A New Perspective on Business Process Design & Automation ...

Ian Ramsay
Copyright © 2012-2013 Ian Ramsay and ValueFlow Associates Limited.
This short booklet outlines the challenges we have 8020™ most notably reduces; analysis effort,
seen during a decade of business process automation translation errors, rework, operational risk &
assignments & the resultant methods & tools we development costs.
developed to remove risk, cost & time from any
process change or automation initiative … regardless We use this approach in our delivery assignments, in
of the business process complexity or your specific concert with client specific change methods & have
BPM technology platform. seen benefits for our customers in all the following
areas;
8020™ formalises these pragmatic techniques into a
concise, business oriented & vendor independent • Executive Engagement & Education.
extension to traditional methods & is designed to • Programme Cost Benefit Analysis.
work in harmony with company governance & vendor
software configuration methods.
• Process Change Programme Inception, Scoping,
Resourcing & Delivery Approach.
8020 is the first formal approach based upon the • Evaluation, Selection & On-Boarding of BPMS
Platforms & Content Management Systems.
exciting new field of Artefact-Centric BPM, previously
the domain of academic research but now accessible
to all.
• Rapid Process Analysis & High Level Design.
• Test Design, Development & Execution.
In prior delivery assignments, 8020 has enabled the
business & technical teams to converse using a
• Business User Engagement & Operational Training
Development.
precise, common language. A set of easily This paper focusses on the 8020 Process Design and
understood process constructs that faithfully Automation Method. Other aspects of the 8020
represent the real world business operations, using Approach such as Process Mining and Process
simple terminology yet in a form ready for immediate Landscaping are covered in separate white papers.
automation.
[email protected] +44 789 999 8017
CUSTOMERS SEEK & EXPECT VALUE.

VALUE is a perceived POSITIVE CHANGE in SOMETHING.

PROCESSES CHANGE THINGS, in a POSITIVE way.

THINGS are CHANGED by WORK.

WORK is organised into TASKS & performed by WORKERS.

WORKERS can be PEOPLE or MACHINES.

In a service economy the “thing” that actually realises customer
value is simply data. Mainly the customer’s own case data &
the myriad of value altering states it assumes.

Value is created by transforming this data, efficiently &

predictability, which we do by way of work, often guided by
business rules & procedures.

Without a clear understanding of such case data & valid states

it is impossible to clearly define the optimal work procedures,
some of which can appear very complex. Consequently
customer value is often lost or destroyed.

1
Financial Service industries rely almost exclusively upon
information to deliver customer value at the right time at the
right price point. Today this reality demands extensive &
sophisticated process automation, delivered economically &
predictably.

To deliver such benefits repeatably, process change &

automation programmes need to move beyond the ad-hoc
work-centric methods & better define the “things” that add
value.

It’s not the work that customers value, it’s the outcome …
namely the process data, information & service experience.
2
Whole departments are currently dedicated to “mapping
processes”, developing flowcharts of work, analysing “wasted
operational effort” & rearranging work to reduce time, cost &
defects.

LEAN, 6-Sigma & Systems Thinking certainly offer a framework

for process improvement, but by nature tend to address the
more tangible, visible & physical aspects of a process. Such
techniques are necessary, but not sufficient, for effective
process automation projects in financial services.

Additional perspectives on process change are required ...

3
Is the MODEL an accurate
picture of the BUSINESS
OR
is the BUSINESS compliant
with the MODEL ?

4
The Current Situation
Processes can be complex things. They appear hard Yet it is these core business processes that represent
to define or automate. Perceived complexity of the bulk of operational cost & corporate value
process definition & automation often means we fail creation.
to automate effectively leaving many people involved
in conducting mundane operational work. Much of our focus in understanding business
processes in financial services has centred around
People are naturally good at assessing the real context improving the efficiency of staff. To do this we have
of a case, understanding the overarching business borrowed techniques & methods from the (mature &
objective then applying various intelligent plans of efficient) manufacturing industry, such as;
work to move it towards completion. People can even flowcharting, run charts, eliminating waste & 6-Sigma
resolve unforeseen exception cases outside their conformance models.
formal training. Something a computer cannot take
the “initiative” to do. Unfortunately, people are also Despite massive investments in process improvement
quite expensive to train & sustain plus they are prone & associated technology, the service sector has not
enjoyed the productivity gains seen in manufacturing.
to error.

So while computers have taken a predominant role in Our analysts tend to focus on understanding the
managing core customer data, they have struggled to physical or more tangible parts of a process, (like
economically automate those critical business obvious flows of work, materials & staff organisation)
processes that drive a service business. while trivialising the more abstract aspects (such as

5
customer process data, valid data states, business
events & goals).

This simplistic approach is generally OK for

manufacturing as the focus of work is
tangible, it’s mainly materials. There are
limited dimensions to describe.

However, in financial services we see

immense energy & intellect deployed only
to document & implement changes to a
small, visible portion of a real world process,
leaving the rest for interpretation by
programmers or operations staff, or both!
Any benefits from process change are
quickly offset by errors & compensating
work during operations.

With this imprecise approach, problems with

process change programmes are inevitable & now
well documented.

6
Common Problems
Common Symptoms … As described before, flowcharts only capture a portion of a process, but
• The business give us they have proven useful & comprehensible in process change. They enable
incomplete requirements. us to share a common process understanding. But only about a subset of
the process. The bit about how work flows, or is sequenced.
• IT seem to overcomplicate
every project.
When processing was predominantly manual & to some extent with basic
• There are so many exceptions computerised workflow based operations, people are trained (or take the
we are not sure there’s such a
initiative) to react & conduct the missing aspects of a process. A flowchart
thing as a real process flow.
& a few specifications are more than adequate.
• IT don’t seem to understand
what we have to do to get this We often find operational staff & front line managers are unconsciously
job done. competent in process knowledge. They perform the job yet struggle to
• Every time we agree the articulate why they apply certain decisions or conduct various actions.
process rules, the business
seem to invent more surprise You might say this is excellent news & it is, while we can afford it. However,
variations. if we wish to introduce more extensive process automation we need to
• We bought the wrong BPM extract or validate this embedded process knowledge in a much more
software. precise manner. Remember that operations staff are not business analysts,
• We seem to have more staff nor should they be.
than when we started this
process change. Be aware ... There exists a large communications gap between unconscious
competence & explicitly precise automation!

7
The recurring problem we find in most change real world processing & we use simple
programmes is the limited awareness of all terminology that accurately reflects exactly
process dimensions, by all parties, leading to what happens in any process.
misunderstandings & costly rework.
The problem becomes one of common
So flowcharts are OK for understanding largely communication as to exactly what constitutes
manual processes & basic workflow, but fail to a given business process.
capture the real detail of a full service process
necessary for automation (BPM), integration Most BPM software vendors also provide a
(EAI) or straight through processing (STP). method, standard terminology & an approach
to configuring their systems. This is good but
Flowcharts describe the Sequence of Work, they tend to be focussed
the Flow Rules, & Participants who performs mainly upon how to use the Gartner’s View …
the work, but say little about: software cleverly & avoid “Most businesses have a limited,
technical design problems. explicit under-standing of end-
• Process Data & Relationships. to-end business processes, & if
any understanding exists, it is
• Case Data States & Valid State Changes. Vendors often assume the
customer has the ability & often tucked away within
• Business Events, Processing Goals &
Supporting Work Plans.
awareness to clearly
disparate groups across the
organisation. It's rare to find an
articulate their process organisation that has linked its
• Business Rules, Validation Rules &
Constraints.
behaviour & future scattered process competencies
requirements in terms into a comprehensive strategy.”

• Physical Data Structure, Location &

Integration.
suitable for their tool set.
Michael Melenovsky &
No sooner has the project Jim Sinur, Gartner Research
This may all sound a bit technical for now, but started than negotiations
stay with us, we have refined 8020 & its erupt about variations to
components upon the observed behaviour of scope & extra costs.
8
Business Implications
Outcomes from poor process The most typical outcomes we see from a failed process change
understanding & change run the full programme seem to be:
gamut, from at best, career limiting
Overspend, as without proper context, the elusive automation
embarrassment to complete
corporate collapse. objective always appears imminent but unreachable. Projects remain
just one more change request away from completion & shrinking scope
A failed £30+ million mortgage doesn’t always work. Counterintuitively, even reducing the scope of
processing project in 2009 process automation, can increase the development effort by
contributed to the collapse of a major complicating the process boundaries.
Building Society, forcing a UK
Government rescue package of £1.6 Lost Confidence in process change generally. All parties know it didn’t
billion, of taxpayers money & then a deliver timely benefits as expected, but hardly anybody knows why &
forced sale to a major rival. few a keen to try again.

Business processes go to the very Lost Business Opportunity due to fossilised processes. Rather than
being able to respond positively to new situations, more process
heart of why a business exists. That’s
why the potential benefits of process complexity is incrementally layered onto old, raising unit costs & further
change are so profound & the all too sedimenting poor practices. Process platforms promote & promise
common failures, catastrophic. ongoing agility but can easily become another legacy system.

9
Further IT & Business Division as both parties Active Resistance to Process Change, both by the
“assumed” the other knew how to describe & redesign business & IT, often leaving management blackmailed
a process for automation. In our experience, both into inaction or at best the pursuit of trivial, seemingly
parties tend to have a dangerously limited common- low risk benefits.
view of the true process anatomy & the suitable forms
for sharing such models. Excessive & Blanket Governance to avoid similar
process change overruns. Devaluing the potential
Blame the Software Partners is a common & easily viability & benefits from ALL programmes, not just the
promoted response to project problems. After all, elusive, process oriented projects themselves.
they should have known how to do “this” (in “our”
business). Such blame is about as logical as getting However one cares to assess these implications,
onto the wrong train then blaming the train company nobody would consider them positive or tolerable.
for taking you to the wrong destination. You must The true cost of changing processes in an ad-hoc
have a way to decode where your vendor will take manner has proven to be unacceptable.
you, as they all have great value to add, in different
ways.

10
Whats Needed
As the process change diagram opposite illustrates, A trivial example perhaps, but illustrative of the
there’s plenty of room for errors & misinterpretation in problem.
any IT project. There’s many traditional artefacts being
Processes are intangible things, you can’t touch one,
exchanged but with little common meaning.
you only see the “evidence” of process conduct in
It became vividly clear to us, sometime back, that things like updated data, physical correspondence &
process change programmes lacked a single, central & happy customers.
common perspective to faithfully describe exactly
what’s going on in the business operations in a form Describing business processes is like describing an
that is of value to technical & programme folk. iceberg, much of the subject matter is hidden.

We sat through countless hours of meetings with We therefore need a way to talk about & define the
people talking at complete cross purposes, using the hidden portions & a method to better describe the
same ambiguous words, like; process, MI, SLA, rule & thing as a whole.
so on ... We invested some years watching manual & semi-
automated work in action decoding the hidden parts
A New Account process to a senior manager usually
means the complete end to end customer on- & the strategies people used to resolve cases in this
boarding activity, while to an IT specialist New context. We wanted to develop a rigorous yet
Business may just mean creating a new customer generally understandable perspective of a process,
record in a central database. enabling widespread process improvement &
automation. Something unambiguous yet simple.

11
 Differentiated Services
Agile Processes
Compliant Operations
Integrated, Industrialised
Low Cost, High Quality
Operational Policies Updated IT Systems
Workflow Paerns Revitalised Culture
the Core IT Systems How Automated Processes
the Culture MANAGEMENT see Higher Efficiency
Products the business Compliant
History working. New Operational Policies
Quality How the BUSINESS How the BUSINESS
ACTUALLY behaves & EVENTUALLY
operates. operates.

Procedures Manuals Traditional New Procedures Manuals

Team Behaviour How the How the New Operating Policies
Quality & SLA’s STAFF see the BPM Process TRANSITION Team Pilot Process Testing
Staff Training Business Change interpret the Training Material
Tacit Knowledge operating STAFF.
Events, Goals & Plans
Cycle

How the
Flowcharts How the ANALYSTS TEST Team interpret Test Strategy
Decision Tables interpret the Staff. the ANALYSTS. Test Scripts
Entity Model Test Data
Functional Mock Ups Functional Tests
Product Specification How DEVELOPMENT Usability Tests
Functional Requirements interpret the Solution Performance
Non-Functional Requirements Analysts. Cumulative Defects
Flowcharts Unit Test Scripts
Data Models Wireframes
Use Case Diagrams Deployment Model
Detailed Technical Design Test Data 12
Form follows function
Models help us describe things. No model is ever But this begs the question, what do we mean by the
100% correct but some models are more useful than state of a case? Again we look to how people react
others. Ideally models align well with both reality and when performing work.
the configuration of any potential automation
platform. People constantly react to events. They then apply
some rule, in their head, to assess the next best action
If we wish to develop a useful and realistic model of or task. This pattern repeats incessantly.
any business process we need to be vividly clear as to
exactly what constitutes a business process. What is Let’s look at an example.
its anatomy? If I was to drop a case folder on your desk and say, “can
We have not drawn our process insights from you process this” what would you do in response to
engineering theory or science, but rather how this “new case” Event.
humans go about conducting work. You would open the file and start to assess the state of
People are goal oriented. They always endeavour to the case by reading over the contents or case data.
You are now applying rules in your head to determine
fill in the gaps between the current state of a case and
the desired outcome. Sometimes this journey is quite what action to take based upon what you read.
predictable and can be illustrated in a procedural Let’s say the folder contains a standard quotation
flow-chart or BPMN format, but not always. We need a ready to send to the client but is marked as needing
more general model. “underwriting approval.” So “underwriting approval” is

13
obviously the next task that now needs to be The “things” we work on are typically just data. An
performed. But there may be some more rules. approved quote is simply a standard quote with an
authorised signature. It’s effectively the same thing in
If you are an underwriter with approval authority then
a slightly different state. A quote with an approval.
you might just review and approve it. That’s the
“review & approval” task. We call these things Process Work Entities or just
Entities. Each Entity can have a number of valid States
If you do not have authority then you will reroute the throughout its lifecycle in a process. In our example
folder to somebody who can approve it. A “case the quote is now is the APPROVED state.
forwarding” task.
However, to shift it from the CALCULATED state to the
You can see the event-condition-action pattern APPROVED state we had to perform the “review &
happening. approval” Task. This is a single logical unit of work
Also, if it’s after 5pm you might return the folder to the directed at a single Entity and performed by a single
central pool of work in progress and go home. This is Worker. That’s our definition of a Task.
an example of a clock or timer event, it’s after 5pm.
Since a Task has to be conducted at the right time we
Company policy sets a condition that all desks are introduce the idea of Start Rules. This is our über
empty overnight, so the action is to return the file. flexible way of sequencing Tasks without getting
You have been reading the data in the folder, applying tangled in flowcharts. Like a person each task
rules or conditions then taking action. This sort of responds to events, checks if its OK to start then
pattern is not easily represented in a flow-chart so we performs its action accordingly.
don’t bother with that. So we now have a process modelling approach based
8020 Process Design models business processes using upon simple, proven, real-world constructs:
the same real-world constructs that people use. Events, Tasks, Entities, Workers & Start Rules.

14
8020 Components
For business processes 8020™ presents a simple yet rigorous
organising principle, assembled from the actual schema humans “Everything should be as
use to conduct value adding work. simple as possible, but no
8020 expresses a business process during business design by more” Albert Einstein
simply defining: Entities, States, Tasks, Start Rules & Workers.
Workers can be people or computers.

In the real world, visible or tangible portions of a

process, the People, Tasks & Physical Documents
are intertwined with invisible abstract components
Products Tasks
such as: Computer Applications, Process Data, Valid
Data States, Rules & Business Events.

We tend to place great emphasis on the obvious

physical components & (to our peril) tend to Workers
overlook the more abstract bits.
State Start Rules

8020 gives substance & meaning to these abstract

process components so they can be modelled, discussed &
designed explicitly.

15
Unlike physical things, data unfortunately exists in What are all the “things” I need to process & how are
many forms & in many formats. A new customer they “constructed” ?
account application could exist as an unstructured
People also understand the various relationships
paper form, a well structured record in electronic
format as collected by a web site, perhaps as a among process Entities & Sub-Entities. For example,
scanned image or even a scan OCR’d to a central an investment instruction in one system must match
database &, it could be all of these at once! the customer’s application form in another. Or an
application form may specify more than one
In 8020 an Entity could relate to data in a single investment.
physical document, a single logical document (in a
variety of formats) or data in a logical group of related Finally, people understand or learn the valid States
documents. each Entity can assume during it’s lifecycle. An
Investment Entity could pass through the lifecycle
The exact organisation of an Entity, or its Sub-Entities, states of: New, Valid, Rejected, Payment Matched, OK
is less important than surfacing the existence of the to Trade, Invested & Archived, for example.
data itself. Things can easily be rearranged later, so
long as we have exposed the existence of important The 8020 Entity Model is a central anchoring point
data. that enables rapid & precise elaboration of the process
as a whole, since it simply describes all process data, in
Our experience shows that people manage the all forms & formats across all locations.
abstract “process data puzzle” using two effective
strategies. Proven real-world approaches that are It is after all the change in Entity Data & States that
central to 8020™. adds the customer value.

First of all staff develop a “mental model” of all the The value-add here in its simplest form is transforming
data, or Entities, potentially involved in a process*. the hand written details on a piece of paper, plus a

16
payment into a legal & operational investment 8020 without concern for the technical complexity of
relationship, or a rejection. how to conduct such work during operations. More on
this later.
Entity State is very interesting. It’s the very “thing” that
best describes the customer’s perspective. Our Let’s talk about work or Tasks.
application could exist in any one of a number of states
& even regress to a prior state. It is the final State of the Nothing changes & no value is added till somebody, or
final Entity that the customer understands & values. some machine, does something. This is work & for want
of other terminology in 8020 we refer to the basic unit
If we find States that appear to add little value, like of work as a Task.
Pending states, then during design we try to eliminate
the need for that state & all the low value adding Work To be more specific, a Task is the smallest logical block
or Tasks needed to achieve it. of work that can be performed by one person or one
service on a single Work Entity. A Task is typically
We found that people, unconsciously & constantly designed to alter the Entity State to a higher value state.
assess the state of a process Entity, then pursue a goal
Tasks or Activities are often expressed in a flowchart
to move it to the next viable state. This is work, driven
by the data state, not work for the sake of work, simply where their sequence of operation is explicitly defined.
because it was defined in a flow chart. This task starts after that task & so on. This modelling
approach is OK, up to a point but can degrade into
There can be various independent or parallel Tasks complexity.
required to achieve the next valid, value adding state for
a process Entity & there may even exist competing Add in the reality that every flowchart is only an
alternatives. Whoever sets the state first “wins.” approximation, a single variant often called the “happy
day” scenario that defines say 80% of cases which leaves
The countless patterns of work required to optimise a a block of work called “exceptions” to be handled some
process are easily described in structured English in other way. Perhaps another flowchart.

17
Even if the business can understand & agrees with the task, perhaps pop up a data-entry form, switch to a
complexity it will surely lose something in technical mainframe screen or call a predefined software service.
translation as it is configured into a BPMS software Upon completion the Task will update the related Entity
system. State & broadcast it’s completion, for those other Tasks
that may be interested.
In 8020 we leave the explicit sequencing of work
completely out of the design phase & instead talk about Every Task has one or more assigned Workers. A
Task Start Rules. These rules are evaluated only when Worker can be a single person, a group of people or a
the process is operating to determine which Task, or set computer service. We could for example, assign a
of Tasks, to initiate for action. Payment Matching Task to an automated computer
service & upon failure the task can be reassigned to a
A task in a flowchart only really knows about the member of the group “Payment Processors” & perhaps
previous task (or gateway) & starts only when that an individual such as “the Supervisor”.
completes. In 8020 Task Start Rules have full visibility of
all the Tasks, Entities, States & the system Clock. Tasks During operation Tasks will be linked to real groups or
can be defined to start, often concurrently with other people & appear on one or more Work Lists. Work Lists
tasks, based upon a wide variety of valid business are simply a personalised query across the whole live
conditions. population of relevant cases.

Using this model 8020 eliminates the need for Tasks may be either “picked” at will by a Worker or
“exceptions”, every case has it’s own “happy day” “pushed” to the Worker without choice.
pathway to completion based upon valid Entity States,
valid Business Rules & a Just In Time approach to
expediting work case by case.

A Task may define any number of actions. For example,

it could instruct a person on how to perform a manual

18
If we anticipate automating a
business process then we need
to apply a basic level of rigour to
the design exercise. This is the
8020 Process Design Workshop &
c o p e e s
S t a t
2.S
produces adequate detail for
immediate automation.

Experience shows that physical

presence in the same room with
i t i e s l es
simple tools like 4x4 PostIt notes
.Ent rt R u
& a facilitator is a fun &
productive approach.
1 4 .S t a
The Process Design Workshop is
limited to 3 hours with one or
two breaks & works through the
a sks
topics shown here.
3 . T e rs
o r k
Output includes a ValueTree
model and associated attributes 5.W
suitable for immediate
automation.

19
Process Design Workshop
Develop an Entity Operational Staff maintain a mental picture of all relevant process data & 8020™
1 Model of logical does the same, using a logical data model. This can be further divided into sub-
process entities & entities. During design we build an Entity Breakdown Structure using blue 4” x 4”
their data elements. PostIt Notes. Entities are nouns.

Develop State What are the important states for a given Entity & what are the valid transitions
2 Models for each allowed throughout its lifecycle in the process? If a customer was present would
Entity they identify any States that do not appear to add value? Can we remove such
waste? States are typically adjectives.

Identify the Tasks List out the Tasks that drive each State Transition. An “Approval” Task, for example,
3 needed to change will set an Entity as “Approved” or “Rejected”. Tasks typically are named starting
Entity States with a verb & are associated with the Entity or State.

Organise Start Start Rules control the sequencing of Tasks. Business Rules perform automated
4 Rules. actions or constrain activity. For now we focus upon Task Start Rules & the criteria
that will start a Task. An Entity State change will typically trigger most rules, but we
can also define more complex rules that consider say, elapsed time, service levels &
the status of other Tasks. Use the words “Start When …”

Identify Workers, During design we need to invent logical groups of people or computers to
5 both people & perform a task. During runtime we will bind such participants to real directories &
computers. their Work Lists. For now, we just need to sensibly allocate the work.
8020 presents process components as a ValueTreetm to remove
the distraction of trying to sequence work at the same time as
designing the fundamental process components.

A ValueTree combines the Entity Breakdown Structure (EBS)

with the minimum number of value-adding tasks (WBS)
needed to shift each Entity to a completed state.

At this stage we can assume any Task can start at any time as
might be appropriate for its associated Entity. Our prime focus
is reconciling all the data & activity associated with the process.
Start Rules will be added later.

21
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A simple way to account for all the parts of a business
process. The Entity structure is shown in blue and the
associated Tasks in yellow. When placed into operation

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22
Instant Workflow
Large tracts of process control & efficiency can be Moreover the 8020 idea of “Extra Tasks” allows a user
achieved by quickly automating the distribution & to document that they added a new Task fro this case
management of work. This is commonly called that may not have existed in the standard design.
workflow but has proven rather rigid in both the style
of definition & the resulting business operations. When invoked, an Extra Task will ask for a basic level of
documentation from the user & will log the full state
Workflow solutions assume that most of the work will of the case for future design refinements. The Extra
be performed manually & focus just upon distribution. Task can now augment the standard design & by
default be started whenever the same case state
8020 takes a new approach & enables any BPMS repeats. Processes can learn new tricks by experience.
platform to directly interpret the actual process design
to determine the workflow, case by case, customer by Operating "Consumer Division End of Period Close Process" 11:48am Tue 7-May-2012 | Pat Participant | Help | Preferences | Log Off

customer at runtime. Realtime work sequencing. Work Task "Collate Flash Report"
Use this Participant Task bench to reference work instructions, track
progress, share notes and report on your work status.

Estimated Duration:
Work Instructions Notes & Documents 4 hours 30 minutes

A small BPMS process application needs to be This task starts upon submission of ALL the
Divisional Reports and EACH interim report.
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Time to Deadline:
21m 38s
Mon 5-May 8:15 Amended Mortgage product
For each of the reports you will need to …

configured from our reference design to read the 1. Append the Divisional Sheet to the master
Flash Report document.
line to reflect final SYSTAG adjustment of
£132,450.
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design files (XML) & execute the workflow. 2. Lock the DIvision Folder for this reporting
period.

3. Select DEFAULT Outcome "Ready for

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Reconciliation and Review …" OR "Requires Today 10:02 "Ready for Reconciliation &
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In-Progress : Return to my Work List ...

▶ View SYSTAG Summary Screen ...

design for each active case in the system which also "Flash Report" Data

enables alterations to process behaviour during Expires (caseTime: 2 weeks)

Quality (list: Red, Amber, Green)
Task Outcome ...
New Flash Report Spreadsheet : Blank

runtime without affecting other live cases.

Template (file: //OPS/RPTS/Oct-2012.xls)
... Ready for Reconciliation & Review ...

Complete & Ready for Approval ...

23 + - + - Requires Re-Work ...

Start Rules
Task Start Rules constrain Tasks from starting at A customer investment may be held awaiting funds,
inappropriate times but also ensure they start as early missing advisor details, Customer ID & perhaps a
as possible to ensure timely, compliant completion of National Insurance Number. Without having to
work. bother about all the possible combinations these four
tasks could exhibit, (there are 24 possible
Completing co-ordinated work on a single case in combinations by the way) a “Trade Investment” Task is
parallel is a great way to expedite customer results & simply specified to start when “things are in the right
balance internal workloads. However, even the state.”
simplest BPMN flowchart gateway structure is
challenging to construct without invalidating the The “Application” is APPROVED & the “Investment” is
design. VALID & the “Contribution” is PAID.

Start Rules allow any number of Tasks to start at any Two tasks that each perform half of a “four-eyes”
appropriate time & are exponentially more flexible approval can simply be specified to start when the
than trying to specify the same behaviour with other starts.
flowchart decisions. Start Rules can be written around
Entity data & States, other Task behaviours & the Start Rules can also refer to the clock. For example, an
system Clock. “Escalate to Supervisor” Task may be triggered by any
Task that exceeds its Estimated Deadline OR a any case
Some examples follow: that may have been alive for over 48 hours.

24
Documentation
Since the 8020 process model is formally structured, yet
“Investment New Business” Process Documentation V3.02

New Business
New Business product is considered COMPLETE when ANY sub
products are COMPLETE.

Application Client
New
Business

Supporting Cheque

tio w
Form Original Documents Physical

D f N fica &
on
rm lica Ne
n

o oti ing
oc ew ti
Documents

Fo pp te

N ink
A rea

t
en
L
C

um
simple, meaningful plain English documentation can be Valid Lifecycle States for New Business

generated directly from the Application Complete

Application in Progress
COMPLETE

Inbound Call
model. New Application Received
“Investment New Business” Process Documentation V3.02 Not Yet Linked to an Application DEFAULT

Pend: Awaiting NINO

New Business Data

Process Products & Tasks
<ProductDataName> TEXT
ValueTree™!4
“Inves <ProductDataName> DURATION
New Business!5 tmen
t New
Advisor!6 Busin
ess”
Proce
Investment!7 ss D
ocum
Bank Deposit!8 enta
tion V
Valu 3.02
Debit Card!9 e Tree
Direct Debit!10 ™
Contribution!11
Transfer-In!12
Investment Instruction!13

De eque
sit
po
Ch
Cheque Physical!14
Supporting Documents!15
”
ness

Ch ch ion
Mat plicat
Client Original Documents!16

eq to
si

ue
Page: 5 of 45 Printed: Monday, 9 July 2012

Ap
Cheque

l
Physica
w Bu
Application Form!17

t Ne ntation
Cheques from Bank Statement!19

e n

Ch ure
ue
estm me
Match Contribution with Investment Instruction!20

pt
eq
Ca
“Inv ss Docu
Broker Admin Change Advisor Details!21

ting
s
ument
Suppor
Doc
e
Linking and Notification of New Documents!22

Ch m Ba ent
ery NO
st

ue nk
c

Po

fro em
Qu e NI

s
Pro

Stat
Issu

eq
Refer for Advice!23

t
vis en
Do ase
Ad cum
or

Ch
No New ent
rner

ing tion
Amend Contribution!24

of cum
e Tu com

&
Link tifica

Do
arolin

s
Busines
e.
by: C turner@m 012
Update Transfer Value!25

New

Qu sfer
Advisor

Tranlue
ery
ared

Va
Prep caroline. -May-2-2 12

w
Br in Ne
Ad visor
Initiate Transfer-In Request!26

osit
er
l:

m
8 0

Ad
ok
eMai ed: Fri 1 0-Jul-2

Dep
s
ument
inal
1 Query Non-Payment!27

Client

Bank
Creat ed: Tue

Orig
Doc

Up ive -In
r
rvisog

Re sfer
da d
Su kin
ifi

Tranlue
Mod n: 3.02

te
Update Direct Debit Details!28

ec

Va
pe

ce
Ch
o

Ad tails
Versi

Ch visor
Ad ange

De
Br in
Enter Debit Card Authorisation Code!29

er
f tax

m
Form tion

ok
ge o ut
-In b

lica
ll ran sfers

App
Chase Transfer-In Non Payment!30

t
our fu es Tran

No ymen
as -In
s
Ne sines

Ch sfer
Bu ery
s for

Trann

Pa
e
ud

Qu

e
ad
w
olicie ns. Incl Capture Application Forms!31

it Tr
n : d p

bm
ptio a n tio
nt op trations.

d
escri accounts

Su
te ion

it Car
Query Transfer Value!32

w
ss D stme

Ne
Cr plicat
Ap rm
gis

n
Deb
w .
Proce g of ne s and inve d Re-Re

tio
Fo

stment
b site

ea

Ca thorisa
bit
New Business Query!33
r we

Au de
De
nin ct n

Co
Ope rodu rs-Out a fax o

n
Inve

rd
ter
tributio

En
ive p e Mail, Supervisor Checking!34
effect es Transf ail, e

Con

it
Deb
d by m
exclu Broker Admin New Advisor!35

Direct
o n : Fo rm

te bit
s up ation

Up ct De
Dire tails
start

for
e
pplic ut. Advisor Document Chase!36

vic
fer

da

De
Case t of an A ed O

wi stm ion
Ad

t
Re

en
s
nd

Inve ruct
en: or Tim

Fu
ip

Inst
Rece s wh cted

ch
th

n-
Mat
plete ed, Reje

ery t
No
Qu en
ym
com

Pa
st

ptur ion

ate -In
se ve

Initi sfer t
Ca

Tranques
In

Ca icat
ation

Ap rms
e
Page: 2 of 45 Printed: Monday, 9 July 2012

Re
pl
Fo

Instruc ent
Applic

tion
stm
Inve

sfer-In
Tran

Up sfer
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te
da

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n
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Am rib
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Co
Page:

Au sfer t
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4 of

aw
45 P

Pa
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rinted: M
onday
, 9 Ju
ly 20
12
Deeper Automation
The 8020 ValueTree model can quickly define quite but we can take advantage of contemporary BPMS
complex and sophisticated process models, but it is platforms to further group and enrich Task behaviour.
largely focussed upon securing the first benefit of
Typical additional and deeper automation features
automation, command and control.
include:
This is the necessary workflow, or in our case
ThingFlow, that ensures work is scheduled • Presenting a sequence of data entry or enquiry
forms to a participant.
appropriately and balanced across teams

Implementing a highly dynamic & event driven

• Directly popping a relevant mainframe screen
based upon the current state of the case.
workflow like this delivers significant operational
benefits at very low cost & risk. • Calling a SOAP request to further enrich Entity
data or initiate remote actions.
Deeper automation of individual Tasks extends these
benefits yet again by eliminating either human error,
• Executing more complex business rules perhaps
in a rules engine.
manual effort or both.
• Generating outbound correspondence based
We take an 8020 design as the framework. Using the upon case data.
ValueTree & associated attributes we now perform
some deeper analysis. Each Task remains as an atomic
• External messaging to suppliers and customer
systems.
& logical unit of work focussed upon a single Entity
… and much more.

26
8020 Training
Executive Workshop A thought provoking 90 minute session to expose management to new process
automation perspectives. Groups are typically aligned by level or department to
facilitate lively discussion & constructive action.

8020 Introduction A one hour fun session designed to help business teams understand the basic
components of an 8020 design & its associated terminology. This is a precursor to
attending a 3 hour 8020 Process Design Workshop.

8020 Process Design A 3 hour course designed to step a new facilitator through the 8020 Process Design
Workshop Facilitator Workshop documentation and prepare them to conduct design sessions. The instructor
will participate in the first workshop to embed the training and support the facilitator.

8020 Practitioner 8020 work experience is a prerequisite for this one day intensive session for Business
Analysts, Process Analysts, Architects & Business Engineers. We present the various
8020™ Methods used to elicit & design highly efficient automated process solutions.
A short, open book project is to be submitted within 7 days of the course & is estimated
at 2-3 hours work.

27
8020 Method fits here ...
Corporate & Programme Governance (MSP)

Project Management (PRINCE2)

Business Stake Holders Technical Team

LEAN 8020 Process Design Software Development

6-Sigma Methods Rup, Agile, ITIL
& Delivery Method
Manual BPM Vendor Configuration Integration Patterns &
Procedures Method Method(SOA) Tools

Manual Custom
BPMS Production Platform Integration Bus
Work Code

28
for the More Technical
Artefact-centric BPM is new, but the principles are and all other subscribing objects will fire a condition
timeless. Just as computer science evolved from rule and initiate an associated action, such as starting.
procedural languages like Cobol to more appropriate
We are developing a graphical ValueTree editor,
forms such as object oriented techniques, so too is
business process evolving from procedural flowcharts initially for iPad then for any HTML5 browser. We call
and BPMN to the consideration of artefacts or Process this the Process Planner Workbench. The Workbench
Entities. creates, edits and writes an extensible XML property
list file that always conforms to at least the base 8020
An Entity can be conceptually aligned with a class and reference specification. We use the file
it’s runtime instances are objects. Sub-Entities can extension .PROCESS and each file describes a tree of
exhibit aggregation and composition relationships executable Tasks and Sub-Entities related to a single
with their parent. root Entity. *.PROCESS files can be linked or merged
to construct composite processes.
Tasks are associated with getting and setting Entity
data and therefore appear like methods. Entity State is Each *.PROCESS file can be transformed by XSL to
akin to hidden class data and is usually updated at the produce printed documentation (via XSL-FO). Many
conclusion of a Work Task. instances of a *.PROCESS file can also be executed in
an Operational Workspace, typically a BPMS platform.
Start Rules follow a traditional Event-Condition-Action This provides an economic environment for design
(ECA) model. An object, a Task or an Entity instance time components to be linked to real-world LDAP
will broadcast an event to signal any change in status directories, security, data integration and work-lists.

29
At runtime an automated business process es6
Security ris Group
is guided by its definition [file] and interacts tho
au
with the following process components.

exposes6 has
belong6to

pick
Work2Lists push
Workers

displayed6on perform use

ini0ate

ct
Events Rules Tasks era Forms
throw start int ith
w

update update call ith update

changes t6w
provides e r ac
throw int populate
facts

ith
State has En..es update Services t6w Systems
te rac
in

sub
©"Ian"Ramsay"2009-2010

30
8020 has been developed by Ian Ramsay. It is a new Hence the need for an enhanced approach to
way to look at, describe and understand any modern understanding and automating some 80% of our
service business process. business operations.

Ian studied Engineering, Computer Science and Do contact me to learn more or discuss your particular
Business Administration but 8020 owes more to his business process automation requirements and how
observation of how people conduct complex work we may be able to expedite your results while
and the counterintuitive behaviour of common reducing risk.
operational business processes.

These insights have been blended with contemporary

process science and systems thinking to produce a
rigorous yet simple approach of value to both
business and technical people.

The 8020 approach is a response to the problems seen

in a wide variety of process improvement and
automation projects in the services sector.

Some 20% of the work lends itself readily to traditional

process change techniques, methods mostly
borrowed from the manufacturing sector, while 80%
of the business operations remains devilishly difficult
to model, understand or automate. Much of this
important work is driven unpredictably by customer
demand yet must remain compliant, cost effective &
timely.