SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

Creating an agile enterprise

Ilia Bider - IbisSoft/DSV SU, Gene Bellinger -SystemsWiki.org

Erik Perjons – DSV SU, LinkedIn Group Systems Thinking World (SWT)

Applying a systems approach to developinga strategy for agility

Presentation at PoEM 2011 conference: http://bit.ly/pfy1FH

Proceedings (extract): http://bit.ly/ryYMNGPre-proceedings (full): http://bit.ly/wZBOwA

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT2

Agile enterprise

• Is able to quickly adjust to changes in the constantly changing business world

• Is able to employ new opportunities constantly appearing in the dynamic world for launching completely new products/services

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT3

Plan: Cross-breeding Systems & Process Thinking

• Some concepts from Systems Thinking

• Some concepts from Process Thinking

• The model

• Implications for practice

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT4

System coupling diagrams – an essence of the systems approach

Situation System – A problem or opportunity situation; either unplanned or planned.

Respondent System – The system created to respond to the situation where the parallelbars indicate that this system interacts with the situation and transforms the situation to a new situation.

System Assets – The sustained assets of an enterprise that are to be utilized in responding to situations.

H. Lawson, A Journey Through the Systems Landscape, College Publications, 2010

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT5

Business process – the main dynamic unit of an enterprise

Main concepts• Business process type (BPT) is a plan/template for handling

business situations of a certain type• Business process instance/case (BPI) is a situation (being)

handled according to the plan/template

• BPT consists ofStart conditions - when a process instance should be createdExecution rules – “plan” of actions

Prescriptive, e.g., workflow diagramsConstraint-based, e.g., goal to reach, restrictions,

recommendations

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT6

The model

Three-component model:

Assets people, computers, policy documents, Business Process Types (BPT)Sensors

Business process instances (BPIs).

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT7

Enterprise as a complex multilevel adaptable system

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT8

Compound sensors & process instances

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT9

Implication for practice

Effective andsensitive sensors

Effective butflexible

processes

Effective means

for change

Sub-goals:

Agile enterprise

Goal:

Process overhaul

Means:

Cross-manningAgile process development

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

0

Process overhaul = process signature

Process Property Description

Process name Put a name under which the process is known

Process type Operational Improvement Strategic

Objective with having the process

List objectives of having a process

Start conditions Describe the situation which requires firing the process

Sensor Describe how the start situation is discovered

Goal Describe the goal the BPI should achieved

Sub-goals Describe sub-goals to be achieved before the goal can be achieved

Level of explicitness of BPT

Evaluate the explicitness based on the 10 points scale, where 0 means everything is in the heads of process participants (oral tradition), 10 – process rules are fully documented and are strictly followed, or/and they are built in a process support system

Level of prescriptiveness of BPT

Evaluate the prescriptiveness based on the 10 points scale, where 0 means that there are no mandatory rules on how to reach the instance goal/sub-goals, i.e., participants are free to do their best, 10 – all operations on how to reach the instance goal/sub-goals and the order in which they should be completed are fully described

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

1

Creating better sensors & processes: cross-manning

Traditional manning of business processes

Cross-manned of business processes

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

2

Change ≠Improve

Process improvement = you already have a process

• Lean• Six sigma• Best practices

Process change = you do not have a process

• Trial and error => agile process development

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

3

Agile development of business processes

What is needed:

A tool where the development of a process is not separated from that of a support system The tool is simple enough to be handled by business folk

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

4

Tools support for agile process development

Example – iPB where

a process map is used for structuring the shared space

SU/IbisSoft/SystemsWiki/SWT1

5

Thank you for your attention!

Main ContactIlia Bider, SU/IbisSoftEmail: ilia@ibissoft.se