Don't Blame the People, Blame the Process

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dhaughey
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I've posted a new project management article on the site titled, "Don't Blame the People, Blame the Process".

"Having good reliable processes is the cornerstone of a successful business. Processes are there to make sure there is consistency and robustness for repeatable activities. However, not all processes are good processes and in the worst cases may actually hold your business back. This was clear on one particular project I worked on recently...

The project struggled because the process for implementing the IT infrastructure had not been adequately communicated and the key decision makers had not been identified. The IT department provided very little help in the early phases of the project. It soon became clear something was wrong, especially as the team members, who wanted the project to succeed, were being heavily constrained by the process. A clear case of a poorly thought out and unwieldy process delaying an important business project. So what lessons can we learn from this?"

Read the full article here...

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/dont-blam ... ocess.html

Duncan
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Nice article, Duncan. I so agree with many statements made in the article...

"If you become too process driven you risk losing sight of the business goal."

It's sad, but many of us have witnessed PMOs and PM infrastructures fail based on processes that were poor fits for the organization, the people using them, and the customers they were trying to service.

Likewise, this statement hit home in many ways...

"Ensure there are clear roles and responsibilities and you have accounted for all scenarios not just the main one. Test run your processes on paper with the people who will use them and improve them from their feedback."

How many times do we forget about our end users? We do it with processes as mentioned in this article. We forget that were developing processes that someone must apply daily. Take it to them and verify that these processes will work and can be followed with success in the types of projects we are asking people to manage. We see it on individual projects as well when we push out solutions to end users who really needed something else - mainly because they weren't adequately involved in the business process analysis phase and the requirements definition activity. It's the same thing with the processes that we are rolling out to the individuals in our organizations to follow. Ask, do these make sense? Will they work for you? And can you succeed with them? If not, what should change? Ask them before rolling them out...don't point fingers after they fail.

Brad
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dhaughey
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Thanks Brad,

These issues are quite common in organisations. I wrote the article after being a victim of poor processes myself and knowing the frustration that causes.

Duncan
jasonlindsay
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Business process modelling is usually implemented when looking at changing processes, implementing new processes or identifying problems with an existing process. By modeling the business processes organisations can see where the problems are. These problems usually come about as processes evolved instead of being designed in a rational way and they were often affected by changes in conditions, takeovers and reorganizations.
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