How often do you find yourself wondering “What does that
person in the next office or cubicle actually do?” Do your own team members often forget what they are supposed to do or their role within the team? Even more troubling, what if that
particular person did not come into work or was unexpectedly sick? What if you
needed to take over their tasks? When you are part of a busy company, it is
difficult to remember all the tasks for which various members of the company
are responsible. This is where something we like to call Visual Process Management (VPM) comes into play.
At SmartDraw Software, LLC we developed a method of documenting businesses processes
by using a collection of hyperlinked visuals. In this way, each process is linked
to the person responsible as well as the person responsible for managing the
process. In a large company, these linked visuals can become an extremely
complex interlinked set of processes tied to a large number of employees. If
you are unfamiliar with the concept of VPM, I find it more helpful to think
about in terms of small teams.
If you consider the tasks of a small team, you will most
likely be quickly overwhelmed trying to think of all the tasks being performed
on a regular basis. Just think of the post-it notes that I described on my desk
in the first post of this series. If you collected post-it notes of TO DOs
from each team member, you could probably fill a wall or more depending on the
size of the team. By creating flowcharts or process diagrams, you will have an
easy to follow step by step workflow to understand what different team members
are doing. Additionally, if someone doesn’t show up, you would know the steps
needed to complete that person’s tasks.
So, at SmartDraw we are currently working to document the
processes of all our teams and employees. This allows us to understand who is
responsible for what tasks without having to dig into each employee’s personal
notes. Traditionally, this kind of documentation is created by interviewing
each employee, taking notes during the interview, and then creating a
flowchart. This leads to an iterative process that is extremely inefficient. The
documenter of the processes must engage in the interview, present the flowchart
at a later time, get feedback, and then make changes. This could become an
extremely long process.
A better method is to capture the process and create the
process flowchart in real time. Documenting your processes in this manner will
limit the number of follow up meetings and wasted time. Compare the traditional
capture method versus this one-step capture method below.
In which would you rather participate?
I find it helpful to regularly evaluate how efficient I am
in the steps I take to complete tasks. Because I am a visual person, flowcharts
are really helpful in understanding what steps I take and which are
unnecessary. For more information about VPM, I suggest reading our white paper
on Visual Process Management.
Let me know what you think of this post and let me know if
you have any questions. In my final post of this series, I will be talking
about the importance of sharing your project progress and goals with the rest
of your team and how being a visual manager can help.
Be sure to check out the previous posts in this series:
Being a Visual Manager: The First Steps
Being a Visual Manager: Implementing a Project Plan
