Business Process Management for Housing Operations describes how the University of Florida Department of Housing and Residence Education uses BPM to manage software development projects.

1. Do you know your processes?BPM for Housing Operations Brandon Vega Alex Rockwell

2. Quote “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” -W. Edwards Deming

3. What is a Business Process? A collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer. [www.crfonline.org/orc/glossary/b.html]

4. What is BPM? The achievement of an organization’s objectives through the improvement, management and control of essential business processes. [Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations, 2008]

5. BPM is NOT… just a technology tool, a solution to all your business problems, the best choice in all cases.

6. What can BPM do for me? Increased productivity Increased process compliance Improved communication Improved resource utilization Shorter process cycle times Lower process cost Increased customer satisfaction

7. Area Damage Billing Paper process Charges recorded by office clerks. Carbon copy form Charge amounts on a piece of paper. Accounting enters charges manually.

8. Steps Project Initiation Identify target process Put together team Kick-off meeting Map out the process Improve the process Develop the software Go live

9. Project Initiation Create Project Initiation Document (PID). Requires sign-off from project sponsor. Ensures project “makes sense”. Allows for checking progress.

10. Project Initiation Objective What do we want to do? Summarize what the project should accomplish. Success Criteria Project Plan (high level)

11. Project Initiation The objective is to provide a streamlined method for handling the Area Damage reporting and appeals process that reduces the total time for process completion. Objective

12. Project Initiation Area charge amounts standardized. Charges are submitted in real-time. Remove need for manual entering of charges by accounting. Total time for charge submission is reduced. Success Criteria

13. Project Initiation Project Plan

14. Identify Target Process Determine the project Scope. Involve the key stakeholders. Create a process hierarchy diagram or similar. Identify all activities in the process. Identify sub-processes. Focus on process AS-IS.

16. Project Team People determine the success of your Business Processes. Must understand what is expected. Must understand their role in the process. Process changes especially delicate

17. Project Team Should include sample of all actors involved. Ownership is important Project Sponsor(s) Person(s) making important decisions Project Manager Business Analyst Developers

18. Project Team Process Owners Decision makers Ability to change the process after it is defined Subject Matter Experts (SME) Those with “hands-on” knowledge Ability to provide detailed process information Advocates of the project

19. Project Team

20. Project Team

21. Kickoff Meeting All stakeholders in attendance Review of PID Stakeholders agree to responsibilities. Sign off

22. Analyzing the Process Map the workflow Go low-tech with Post-Its Activities Decision Points May use colored Post-Its to differentiate Dry erase board

24. Mapping the Workflow Write activity title in few words Write decision points with YES/NO answer Basic success scenario Post-Its can be moved around Spend as much time as necessary Involve as many stakeholders as possible Focus on Process “As-Is” (current state)

26. Assign Roles Assign roles to activities One role assigned to each activity Write on bottom of Post-It or, specify using dry-erase board.

27. As-Is

28. Improve the Process “The first rule of any technology is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” -Bill Gates

29. Improve the Process Technology alone will not fix bad processes. Often organizations experience an increase in paperwork/rework and diminished quality after automating a key business process. BPM automation is successful if the processes are improved FIRST.

30. Improve the Process Find areas for process improvement Touch Time Cycle Time Unit cost Touch to Cycle time ratio >3% is good.

31. Improve the Process

32. Improve the Process Look for easy improvements High cycle times Automating will remove 2465 minutes from cycle time

33. Improved

34. Software Development Obtain signoff Setup milestones with target dates Development methodologies: Traditional “waterfall” Iterative approach (Agile or XP) Custom

35. Our Approach to Development Iterative development Each iteration results in working software Deploy to a server and test Get feedback from stakeholders Adjust target date, if necessary

36. Software Development Document changes in requirements Wiki is a great place for documentation Trac - trac.edgewall.org Wiki and ticket system Spreadsheet Access database

38. Software Development Do not forget to record metrics. Important for management. Log start and endtime for key activities. Sendnotifications for “out of ordinary” events. You should see improvements.

39. Ready to Go Live Hardware is in place No critical change request pending Implementation plan in place Communication Support Training

40. jBPM Software Java-based BPM open-source software. Graphical Process Designer. Web console for process testing. jBPM engine waits for tasks to be completed. “Knows” what is next in the task list. “Knows” who should complete the task.

41. jBPM Demonstration

42. Other BPM Software ProcessMaker (open source, PHP) processmaker.com CuteFlow (open source, PHP) cuteflow.org NxBRE (open source, .NET) devintelligence.com Lombardi Teamworks (PHP) lombardisoftware.com Skelta (.NET) skelta.com ActiveVOS (Java) activevos.com

43. Thank you!