A new operation based on proven procedures is easier to manage because you can evaluate its performance against known metrics. And should the metrics indicate a need for adjustments-typical when rolling out a new location-staff will have procedures in place to affect needed changes. This significantly reduces the risk of opening a new location.

If you want to learn more about how you can save money and prepare for growth, check out our consulting pages. We can help you simplify procedures faster and more efficiently than you can do it yourself because we are continuously writing, publishing, deploying and updating policies and procedures. Our latest procedures represent lessons learned by our thousands of world-wide customers. Developed according to international ISO standards, Bizmanualz procedures move you further, faster. Save time. Why reinvent the wheel?

Check out our consulting pages. Or call me right now. Bizmanualz can help you save money and grow today. Contact: Dan Davison, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Bizmanualz, Inc. tel. (314) 863-5079 x23, Dan@Bizmanualz.com.

The problem is in mixing Word’s formatting widgets and style sheets with Word’s concept of “template”. Microsoft Word’s implementation of style sheets, template styles, outlining styles, and - in general - anything to do with styles can be rather incomprehensible, even to insiders. I’m sure the original developers of Word had a defensible rationale for doing what they did at some point, but their model has been corrupted over the years by adding new features, changing features , and integration with Microsoft “Office” over the years. (Quite a change from 2003 to 2007, wasn’t it?)

What has resulted is a lot of confusion over typesetting terms (e.g., kerning and leading), document structure (headers, footers, indents, headings, etc.), and document layout (fonts, styles, spacing, pagination, widows, orphans, bullets, indexing, ad infinitum). Add to this changes in usage for desktop publishing, print publishing, and web publishing and most users don’t know what I’m talking about now.

What Is a Word “Template”?

A Word template (a “.dot” file) stores your document structure, layout, font assignments (aka, styles), headers, footers, bullets, list numbering definitions, page definitions, and other typesetting functions found in Word. A Word template is not about content — it’s about the look and feel of your document (in the case of Bizmanualz, procedure manuals).

Some people may think of Bizmanualz content as a “procedure template”, but that use of the word conflicts with Microsoft’s interpretation. What we at Bizmanualz are providing are procedure examples — sample procedures. They are not templates according to the Microsoft definition.

In the end, we all want our procedures to have a consistent layout, font, size, etc. — the same “look and feel”. We want to have a standard format for everyone in the company to follow when writing procedures and when you are done have the formatting the way you expect it to be.

How Do You Lock In a Format So Your Document Doesn’t Revert Back To The Default Settings?

The whole point of a Word template is to create a format that locks your document design, or layout, so it can be used over and over again. That’s what Word templates are for and that’s what they’ll do when you use them as Microsoft’s developers designed them to be used. Once you change something, the confusion starts.

At Bizmanualz, we’d love to provide a customized Word template to go along with the sample procedures, but most people who purchase our products don’t know how to use Word templates. To supply them with document templates would only serve to confuse them. Currently, we use simple features — like headers, footers, and page numbering — in each of our procedures, yet these often result in technical support calls.

The confusion is related to the way Word objects inherit properties. Individual text characters inherit properties from words, words from paragraphs, paragraphs from the last paragraph or section or style or document, and eventually the template it originated from. We use the default template (”normal.dot”, in Word 2003), which is in your template directory; it can be saved under another name, in any directory of your choosing.

But unless you explicitly save your macros, custom toolbars, menus, shortcuts, auto text entries, and all the other formatting information in a specific document template (e.g., my_special_template.dot), they’re stored in the global template, normal.dot. This means the tools you added to your “special” template are available to all documents on your computer, regardless of what document template is attached to your Word file.

So, even if we did supply a Bizmanualz template, you would have to make sure that that template was the one you used for all of your procedure changes. If you put files on a server and allow anyone to edit them, they may be using different template files or different versions of the “normal” template. Remember, the Word templates you used and perhaps changed are on your computer and may be different from the Word templates other people are using.

For More on Word Templates

Bizmanualz sample procedures come with formatting you can use, edit, and change. If the “auto-formatting” is getting in your way, you can edit the Word template, make the formatting changes as you type; another trick is to use the “Esc” key to ignore the style inheritance rules.

For more on Word templates, see Microsoft Support for “Frequently Asked Questions about the Location of Templates in Word 2003 or 2007“. There’s also an excellent discussion on customizing Word templates at the “Word MVP”. site.

The term “accounting” encompasses an enormous wealth of information, much more than the traditional “dollars and cents” we all think of. It includes areas ranging from human resources (payroll, benefits, etc.) to computer information integrity. So, since procedures on counting income and expenses are only a part of what makes up accounting, what do you include when you are designing an accounting policies and procedures manual?

The accounting area can be broken down into ten core cycles — these cycles make up the accounting body of knowledge. Each cycle focuses on a key element of business accounting and, therefore, should be covered in your company’s business accounting policies and procedures manual.

1. Revenue Cycle Procedures

The first — and what business owners would consider the most important — business process is the revenue or sales cycle. Revenue is the lifeblood of any business. Once sales has obtained an order, the order must be “booked” into the accounting system, triggering your credit, fulfillment, and accounts receivable (or collections) processes. Example procedures for the revenue cycle can be found in the Bizmanualz Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual.

2. Cash Disbursement Cycle Procedures

The second most important cycle deals with how you manage your cash expenses. We’re talking about your purchasing, receiving, accounts payable, and administrative expense processes. Once you receive cash from your customers (revenue cycle), you must spend less than you receive to maintain a positive cash flow and stay in business. Sample cash disbursement cycle procedures can also be found in the Bizmanualz Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual.

3. Production Cycle Procedures

With the two key accounting cycles (making money and spending it) covered, the remainder of your accounting manual is devoted to accounting support processes. The production cycle is the most critical to your business — if you don’t have a product or service to sell, the first two cycles are immaterial, aren’t they?

The production cycle introduces issues such as managing raw materials, Work In Process (WIP), finished goods inventory, product release, and shipping. Example procedures for the production cycle can be found in the Bizmanualz Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual.

4. Financial Reporting Cycle Procedures

In the first three cycles, you took orders, purchased materials, made products and/or services, delivered products, billed customers, and now you must report your results. The financial reporting cycle includes budgeting and forecasting what you might need, reporting what you sold, financial analysis (to see if you’re making a profit, to spot trends, etc.), and management reviews with key stakeholders (the Board of Directors, your shareholders, government agencies, etc.) to discuss how well the plan is going.

Example of procedures for the financial reporting cycle can be found in the Bizmanualz Financial Policies and Procedures Manual. Notice we’ve switched manuals, going into the financial area of accounting.

5. Finance Cycle Procedures

The finance cycle is about raising capital and managing the capital you have. You might need debt or equity capital to finance your business. Either way, you’ll need a process to acquire and manage that cash. And, if you have a lot of cash moving through your business, you’ll need some form of treasury management (i.e., how to invest or “park” your cash). Sample procedures for the finance cycle are in the Bizmanualz Financial Policies and Procedures Manual.

6. Asset Cycle Procedures

What business does not have assets? If you have one or more computers, production machinery, or office furniture, you have assets. Your assets require processes for depreciation, inventory management, asset acquisition and asset disposition or disposal.

Since there are laws and standards (e.g., IRS, IFRS, GAAP) that must be observed, it is important that you have asset cycle processes. Example procedures for asset cycle processes are in the Bizmanualz Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual.

7. Internal Audit Cycle Procedures

Publicly traded companies and businesses with significant debt or equity require internal auditing. Your internal audit process consists of audit planning, conducting the audit, audit reporting, and audit follow-up. Sample procedures for the internal audit cycle are in the Bizmanualz Financial Policies and Procedures Manual.

8. Strategic Planning Cycle Procedures

If you have cash, assets, compliance, and stakeholders of any kind, you need a strategic planning process. Business planning is just that — a planning process necessitating a business plan. The company business plan takes into account how to prepare for compliance (with SOX, SAS 70, etc.), standards and guidelines (e.g., GAAP, IFRS), and Board and stockholders’ meetings. Examples of procedures for the strategic planning cycle are in the Bizmanualz Financial Policies and Procedures Manual.

9. Payroll Cycle Procedures

The payroll process focuses on administrating compensation, benefits, and personnel compliance. How do you comply with an alphabet soup of government acts (including EEO, FMLA, FLSA, EPPA, OSHA, ADA, ERISA, FICA, FUTA, IRCA, ADEA, HIPAA, IRS, WARN, and others)?

This may not sound like traditional accounting, but the accounting department is involved with compliance by virtue of its role as the financial gatekeeper and financial reporting contact. Samples of procedures for the payroll cycle are in the Bizmanualz Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual.

10. Information Integrity Cycle Procedures

Today, all accounting transactions are performed on computers, across networks, and using IT assets. Information integrity — specifically, security, timeliness, and accuracy — is critical to accounting, and to the business. Now it may not be accounting’s primary job to manage all IT assets, but accounting cannot shy away from its duty to ensure the integrity of computer and IT management, IT security, IT disaster recovery, and IT internal controls. Samples of procedures for the information integrity cycle are in the Bizmanualz Computer and IT Policies and Procedures Manual.

Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Cycle

Since the late 1990’s, there has been an increased focus on effective internal controls, adding, in effect, a new requirement — or 11^th cycle — Sarbanes-Oxley (or SOX) compliance. The SOX cycle is about compliance planning, understanding your audit responsibilities, and demonstrating the effectiveness of your firm’s internal controls with respect to accounting. Example procedures for The Sarbanes Oxley compliance cycle are in the Bizmanualz Financial Policies and Procedures Manual.

There you have it! Ten core accounting policies and procedures areas — plus Sarbanes-Oxley — that you should include in your accounting procedures manual.

We mentioned four key Bizmanualz products: Accounting; Finance; Human Resources; and Computer & IT. If you purchased these separately, they’d cost $2,280…but all of these accounting cycles and their associated procedures are included in the CFO Accounting Procedures Series for only $1,995! Plus, you receive the Bizmanualz Business Policies and Procedures Manual for free when you purchase the bundle! The Business Procedures Manual includes 111 additional business procedures for many general business areas.

Accounting Processes Policies Procedures

To truly implement a complete business accounting policies and procedures manual, you will need to include topics from Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, and Computer & IT areas of the Bizmanualz product line. Fortunately, you can obtain all four manuals and save 33% in one easy bundle - the CFO Accounting Procedures Series. It covers all ten areas of accounting plus the Sarbanes Oxley compliance process and — as an added bonus — you receive the Business Procedures Manual at no additional cost! Try a free sample download. Judge for yourself.

The Top Ten Accounting Policies and Procedures

1. Revenue Cycle
2. Cash Disbursement Cycle
3. Production Cycle
4. Financial Reporting Cycle
5. Finance Cycle
6. Asset Cycle
7. Internal Audit Cycle
8. Strategic Planning Cycle
9. Payroll Cycle
10. Information Integrity Cycle
    PLUS (for public companies) Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Cycle

The differences between IFRS and GAAP are many and adopting IFRS — even with short- and long-term convergence projects on which the IASB and FASB are collaborating, and the ongoing guidance that these and other organizations will surely provide — will not be an easy task for American companies.

For example, GAAP and IFRS differ with respect to inventory valuation (IFRS does not permit the LIFO method) and revaluation of property, plant, and equipment (IFRS permits consideration of fair value, whereas GAAP only considers historical costs). Other areas where there are significant differences include compensation linked to GAAP financial metrics (which obviously will go away) and revenue recognition (where GAAP is more detailed, extensive, and even industry-specific). Finance, Operations, and Human Resources are just three areas where the changeover will have a significant impact. In fact, the volume of changes alone portends a great deal of difficulty for most US companies between now and 2014.

Also, because the GAAP system is so deeply ingrained in the American way of conducting business, there is concern in the US and around the world that the transition may not go well. It’s the same as with any other behavior that becomes habit: people have to implement the IFRS and people generally don’t handle change well.

There are some outside the US who fear the upcoming implementation of IFRS in the US because — they feel — the US may not “leave well enough alone”. Yet, since much of the world has already adopted IFRS, companies in the US will have to follow suit…won’t they?

What do you think? Will the adoption of IFRS in the USA go smoothly? What will 2014 look like in the field of American accountancy? What impact will the changes have on your business? What are your thoughts? Your concerns?

Waste costs money. Yet, when organizations don’t follow their own core procedures, it’s hard for them to know what works and what doesn’t, so improvement evades them. They risk quality problems and customer disappointment. Customers may defect to competitors. Revenue may suffer.

When even core procedures are not used, you risk not complying with health, safety, and environmental regulations. That can endanger employees and gain unfavorable notice from auditors and regulators, further distracting you from using best practices and making continuous improvements.

Why aren’t your policies and procedures used?

When we hear employees say that procedures are getting in their way rather than helping, we usually find that procedures are too numerous, too long, poorly written, hard to follow, and/or hopelessly complex. Writing and development problems are the chief reason that policies and procedures suffer such deficiencies. (See our web site for several articles explaining how to avoid and overcome procedure writing and development problems.)

How Bizmanualz Estimates Your Policies and Procedures Project

When companies come to Bizmanualz with poorly written policies and procedures, we typically recommend reducing and simplifying what they have today. Typically, we can cut from 30% to 60% of their documentation load, reducing the cost and complexity which at the same time lessens employees’ objections.

We can recommend an approach for your policies and procedures improvement project based on your answers to the following questions:

• How many procedures do you have today within the scope of the improvement project?
• Send us two or three sample procedures in MS WORD or PDF format. Let us know what format you want for the final procedures.
• What industry are you in?
• List the countries in which the procedures will be used. List each of the languages into which the procedures need to be translated (if any).
• Who is the lead regulator for your industry in each of the countries where the procedures will be used? Provide a link to the regulator’s web site and on-line regulations if available. List any other regulators that are likely to review or audit your procedures.
• Mention any quality standards that you are using or plan to use within 24 months.

Pictures and Graphics Help Bridge Cultural Gaps

If the procedures will be used in more than one country, we typically recommend replacing text with graphics, illustrations and pictures. Graphics are interpreted more consistently across cultures, which drives uniform interpretation and more consistent usage of procedures.

Page for page, graphics are more expensive to produce than written material. But a single graphic may eliminate a lot of pages of written material, mitigating the cost of development. Most companies consider investment in graphics worth-while because:

• Procedures are used more consistently
• Compliance improves
• Injuries and work disruptions decrease.

Your Budget Considerations:

If Your Budget is Less than $10,000 US:

At budget levels less than $10,000 US, we would typically recommend training for your in-house procedure-writers on how to write more effective procedures. The training is similar to our Well-Defined Processes training, but emphasizes authoring procedures. After the training, your in-house team rather than Bizmanualz would apply the principles and update your procedures. Depending on the experience level of your procedure-writing team, more than one training event may be required.

If Your Budget is $10,000 to $30,000:

At budget levels above $10,000, Bizmanualz relieves your team from the production responsibilities, and provides the man-hours and expertise to update your procedures more quickly than most companies can train and do it on their own. At budget levels in this range, Bizmanualz:

• Evaluates the content and format of each of your existing procedures within the scope of the project
• Provides you with our written critique
• Provides a visual storyboard outlining the specific changes
• Drafts the procedures for your review
• Completes the graphics and reviews them with you
• Provides one revision to text and graphics, incorporates your comments
• Completes and delivers the procedures.

Projects above $30,000 are larger projects in scope; they might require deployment in more than one location, translation, optimization, or a lot of information graphics.

Larger projects may include procedure implementation of your procedures with your employees to make sure that they perceive value and use the procedures. This may include additional buy-in training for your in-house procedures team on how to build and maintain support for your policies and procedures project. You may need other communications tools such as job aids or videos that are not strictly considered procedures, but which nonetheless help workers apply the procedures consistently. Process procedures optimization may require implementing lean, ISO or quality systems.

You can control the scope and budget of your project by:

• Controlling the number of procedures
• Working in phases, and reducing the scope of the current phase.
• Creating fewer language translations and limiting the number of geographies where the new procedures will be used.
• Using fewer graphics and more text.

If you would like Bizmanualz to estimate your policies and procedures project, please send us the information listed above under ‘How we Estimate Your Policies and Procedures Project.’ Don’t forget to send us samples of your current procedures. We will recommend an improvement approach that will increase compliance, safety and communication.

Contact: Dan Davison, Dan@bizmanualz.com, tel. (314) 863-5079 x23, Bizmanualz, Inc.

While responding to this inquiry, I realized we might make it easier for some of our customers to select their Bizmanualz products by industry application: by identifying the core processes that drive each type of business, Bizmanualz can recommend specific policies and procedures that address to those processes.

We can help our customers by sharing what we know about how and when our procedures are used. Today, I’ll share with you our response to the hardware retailer:

What About Sales Floor Procedures?

In section 430 of our Accounting Policies and Procedures manual (Revenue Procedures), the following procedures apply to their situation:

• REV101, Sales Order Entry
• REV102, Point-Of-Sale Orders
• REV104, Sales Order Acceptance
• REV107, Sales Tax Collection

What About Warehouse Procedures?

In section 440 of the Accounting Procedures manual (Purchasing), these procedures apply:

• PUR101, Vendor Selection
• PUR102, General Purchasing
• PUR104, Receiving and Inspection

Delivery Procedures?

Also in section 440 of the Accounting manual, we have:

• PUR105, Shipping and Freight Claims

Inventory Procedures?

In section 420, Inventory & Asset Procedures, we offer:

• INV101, Inventory Control
• INV102, Inventory Counts
• INV103, Fixed Asset Control
• INV105, Fixed Asset Capitalization & Depreciation

In addition to the processes the retailer asked about, we suggested he consider using procedures from section 410 (Cash) to address acceptance of payment from customers:

• CSH101, Cash Drawers And Credit Cards
• CSH102, Cash Receipts And Deposits
• CSH103, Problem Checks
• CSH107, Bank Account Reconciliations

The Bizmanualz “Accounting Policies, Procedures, and Forms” manual contains all of the procedures mentioned above — and much more — and sells for $595. It’s available on our web site. As the hardware store retailer suggested, “Why reinvent the wheel?”

Our Bizmanualz Customer Service specialist suggested our Business Sampler volume, which sells for $695. The Business Sampler includes procedures, by category, that complement the Accounting processes/procedures — Human Resources, Sales and Marketing, Shipping, Security, Computers and Networks, and other operational and support areas.

See Chris Anderson’s article this week on the top ten business processes. It relates processes to procedures in our lineup of manuals, helping you select the right products for your needs.

Stay tuned for more articles that will help you pick the right product to accomplish the process and procedure job at hand.

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals are designed with your core business processes in mind. The nine business procedures manuals in the series provide your entire company with examples of the primary procedures used in writing your company procedure manuals. How do the nine procedure manuals address the core business processes?

1. Customer Strategy & Relationships (Marketing) is a good place to start. Most businesses talk about the customer being the most important part of any business. Well, if your customer is so critical, have you mapped out a clear customer strategy and customer relationship process? Do you have customer strategy procedures for developing awareness and education of your business in the marketplace? The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Policies and Procedures Manual provides sample policies and procedures to help you set marketing strategy, marketing tactics, and marketing planning to cover the first part of your marketing sales funnel — awareness and education.

2. Employee Development & Satisfaction is essential to your business because your employees are the ones that talk to and develop your customers. The Bizmanualz Human Resources Procedures Manual provides example procedures for hiring, administration (e.g., personnel records, compliance), compensation, and — the most important part – developing your employees.

The HR manual also includes a sample Employee Handbook and an HR Manager’s manual to provide a complete discussion of human resources. Keeping employees and facilities safe is the focus of the Bizmanualz Security Procedures Manual, which includes coverage of guard force management, employee conduct, emergency operations, protection, and safety.

3. Quality, Process Improvement & Change Management is driven by competition, your desire to excel at what you do and make your customers happy. The Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual provides a sample quality manual, the six quality procedures required by ISO 9001, and additional supporting procedures to provide a foundation for your process improvement and change management initiatives.

4. Financial Analysis, Reporting, & Capital Management is critical to fast growth companies. Cash is the lifeblood of your company and a fast growth company consumes cash quickly. The Bizmanualz Financial Procedures Manual has example procedures for financial administration, raising capital, managing capital, financial statement reporting, and the internal controls necessary in a fast growth company. A controllers manual is included to provide the direction and organization for controlling your company cash.

5. Management Responsibility addresses all of your core business processes and is integral to every area of your company. Every manual in the “CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals” covers the management of that departmental area. Each manual provides a departmental (functional) manager’s manual that describes the departmental organization structure, major responsibilities, departmental guidelines, ethics, policies, and - of course - the primary business processes for that department. The Bizmanualz Business Procedures Manual provides a simple, fast, and easy way to provide immediate oversight for all of your operations.

6. Customer Acquisition (Sales) is about engaging the customer and closing the sale. The Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual contains procedures for the entire sales funnel, sales process, sales administration and sales management common to organizations that have to oversee a sales force. The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for controlling cash and the revenue cycle, which is a parallel and supporting activity to the sales process.

7. Product Development must obtain requirements from sales and develop products that satisfy the customer. Therefore, product development procedures are found in both the Bizmanualz Sales and Marketing Procedure Manual and the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual, which contains procedures for customer requirements, as well as the design and development of new products.

8. Product/Service Delivery The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual contains procedures for shipping, receiving, and inventory control. But since delivery is part of ISO and quality, the Bizmanualz ISO 9001 QMS Procedures Manual also provides coverage of this critical customer facing area.

9. Accounting Management is about accounting transaction management, as opposed to finance which is focused more on raising, managing, and using cash effectively. The Bizmanualz Accounting Procedures Manual focus is on controlling operating cash receipts, cash disbursements, inventory and assets, the revenue cycle, and general accounting administration.

10. Technology Management is about all of the technology in your company. The Bizmanualz Computer, Network and IT Procedures Manual contains procedures for IT administration, IT asset management, IT training, technical support, IT security, IT disaster recovery, and software development. More in-depth continuity planning coverage is provided with the Bizmanualz Disaster Recovery Procedures Manual.

Business Process Policies Procedures

The Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals collection is the best overall deal — you save 45% when you buy the set, compared with purchasing all nine manuals individually. The series covers all of the core business processes in one simple bundle. It includes manuals for:

• Financial Policies and Procedures
• Accounting Policies and Procedures
• Computer & IT Policies and Procedures
• Human Resources Policies and Procedures
• Sales & Marketing Policies and Procedures
• ISO 9001 Quality Policies and Procedures
• Security & Disaster Policies and Procedures
• Business Policies and Procedures Sampler

Every critical area of your company is now covered with the Bizmanualz CEO Company Policies Procedures Manuals set. Coverage is now easily at hand for Accounting, Administration, Customer Service, Disaster Management, Engineering, Environmental Management, Finance & Credit, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Personnel, Sales & Marketing, Security Operations, Shipping, Purchasing, Inventory, and ISO 9001 conformance.

The ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference will be March 8-9, 2010, at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. The theme of this year’s conference is “Delivering Global Value and Excellence Through Lean and Six Sigma.” Register Now

Preceding the conference (on the evening of March 7), the Six Sigma Forum is hosting a reception, at which attendees can meet the keynote speakers: Roger Hoerl, Ronald Snee, Rob Bryant, and Forrest Breyfogle III.

Leaning Out Your ISO 9001 QMS

Chris Anderson from Bizmanualz will be speaking on how to lean out your ISO 9001 QMS to ensure your ISO 9001 QMS is reducing your cost of poor quality. At the conference, you’ll learn how to use lean principles to:

• Continually improve the effectiveness of your organization;
• Continually improve the capability of your workforce; and
• Reduce your organization’s reliance on procedure documentation.

See how the minimum requirements of ISO 9001 can be met using lean visual management techniques.

Keep those dates (March 8-9, 2010) open!

You may visit the following sites for more information:

• http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/compliance_assistance/new_ca_products.html
• http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/
• http://www.dol.gov/

To stay informed of the latest developments, the Department of Labor recommends you subscribe to their e-mail updates. There is a subscription link at the top of the DoL home page (http://www.dol.gov).

If you’ve ever been assigned the unenviable task of writing policies and procedures, maybe you can imagine better than your fellow workers what being cast adrift is like. How many of you were given an office in a remote part of the building (think Milton in “Office Space”), ostensibly to keep the disruption to a minimum, and instructed to develop a set of policies and procedures for accounting, or IT, or (gasp!) the entire company?

And when they eventually pulled the plug on the project, did you feel relief that the misadventure was finally over? That is, were you rescued, or were you left adrift, watching the circle of sharks — blame, recrimination, etc. — tighten around your little blow-up craft?

Did you feel this harrowing experience could have been avoided, or perhaps produced the desired results, if only someone had given you the tools, resources, direction, and – most of all – the guidance and support of top management before you spent the last six months marooned with Gilligan and the Skipper?

That’s exactly where our Chris Anderson is going with this month’s series of articles on the Process-Procedure Journey. If you’ve already been to the first article, you’ll remember Chris’s description and map of the Process-Procedures Journey. I’ve reproduced the process map with one minor alteration.

Even a simple map like this might be a huge improvement over your current procedure development process. Well, guess what? We don’t even get this much in all but a few isolated circumstances. (And to the lucky few who’ve gotten what they needed, please tell us what was it like.)

Like a castaway on the raft, it often seems as though we’ve been dropped into the middle of the sea without a sense of where we came from, where we’re going, or how we’re going to survive the journey, let alone get to our destination, wherever that might be. Too often, we start our journey somewhere in the middle (Template Design or Procedure Writing) instead of at the appropriate starting point (Project Management).

For direction, advice, and tips on how to make your journey a successful one, keep on reading (or start reading) this month’s articles. If you’d like more in-depth assistance – something tailored to your unique circumstances – please contact us or visit our web site.

Best of luck to all of you. Smooth sailing!

Checking the procedure is a form of procedure verification. You run a test before implementing the procedure to verify that the procedure works and meets all the design requirements. But how do you know if the procedure will work outside of the design space ? Will it work in the real world, with real users? At this point, we are beyond procedure verification — we need to validate the procedure to ensure the process and procedure are working.

You are not done with your procedure until it has been validated. After all, you wrote the procedure to close some gap in compliance, quality, or performance — how do you know your procedure is actually closing the gap? Procedure validation consists of performing procedure training, process auditing, and completing a process procedure management review that will allow us to confirm that the gap is closed, the process is working, and the procedure works.

Process Procedures Implementaton and Training

Procedure validation starts with process implementation and procedures training. Procedure training will be your first feedback from the actual users. Gather the procedure users together and brief everyone on the main procedure tasks, changes, and process objectives. Use your process maps to visually explain the process. Highlight individual responsibilities for key performance metrics. Ask questions and obtain feedback. Remember: your procedure goal is “a working process”.

If you have a lot of users from multiple work cells or geographic locations, you need to prototype the new procedure — test it in one area before implementing it across the whole business. Your procedure validation should occur before a widespread implementation. In a small organization with limited scope, this is often not practical. In that case, process auditing is critical to ensure that the procedure works.

Process Procedures Audit

Once employees are trained, how do you know if the procedure works or is being used correctly? To find out, you need to audit the procedure at some point after procedure training. Process auditing is an internal audit of the process and procedure. At some interval after training, you need to follow-up on your new procedure and see how it’s being used. Is the procedure followed? Is the procedure effective? Is the process working? Is the procedure working? Is the procedure integrated into the process? Simple questions, but they all must be asked.

If the process or procedure is critical to quality, compliance, or performance, you should perform a process procedure audit sooner and more frequently (perhaps 7, 30, and 90 days apart). You are still in procedure validation and you need feedback to determine if your procedure is working. Once validation is complete, you may be able to back off the process audit (e.g., cut back from monthly to annually): it all depends on how well the process is working and how critical it is to your firm’s success.

Process Procedures Review and Change Management

Once audited, how will you know if the procedure is performing as expected? To find out you will need to analyze the audit data and process performance and hold a process procedures management review. If you started your process procedure journey with a project charter, you have your original quality, compliance, and performance objectives.

Compare your audit data with the project charter to determine if your procedures work, if the process is working as expected, if you’re ready to close out procedure validation, or you need to make changes to improve your process procedures effectiveness. Change Management can be tricky here. Process optimization comes later, after you close out the original design, the process is going for a while, and you’re ready to improve once again. For now, focus on important procedure changes to achieve the original objectives, in order to prevent scope creep.

Conclusion

We started the process procedure journey with a procedure implementation plan. Your process procedures project continued with a process map, documenting your process procedure design. If a procedure was required, you had to write a procedure.

The process procedures journey ended with procedure validation, where you ensured the process was working and the written procedure worked. Once validation is complete, you’re ready to start your next process procedures journey.

Required Policies Procedures

Only company policies and procedures required by standards, regulations or company strategy must be developed. ISO 9001 requires only six procedures, so why do many companies feel they need to write 40 or more procedures to achieve control? Occasional users need procedures as a reminder of procedure steps that they do not perform very often. Frequent or regular users do not need, and often times do not use, the procedure. So how are those other 34-plus procedures used? Most procedures are used to train infrequent users. For training purposes you may only need a process map. Are you using your procedures to make up for a weak training program?

Your Policies Procedures Template Design

When you do write rpocedures you will need to standardize on a procedure template design. Start your policies and procedures template design by thinking through your document and record control procedures. Your procedure template design should make room for a header block to ensure your procedure communicates your purpose and scope. 

Add a Title, Policy, Purpose, Scope, Responsibility, and Definitions section to help people understand your procedure. Clear department responsibilities identify who does what and helps to declare which positions are mentioned in your procedure with a synopsis of what is expected for each position. Key term definitions reduce confusion; industry jargon should be explained in the definitions section of your procedure to help new procedure users.

Writing Policies Procedures

Before you start writing procedures from scratch, look around for examples, or templates, that you can copy. Pre-written procedures will speed up your development, reduce your research time, and turn writing procedures into editing procedures. I’ve found it’s a lot easier to edit a procdure than to write one from scratch, depending on the procedure. Many procdures are really common using business best practices, so why reinvent the wheel?

If you have to write a procedure from scratch, start writing procedures using active voice construction to reduce task confusion. Subject, verb, object provides clear active voice construction for your procedure. For example, “Accounts Receivable invoices customers” is clearer and contains fewer words than “customers are invoiced by Accounts Receivable.” The extra “are” and “by” make the sentence longer, put the subject last, and force the reader to stop and reread the action. Be direct and to the point — use the active voice.

Add references to related documents to improve your procedures’ usability. Clearly note when your procedure refers to other procedures or forms. There’s nothing worse than following a procedure and coming to a passage that refers to a company form and…that’s it. You don’t know what the form looks like, where you might find it, or what version of the form you need. Putting an example of the form, with an explanation, in the procedure will save you and your users time during procedure training and implementation.

List applicable laws or regulations: clearly communicate your company’s need for compliance. If you’re implementing a records retention procedure, references to IRS or equal employment opportunity (EEO) passages, for example, provide a brief synopsis and help you implement your procedures.

How to Write Policies and Procedures

Policies Procedures Overhead

Large organizations have a large number of procedures. They have a lot of staff, business operations, and economy of scale to make their procedures work. Smaller businesses should remember — the more business procedures you write, the more business procedures you have to edit, implement, train, audit, and review. More procedures may also produce more audit findings in addition to more updates, more documents to control, and more administration overhead.

Many companies fail to plan for this administration and procedure overhead, so it should come as no surprise that their procedures don’t work as well as expected. Every procedure becomes outdated, eventually. Also, due to infrequent maintenance and use, some procedures are overlooked when it’s time to update them. This can result in repeated procedure audit findings or, worse, repeated waste, fraud, and abuse which the procedures were intended to reduce.

The lean thinking solution is (a) to write only procedures that you absolutely have to write to conform to requirements and (b) to improve your training program to build competent and skilled employees instead of writing procedures you don’t have the time or budget to maintain.

Next week, we’ll cover policies and procedures implementation and training. It’s much easier to comply with standards and train employees when you’re working with written procedures. If you’re interested in learning more about your procedures, call or e-mail us for a procedure review of your written procedures. We’re happy to provide feedback on what you’re using and tell you how you can improve your processes.

How can you use the individual steps of your process procedures journey to focus your business on:

• Adapting your core business processes to process change?
• Building repeatable business processes?
• Adhering to process standards or regulations?
• Managing your business processes more effectively?

Each step of your process procedures project results in an important milestone being reached. Your entire process procedures project will move along better and quicker, with better results, if you achieve each milestone.

Figure 1 depicts the business process procedures journey work flow. The journey starts with project management. The extent of a business process change can be large or small — they may or may not require written procedures — but even small process changes require basic project management to avoid having the law of unintended consequences catch up with them.

1. Process Procedures Project Management

To get the buy-in of your employees, start your process procedures project with a project charter that focuses your team on clear project goals and objectives. For example, if you’re working on an accounts receivable process, be sure receivables clerks consistently follow the process.

Your process procedures project plan should allow time for the six steps in your process procedures journey: allow about 12% for project planning, 13% for process design, 25% for procedure writing, and 50% for process procedure implementation, training, process auditing, and a management review at the end of the project (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Process Procedures Project Time

Process procedures project management key milestone: completion of your project charter and project plan.

2. Process Mapping and Process Design

Your procedures process map should include the sequence of process steps with clearly defined inputs, documents, and records. Make a special note of the process flow metrics, responsibilities, and goals. For example, an accounts receivable process should note the invoices per hour processed, who is responsible for cash, write-off, or discount approvals, and how close the process is to the goal of collecting within thirty days. This information will help with later procedure writing, process training, and process auditing.

For many business processes, a process map may be the only documentation needed. Not all processes require procedures, work instructions, or anything more than a process map. In fact, a form may be all you need. It is really a matter of scale: the more employees you have involved in a given function — the more complex it is — the more formal process documentation you’ll need.

Process procedures process mapping and design key milestone: complete “current state” process map with process data.

Next week, we’ll cover writing policies and procedures. Procedure writing is a result of formal, required compliance and training. It is often much easier to comply with standards - and train employees - when you work with a written procedure.

If you’re interested in learning more about your procedures, e-mail us at info@bizmanualz.com or call us at 314-863-5079 for a procedure review. We’re happy to provide feedback on what you’re currently using and show you how we can help you improve your processes.

Your business process procedures journey is driven by your business needs: need to survive, need for effective process change management, need for process consistency, need for process compliance, and need for process control. Your entire business model is in jeopardy if you fail to adapt to change, build repeatable business processes, adhere to process standards and guidelines, observe regulations, and manage your business processes and process change effectively.

You can achieve effective business process change management, process consistency, process compliance, and process control by focusing on your business process procedures journey (Figure 1), a six-step process comprised of the business process management topics we talk about on the Bizmanualz.com website.

Business Process Procedures Flowchart

Figure 1 - Business Process Procedures Journey Flowchart

Notice how we talk about processes and procedures together. Your business model is a system of processes. Business processes need to be identified, communicated, and reviewed for there to be an effective change management process, with effective opportunities for business growth in place.

In Figure 1, the procedure writing steps are colored in red, to signify their optional status. Not all processes require procedure writing; there’s a lot of overhead tied to every business procedure you write so that the more business procedures you write, the more procedures you have to edit, implement, train people on, audit, and review. Only company procedures required by standards, regulations, or company strategy must be developed.

Michael Gerber’s book, the E-Myth, explains how important it is for entrepreneurs to think about working “on” their business instead of “in” their business. Working too closely inside of your business processes is sometimes referred to as “business myopia” — being too close to your processes can keep you from advancing on the business process procedures journey.

Once you start working on your business — not in it — you can identify key business processes, practice communicating critical business process metrics and information, and review those business process metrics against the changing marketplace. Now you are in control of your business process improvement.

This month we’ll be showing you how to advance — how to implement — each of the six steps of the Business Process Procedures Journey:

1. Process Procedures Project Management
2. Process Mapping and Process Design
3. Required Procedures (optional steps)
   • Policies and Procedures Template Design
   • Policies and Procedures Writing
4. Process Procedures Implementation and Training
5. Process Procedures Audit
6. Process Procedures Review and Change Management

In our next article, we’ll explain how you can use the individual steps to focus your organization on adapting your core business processes to business process change, build repeatable business processes, adhere to process standards or regulations, and manage your business processes more effectively.

The first phase in any project management process is Project Initiation. The second phase is Project Planning. Together the first two phases represent the seven “Ps” of planning:

Proper Prior Planning Prevents a Pretty Poor Program.

But you are not preparing planning for planning’s sake, you need the deliverables. The next phase - Project Execution - is the area most people spend most of their time.

Project Management Phase III: Project Execution

Project Execution is the third phase in any project management process. It consists of developing, executing, and creating or building the project deliverables. The hard core planning elements prepared you for what you have to create; now you have to create it. Your output at this phase could be design documents, prototypes, examples, samples, or actual product, which should be accompanied by verification test results that substantiate that the deliverables meet the requirements.

Typically project execution is a construction phase. In the case of a process improvement project, Project Execution consists of constructing the solution or understanding the root cause and implementing the appropriate corrective action. After Project Execution, you move to Project Monitoring and Control.

Project Management Phase IV: Project Monitoring and Control

Project Monitoring and Control is the fourth phase in any project management process and consists of…well, monitoring and control. It is the last step of the six sigma DMAIC process and is critical for process improvement — ensuring that the problem is really solved.

Key variables are monitored to determine if they remain within tolerable ranges, so that your process improvements are maintained. In a custom home building project, monitoring might occur during the warranty period. The home owner would monitor their new home and report issues that come up. Once the monitoring period is complete, you are ready for the Project Review and Close phase.

Project Management Phase V: Project Review and Close

Project Review and Close is the final phase in any project management process and consists of closing out the project. ”I’m done with the project”, you’re thinking. ”What else is there to do?” There are three important elements of closing out a well-managed project: final project housekeeping, project review, and the project close-out report.

Project housekeeping consists of the project tasks that wind down your project:

• Complete final acceptance sign-offs;
• Complete the project review;
• Archive all documents and records;
• Recognize exceptional project achievements and discuss a project celebration event;
• Return project resources - people, facilities, and equipment;
• Write the final status report and create the project close-out report; and
• Communicate project successes and project management recommendations.

Project review is really what this phase is all about. You need to collect feedback from the project team (individually and as a group), management, the customer, and your suppliers. Project feedback is about knowledge management — capturing “lessons learned” for the sake of future projects. Make sure you identify project successes and problems for future project managers — one of them could be you!

People performing different functions on the project bring their own knowledge and experiences and they each have a unique, different view of the project’s successes, failures, and possible solutions. They see and hear things others don’t, and vice versa. Ensure that each project stakeholder group is represented — and participates — in your project review. Remember, it is the users’ view of the project and its deliverables, along with the view of the major stakeholders, that will live on long after your project is complete.

Important project review questions to ask include:

• Do we have a list of went wrong and why?
• What do the customer satisfaction data say about our project?
• Have all handoffs and project transitions to the customers been completed?
• Are there any outstanding issues, activities, or risks?
• Is technical support in place?
• Was the project organization, including staffing and skills, appropriate?
• Were the schedules effective?
• Did the processes for change control, quality, and configuration management work well?
• How effective was the project communication plan?
• Were our success factors met?
• How was our time/budget variance and performance?
• What are the recommendations for future project managers?

The project manager is responsible for preparing your final deliverable for the project, the Project Close-Out Report. In the project review, the project manager obtained input from the project team and other major stakeholders. Now it is time for the project manager to organize the project review data into concise, cogent project information, harvest the project wisdom, and communicate the project results.

The project close-out report represents your stakeholder’s final thoughts on the project. It starts with summary descriptions from your project charter, explanation of project performance, operations management issues, documentation archives, and concludes with your project recommendations for future projects. You may include a list of project close-out items that demonstrates the project housekeeping activities are complete.

Your project sponsor approves your report and you are done, right? Almost. You must distribute the report, too.

Your project close-out report should include:

• Project title, date, and author;
• Project description, goals, and benefits (from the project charter);
• Performance baseline (target versus actual);
• Operations management handoffs and issues;
• Project documentation archives;
• Lessons learned and recommendations;
• Project close-out checklist; and
• Approvals.

Documenting project review data is not enough — you must share the project successes and lessons learned with others in your organization. Consider adding this information to your project management procedure. Use your project close-out report — establish or continue your knowledge management process — so the lessons learned are there for the benefit of future projects.

At this point, your project management event is complete but your project management process is ready for the next project.

Project planning is the second phase of any project management process and consists of developing the core planning elements. The output of this phase is a set of project management documents, or plans. The most important one is the project plan itself. (Figure 1 shows the table of contents for a project plan.)

Figure 1 Bizmanualz Project Plan Template

The project plan starts with (1) the project overview, where you summarize and introduce the project. This is your “management abstract”. Management may not read much else, so you have to make an impact here. Explain the ROI, user experience changes, and the benefits of the project. Don’t just list the project features — the deliverables, schedules, milestones, and costs. Explain the benefits to the user, or customer.

Next, your (2) project organization describes the reporting structure, or organization chart, along with the roles and responsibilities for the various project team members, including customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders involved in your project.

Everyone has a role. Customers approve requirements, may participate in testing, and are definitely part of acceptance. Suppliers are involved in your procurement. Note the interfaces to all stakeholders.

In many projects, various resources may be involved only part of the time: clarify individual roles and responsibilities and their level of involvement. A 10% resource may become a critical bottleneck because 90% of their time is being used on other projects. Don’t just make a superficial list of resources — note in detail all resource issues and your project structure, to minimize project risks.

If management wants to see the details to items mentioned in the project overview — time, money, and risk control — the (3) managerial process plan is where management will find them. How will the customer’s money be controlled? If risk is a big issue, a separate Risk Management plan may be referenced. Are there any issues — hurdles, bottlenecks, dependencies, etc. — that may affect the project’s Closing? If so, think through the Project Closeout plan to note key handoffs, maintenance, or future training issues.

Technical details are covered under the (4) Technical Process plan. Special test equipment, development hardware, expertise, or facilities are explained, to provide cost justification in the budget. Information from the feasibility study may be referenced or included to explain the design approach, methods, or other design inputs.

It is important to explain what acceptance will mean, so everyone will know when you’re done. The Acceptance plan describes how acceptance will occur, those responsible for acceptance and the criteria for acceptance testing. If the solution will be rolled out to a big or a complex group, a Deployment plan may be in order.

Other planning details are included in (5) supporting process plans. Here you can include additional project planning documents, such as:

• Communications Plan
• Quality Plan
• Procurement Plan
• User Training Plan
• Test Plan

In a large project, these plans could be separate documents (and probably should be, with ample details). In a small project, you could simply incorporate them into the project plan document. Either way, it is important that you make it clear how you intend to face the planning issue. Leaving out an important project planning element could be a cause of project scope creep, leading your project into time or cost overruns and possibly failure.

Let’s say you’re working on a set-up reduction process improvement project. Your plan focuses on one work cell at one plant that has three shifts. Management suggests you take the improvements on the road to the other eight plants. Stop and think…is this scope creep? It is if your original plan didn’t address training a large number of workers across the country. (It didn’t, did it?)

For the “other eight plants”, you need to see results from the first one. Only when you’re satisfied with those results do you develop a new project charter and a new project plan with a new budget for the other eight. Your new project plan needs a communications plan and a user training plan of its own. Additional training resources will be needed. In other words, despite the similarities, this is a different project.

The Project Plan is your most important project management document. The Project Plan and its supporting plans are your primary management control mechanisms. Your project Plan contains the information you use to control the project’s resources and prevent scope creep. Use your Project Plan to explain to management what they are asking for — stay in control of your project.

Phase I - Project Initiation

The primary purpose of Project Initiation is to discover the project’s scope — where are its boundaries? As you see in Figure 1, you need to determine and document the User Requirements & Project Assumptions, produce a Business Case Justification & Feasibility Study, and put together a Project Charter and Project Team.

User Requirements & Project Assumptions

You need to collect data, objective evidence, and examples of the business problem at hand in order to begin framing the project. Start by interviewing users to answer some basic questions:

• Who or what groups are impacted today?
• What pains do they experience?
• What will the improvement look or feel like?
• How will the environment or daily work practices change?
• What are the desired project benefits and costs?
• What cannot be done and why?

Talk to management about their project assumptions — time frame, budget, resource availability, standards, regulations, and other data — because they impact the problem. Note: You are not solving the problem yet, but quantifying it. It is important to collect facts at this stage.

In this stage, “facts” include assumptions and perceptions, so get everything on paper and/or recordings. Use an audio or video recorder to collect quotes. You will use all of these facts to build your business case justification.

Business Case Justification & Feasibility Study

You start your business case research with a feasibility study. Now that you know what users want, you need to find solutions, technologies, or methods that will help resolve their issues. Collect qualitative data from your process analysis, industry benchmarks, and through industry research.

Your feasibility study will:

• Define the business issue, problem, or opportunity
• Research industry benchmarks, technologies and methods
• Determine industry solutions, alternatives and trade-offs
• Explain selected solutions, their benefits and risks
• Provide solution recommendation

One of the most important details at this stage is the Return on Investment (ROI). You’re asking management to make an investment — management expects to get some type of return on the investment. Usually you’re asked for the financial ROI but even if the return is intangible, you need to justify the expenditure.

Start by determining your objectives, measure,s or cost variables and establish a baseline figure for comparison. Project baseline and expected results (as per objectives) should be for a reasonable interval (e.g., 12 months) after project completion. Be sure to explain how or when the sponsor/champion will experience the effect of the cost savings or other justification.

Management may also want to know the risk exposure and how this investment compares with alternative capital uses, using Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Economic Value Added (EVA), or Net Present Value (NPV) calculation. Conclude with the total cost of ownership, or TCO, including intangible benefits that will be realized, too.

You are now ready to build your business case justification using the data from your user requirements, project assumptions, and feasibility study. Your business case is designed to convert all the data into information that convinces management - or the customer - that your project will deliver positive results. It should answer who or what groups are impacted, what the benefits and risks are for the selected solution, and what it will cost in terms of time and money.

Project Charter

Projects start with an idea, yet we don’t know what we don’t know. Projects require some learning and solutions will evolve. So, how do you focus a project team on your solution? You start with a project charter, used by the project manager to document and communicate a common understanding of the project with all stakeholders — management, customers, and the project team. The project charter focuses the project team on the main elements of the project in order to control the dreaded scope creep that often seems to invade projects.

Scope creep: small changes that, individually, may appear acceptable but collectively, add up to significant project expansion. Effectively manage the scope and you effectively manage resources and, ultimately, the project.

Think of the project charter as a contract formed with the project stakeholders. I like to keep the project charter to a single page that can be posted on the wall as a constant reminder of what the project is all about (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Project Charter

The project charter defines the project’s main elements:

• Box 1 - Problem Statement, or definition, and Scope - what areas are included and excluded from the project;
• Box 2 - Quantifiable (SMART) Project Goals, and estimated Benefits and their relationship to business objectives;
• Box 3 - Milestones or Tollgates, and Next Steps; and
• Box 4 - Approvals

Some individuals may include project constraints, budget, risks, resources, assumptions, stakeholders, revision history, funding authority, oversight, project structure, roles & responsibilities, and even a glossary in their charters. Personally, I feel that once you add all of this you have a project plan, not a project charter. You definitely can’t keep something like this to one page if you add all of this. A charter is an overview: I say, save the details for the project plan (more on that subject next week).

The project charter is the first step in a disciplined project management process. A project charter assists you in project governance, demonstrates you are following project management best practices, and it’s a great tool to get buy-in from everyone involved.

What Are Some Project Management Tools And Methods?

• Implement a project using the five project management phases;
• Initiate projects with User Requirements & Project Assumptions, a Business Case Justification & Feasibility Study, and a Project Charter & Team Selection.
• Use the project charter (Figure 1) to focus the project team on the key project elements.
• Close out the Project Initiation Phase with a phase review.

Next week, we’ll talk about the second phase of the project management process: Project Planning.

A Project is a temporary collection of related tasks to achieve a desired and usually unique result.

What do you think? Do you find yourself managing a collection of related tasks to achieve a desired result? If so, you qualify as a project manager. Businesses today are evolving, downsizing, and pushing more work down the organization chart. You may be a project manager and not know it. But what if you haven’t been trained as a Project Manager with the necessary skill and tool sets?

This month, we’re going to talk about the project management process and try to answer some questions that every project manager (or would-be project manager) should have the answer to:

• What is project management?
• What are the five phases of project management?
• What are some project management tools and methods?

What Is Project Management?

Projects are unique events and not processes, yet project management is definitely a process and not a unique event.

Project Management is a disciplined utilization of tools and methods for successfully describing, organizing, and controlling a project.

Project management is a structured process of disciplined actions that follows a common Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle found within the five phases of project management.

What Are the Five Phases of Project Management?

• 1. Project Initiation
• 2. Project Planning
• 3. Project Execution
• 4. Project Monitoring & Control
• 5. Project Review & Close

Figure 1 Project Management Document Map

All projects go through the same five project management phases that typically culminates in some type of project management phase review (see Figure 1, Document Map). Each project management phase has a distinct purpose, importance, and set of outputs designed to ensure that the project manager is moving the project toward the desired result.

Following a disciplined project management process should help you to eliminate common project issues resulting from poor buy-in, projects consistently going wrong, failing to learn from past project mistakes, or difficulty in getting your projects approved.

Project management begins with the “Project Initiation” phase. Next week, we’ll describe this first phase — its purpose, inputs, and outputs — in some detail. In the following weeks, we’ll explore the remaining phases of project management — planning, execution, monitoring & control, and close & review.

At the heart of your improvement plan should be a strategy. Rendered maps can help you visually represent that strategy. You need to paint an attractive picture — show a positive future, show the outcome that people will buy into.

We illustrated a strategy of faster turnaround for aircraft overhauls. It was simple. Workers could easily see how the changes being asked of them would result in good outcomes.

We helped an aircraft overhaul facility, or MRO, cut the time required for major service on aircraft overhauls. Less time in the shop means operators get their planes back in service faster which, in turn, means they make money instead of spending it. That helped the aircraft overhaul facility garner a competitive advantage.

We mapped process flows and activities throughout the company; for example, how materials were specified, requisitioned, and tracked. With our process maps, the client saw how small changes would flow through the system and have a big impact.

Had you asked department managers at the time, they would have told you they were already aware of most of the improvement opportunities that we identified. Certainly, the inefficiencies had been there for years, managers would have said. And point solutions had been identified in some cases.

But the eventual impact of small changes was unclear or unknown, so it was hard for them to justify the time and resources needed to effect change. So, improvement flagged.

Lighting a fire for change meant we had to change minds. We illustrated an improvement story that showed certain small changes having a big impact. Using rendered maps, we illustrated the strategy that was easy to buy into. We also illustrated a number of systemic improvements that would help sustain the improvements.

Show the Positive Future and Give People a Reason to Change

For example, we selected and illustrated how highly skilled mechanics were spending time and many footsteps getting parts. Everyone understood that if a wrench doesn’t turn, the plane doesn’t move, and turnaround suffers.

This rendered process map shows mechanics' walk and wait times in the current state. Inefficiency and waste are readily apparent.

In the future state, we instead showed parts being delivered to the mechanics:

In contrast to the current state, the future state is much simpler and, therefore, a marked improvement. As a communications device, it leads workers to ask what is required to achieve and sustain the improvement.

It sounds simple, right? It was simple, and it tied in with the overall strategy of reducing turnaround. It made it a great story. Ultimately, it was the story that had been lacking in the past.

The story, told in rendered maps, helped us get the buy-in that was essential to support the many process changes required to sustain change. How would the runner know what part to deliver to the mechanic? When would the part be delivered? How would chain of custody be maintained? Many questions arose that, before, simply froze out improvement, but by telling a story for positive change, the hard work of change became tenable.

By virtue of our illustrating specific improvements, people could see exactly how that lofty strategy translated into their daily work lives. Our story consisted of sufficient current-state and future-state improvement “concrete steps” and examples to show that improvement was, in fact, possible and exactly how the “positive future” of reduced turnaround time could be achieved.

Telling the Improvement Story Is Part of Your Job

Had we stopped at producing the descriptive maps and left it up to the department heads to structure an improvement program, they surely would have made some incremental improvements in their system. However, their efforts would have lacked urgency and sustainability. Change would not have happened fast enough to outpace the industry. Hungry competitors would not have been overtaken, and no sustainable competitive advantage would have been achieved.

But it was achieved. As we learned, it’s part of our job as leaders to tell the improvement story. Rendered maps are a tool for telling stories of positive change. Fact-based, tangible, visual stories can illustrate a positive future, and should be in your process mapping toolkit. So, tell the story. Complete the improvement journey. Use a map.

Activity maps display information about the relative worth or value of activities. They show process steps in columns – activities within each step, or column, are shown. Activities are color-coded according to the value that customers might derive from them (i.e., are they value-added or non-value-added activities?). Some activities add value and some do not — those that don’t should be minimized or eliminated.

Assigning a value to activities is, by nature, subjective: we may rationalize our value judgment by attributing it to the customer. That is shifting the responsibility for the judgment onto the customer, which may ensure that some activities that should be cut are not.

Recapping the Seven Process Map Formats

Let’s recap the maps discussed over the past several weeks. The following table lists the information each map reveals and the best use for each. Click on the links for articles and blog posts explaining or applying the highlighted concept:

Moving From Process Observation to Process Improvement

The descriptive process maps help capture the current state. Activity maps help us collect detailed information about what is occurring. We use them to reduce the number of steps – we make the process lean.

Convincing others to accept our judgments often requires changing minds, showing people a new way to work. We move beyond simply describing a process to tell a story, illustrating our point of view. There are maps that help us do just that; one is the “rendered map”. In a rendered map, we show enough information to persuade our audience to accept our judgment.

Now, we hear the objection, “Show all the information and let the viewer decide.” Our objective is to “inform to persuade”. Everyone has their biases, their own set of filters. We commonly think of this in relation to news media; however, your relationship to a business process colors your judgment, too.

As an analyst, quality professional, change manager, and executive, your role is to collect and sift through information, form a qualified, professional opinion, and present a compelling case for improvement.

Not having collected and mapped everything you did, your audience doesn’t have the perspective you do. They know more than you about their specific area, department, or function but you captured key aspects of that in interviews you did. When the facts are analyzed and the mapping is done, it’s time for you to make your case: convince people to take action in step, in time, and with significant potential impact.

In the next article, we conclude our Process Map series with rendered maps — setting the stage for change.