What is AS IS process mapping?

Companies that work with the BPM methodology and have its processes mapped know how important it is to monitor the processes. Although, to achieve this level of excellence we need firstly to understand deeply the existent procedures, clearly define the responsibility of each individual and the sequence of the activities in the flow.

The simple act of formalizing an existent process provides performance gains to the involved area. The following article was extracted from the BPM Quotes blog, and it was written by the specialist in Corporate Management System expert Pedro Mello. It talks about what as is business process model is and what it takes to implement it. 

To further know about as is business process model click on the link and learn about process mapping techniques.

Definition: It is the gathering and documentation of the current process situation, known as the as is process mapping, represented in flow or diagram. At this time, we also gather the problems and fragilities, as well as the opportunities for process improvement.

Who: The people who participate in this work are mostly the people who perform the process on a daily basis. We also recommend that people from the supplier process and the client process participate, not leaderships in general.

Granularity: the level of granularity of the process documentation depends on the project purposes. Usually, is requested of the people that are giving their deposition in the process mapping meeting that they relate the process as if explaining it to a new employee. It is required that all the information is gathered in one meeting. It is usual to describe, to each process activity, a level of detail that improves its understanding and make possible to a new apprentice to understand how this process is conducted, at a detailed level.

Documentation structure: It is fundamental that the documented process – flow – has the equivalent element in the macro structure of organizational processes, represented by the Value Chain.

Items to analyze when doing AS IS process mapping

• Document improvements (connected to the problems) and the expected gains and expresses them in a quantitative (not qualitative) manner. The important thing is to determine what is expected for the process in the future.
• Determine the goals of the process. Understand why the modeling is being done, what is expected at the end of the work.
• Define the Patter of Notation and Work to the as is business process model.
• Define the tool to the process modeling, if possible with a database.
• Assign techniques, clear and possible, to the process mapping.
• In the case of external consultants, the concepts, tools, and methodology used must be aligned with the company’s standards.
• Determine the project team and the responsibility of each member.
• Elaborate the work plan, specifying the steps, the personal responsible, the chronogram and agenda – always prioritizing the processes.
• Strategy and indicators related to the processes goals, checking the process alignment with the business strategy.
• Guarantee the resources needed to the project – Infrastructure.
• Think about the communication (within the Change Management scope).
• Aware the high managers about the project, its requirements, involvements, etc.
• Talk with the operational about the project, its requirements, involvements, etc (Management Process Workshops).

AS IS process mapping techniques

The as is business process model can be done in a few ways, depending on the scenario and context of the company. The most usual are:

• Interview: although is the most common it is not advisable because it considers only the view of one person.
• Observation: the person who documents view who executes the activities.
• Survey: it is sent to the interviewee who fills it and returns it, and used to the as-is process mapping.
• JAD sessions: the representatives involved with the process gather and document the process. This is, by far, the most adequate, because it is fast and delivers quality.

Raising problems and weak points

In the same as is process mapping meeting, after reaching conclusions about the detailed flow, we must document in a spreadsheet the problems and improvement opportunities, taking advantage of the people there. The most important and hard to obtain information is the quantification of the problem. Following some elements that cause problems and can negatively affect the process.

• Bureaucracy
• Lack or insufficiency of planning
• Activities that do not aggregate value
• Process execution deadlines
• Rework/ checking
• Risk
• Internal/external communication in process execution
• Process performance – Bottleneck
• Skills to process execution
• External threats (laws, competition, legislation)
• Execution time
• Process cost
• The systems – obsoletes or nonexistent
• Controlling in non-official systems (Excel, Access, etc.)

During the implementation of the as is business process model, there are some items related to its documentation that must be highlighted. For example: work with prioritizing methods, always follow the Chain Value, effectively involve in the project people with process knowledge and consider the expectative of the managers relating the goals achieved in each process handled. Besides, it is also important to know deeply the projects, so that the as-is process mapping is done based on activities that are determinant to the continuous improvement of the process.