nature of analysis and metrics;
    • Analysis and metrics enable problem spotting;
    • Steps to process improvement;
    • Creating a problem statement;
    • What makes a good problem statement? A poor problem statement?;
    • Why measure?;
    • Measurement usage;
    • Process science?;
    • Benefits of measurements;
    • Core components of a project;
    • Metrics/Measurements – Key components (basic definitions, data, variation, data collection plan);
    • Definition of data types – attribute and variable;
    • Understanding variation;
    • Data – why is it necessary? ;
    • Data Collection – what and why?;
    • Metrics components: Understand, Measure, Display, and Manage;
    • Metrics best practices – Balanced Scorecard, Dashboards ;
    • What do we measure to shed light on process effectiveness?;
    • Measurement considerations and techniques;
    • Metrics - the Good and the Bad;
    • Workshop.
  • Business Process Analysis – Analysis:
    • A case for analysis - Why analyze?;
    • Workflow analysis questions;
    • It’s typically not a people problem;
    • Three key areas of analysis: Data, Process and Root Cause;
    • Analysis key concepts;
    • Analysis steps;
    • Analysis challenges;
    • Three lenses: people, process, or platform;
    • Process analysis techniques;
    • Benefits of analysis to help uncover causes of process problems;
    • Analysis techniques ;
    • More analysis concepts;
    • Workshop.
  • Business Process Design:
    • A case for process design principles;
    • Three objectives of process design: Optimize Time, Optimize Quality, and Optimize Process Output Value;
    • Time optimization techniques;
    • Quality optimization techniques;
    • Value optimization techniques;
    • Common design flaws;
    • Workshop;
    • Business rules;
    • Examples of business rules;
    • Working with business rule engines.
  • Transformation Processes:
    • Case Study discussion;
    • Transformation philosophies;
    • Identify and address obstacles;
    • Organizational change management curve;
    • Motivation – What makes people tick?;
    • Change tools and methods;
    • Results from BPI as inputs to projects and requirements;
    • Importance and components of a control plan;
    • Consulting tips: best ways to recommend change;
    • Adapting presentation to audience;
    • Use of an A3;
    • Workshop.
  • Course Summary

Certification Exams

There are no exams with this course.

Course Fees

We offer a range of delivery styles and packages for this course. Please go to the Packages and Inclusions page to review the inclusions provided with each package.

Professional Development

Successful completion of this course may entitle you to credits in various professional development programmes:

Follow-on Courses

We recommend that delegates who complete this course should proceed with our value management courses.

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