Workflow Sample

Business Flow Diagrams are mainly drawn for the purpose of business improvement of 'Team operation'.

However, jobs done by 'more than one person' are not the only business operation. There exist so many jobs which to be completed by a single person. The following Workflow (Business Flow Diagram) is a Business operation of encouraging "somebody of the future". (What?)

First, let's try encouraging 'yourself of the future'. (Totally, all by yourself...)

The way how, is simple. You just make an email to be delivered to future you. New school term starts from today (Sept. the 1st), if you were a student. Why don't you try sending an email to you, at 9 o'clock in the morning of the day of one week after, writing 'you are ready to recite all of "Addition theorem of trigonometric", now?'

Indeed, drawing a Business Flow Diagram for 'One-man job' is nonsense. Moreover, It almost completely doesn't make sense, if

There is no one to explain the Workflow to.
There is no one to monitor the progress of the Issues flowing there.

However, please reconsider well...

[Timed Email]

Folks naturally think this and that about the 'way it should be', when trying to promote RINGI-system (Decision Making method) into paperless.

Especially in corporations of Japan, they must reconsider from the basics first, either (a) to inherit the style of traditional Japanese which seeking approval also by the directors of other departments, or, (b) to migrate to the system of obtaining an instantaneous decision only from the approval authority.

The following Business Process definition is a flow to obtain a judgement of approval directly from approver who is right above the proposer in the Organization tree, when a 'Proposal (Project)' was submitted to the Firm. That is, it's a flow diagram focused on speed which does not inherit the Japanese traditional style. Even though you can call it as a 'RINGI- system', of course, but we dare to call it a 'Project Approval system'. An excellent point is the mechanism that it automatically calculates the time it took to approve.

In addition, some people would like to give a Split Condition for the case that the proposer and the approver is the same person. However, there are different Roles and Characters in a person, so it is good enough to propose by oneself and to approve as well.

[Project Approval flow]

Between you and me, 'Corresponding System failure' is kind of exciting(!!)

For IT systems, "failure" is always an accompany. People in general probably think this job 'must be exhausting' or 'must be a heavy load', but it isn't really. Once I start working on them, adrenaline is secreted, my brain is awakened, don't know why, but I can explore the cause of the failure intently even though the middle of the night. And when I have done, I feel very refreshing. It's a healthy work unexpectedly. (Although, I lose the aspiration, right after that.)

Then, when overcome these "emergency" together, the knowledges of heretofore will be organized, and the teamwork as an organization will also be fostered. Also, it is not bad from the viewpoint of technical training. (Of course, we cannot withstand if the occurrence was too frequent...)

(Please don't tell anyone...)

The following Business Process definition is a Workflow to manage emergency issues which are called 'Trouble Ticket'. When a Trouble Ticket is opened, it will be notified to people who concerned, and people in charge will be assigned. Directors or people who have [Data Viewing permission] among employees will be monitoring the situation in real time. (And on the Enterprise Social networking, chatting will be frequent, such as '"What frequency" do you mean by "intermittently"?' or 'Who will be the "Part of Users"?'...)

In addition, the final deliverable of this Business Process is "Final Report". Reports will be created by each of both of Technical team and Web Team.

[Failure Corresponding flow]

Speaking of 'Electronic Appliance that transmits emails', it is the 'Smart Thermo Pot' which appeared in 2001. (the method of communication is unusual, though.)

Electric kettle that casually watches over aged parents who are living away, is something of a popular product in Japan. Now, it has equipped 'Outing Button' in the latest model, the kettle will send emails everyday with 'the time that water is poured' and 'the time power is turned on', as well as 'the time of going out and coming back'. (By the way, the name of the kettle is 'iPot', but it is not a product of Apple.)

And in 2014, when you look around, you'll see many instruments that transmits email in reasonable price... (You can say various things are connected to the Internet.) Among them, scanners and web cameras can be said fairly mature "Data Input device". The price is around 30000 jpy. You might call them that business improvement tool which very high return on investment.

The following Business Process definition is an Aggregation flow for questionnaire on paper.

It is a mechanism that the collected paper questionnaire such as Customer Satisfaction Survey of franchise restaurant chain or Contractor questionnaire of life insurance, is captured with scanner at each store, then the texting work will be started at the headquarter. That is, the Workflow of the headquarter is Started triggered by the 'Email sent from the Scanner', the personnel put them into data manually by looking the scanned image (PDF, JPG) on the monitor screen. Above all, it is great for grasping the progress of data working in real time. Yet, aggregating of the performance of workers is easier.

In addition, this sample model is capable of 'Double data entry'. As a matter of course, utilization of telecommuters and BPO service should be considered, if it is a Cloud-based Workflow.

[Questionnaire Aggregation flow]

You don't get 'Internal Control' kinda thing so well.
You will run away, if someone asks you "Try to explain some cases of internal control".

But you don't have to think it's so difficult. It simply is 'Activities to eliminate Fraud'.

a. Slogan on the Office wall, ' Fraudulent Accounting, NEVER!'. (Control Environment)
b. Analyze whether there might be a guy that pilfer the cash in the office. (Risk Assessment)
c. Summarizing the authority of the Director and members into a strict regulation. (Control Activities)
d. Keep the mechanism that customer complaints to be surely transmitted to more than one person. (Information & Communication)
e. Keep the Daily-Reports to be able to be browsed by management personnel of other departments.(Monitoring)

These activities for example, are one of the 'Activities to eliminate Fraud'.

However, it should be noted today, that we cannot ignore the use of computer and internet for the activities of this kind. That is, all the enterprises must (1) Understand the IT environment surrounding the company, (2-1) Promote the use of IT that supports those activities, and same time (2-2) tightly manage the IT itself. In fact, the internal control of Japan is assessed in six terms , the above five plus "Responding to IT".

The following Workflow definition is an operation of 'Issuance of New User Account' for IT system. It is no exaggeration to say that business to support the foundation of "Internal Control".

You will understand by looking at the business flow diagrams, it is also compatible with "Delete issuance in emergency" or "Delete Account", in addition to "Account issuance". That means, all the User Accounts that being used right now, will be able to be checked that when it was requested or when it was approved by the supervisor, at any time. In addition, the request data which flowed on this can be an important basic information on creating Control Reporting by the Management, such as;

'Was it requested at an appropriate time?'
'Useless account has not been issued?'
'Check system for Account Issuance is working well?'

[System ID Management (Except Password reset)]

I'm going to eliminate the waste in work!
I'm going to smoothen the transferring of data!

Thinking about projects such as 'Paperless' or 'Email replacement', the operation that hits my brain first and foremost is "Sales related operations".

Approval flow for "Estimate"
Sharing flow for "Orders Information"
Progress management for "Product Shipment"

Indeed, improvement of efficiency of those operations would directly lead to "Increase of Sales". Moreover, the improvement cycle would also be shortened because 'Issues' will be flowed almost every day.

However, for organizations that (a) experience of drawing Business flow diagram is poor and, (b) not got used to BPMS tool,,, there will be a high risk of being stuck up with such as;

Range of Business Process definition is too large
Business data items are too many
Configuration of Split condition is too fine
Lack of unification on Cautionary statements on Input form

when trying to use a "Business Process Management (BPM) tool" for (1) Defining business flows and, (2) transferring business data, actually.

It is one of the best moves that to specify the business, which is closed to internal company and with a smaller number of steps, as a pilot project, if you wanted to proceed your business process management activities (BPM activities) steadily. The following "Business Process definition" is a flow of "Expense Report (External Payment Request)", with fewer Steps. It is very significant in terms of internal control and mutual supervision, when you stop using e-mail and verbal to communicate, and let the issue data flowing through the Business Process Management system. In addition, the aggregate data will also be a very valuable business data.

[External Payment Request (except Payments made on behalf, Credit card settlement)]

"Non-programming"... It is still a hot keyword in the industry of Business System, as ever.

A. No need of programming knowledge
B. Need programming knowledge

What I mean is not using programming languages such as Java or Python or Ruby, however, there are needs for building an IT environment that is innovative and suits themselves.

It may be a rough parable, but it is like an argument over "A. should wear the clothes off-the-shelf with altering?" or "B. should make fully made-to-order clothes?". There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods, and the method to be adopted is different depending on the IT the environment to be demanded, and the skill of the operator.

Now, in the following Business Process definition, a Step called [Script Task] that is using the programming knowledge, is built into.

While the flow of the entire business is expressed with "A. Standard processing icon", "B. Processing of its own" is incorporated into a part of the steps. Actually, it is merely making the previous coverage, "Upstream Process of Entering the Client Name, the Template" into a black-box by [Script Task]. That is, the processing of the data is completely the same.

[Upstream flow Order-Delivery-Billing (Script Task)]