Create a Detailed Requirements Specification
Many companies and even some consultants think it is sufficient to sit down and map out a business process on a white board or using post it notes to capture each step of a business process or to draw it out on a drawing package such as Visio. This is not sufficient as it only captures the first step of Process Discovery - The Flow.
The problem with a simple flow analysis is that it fails to capture the detail of business information capture required, interactions between different individuals or teams, and tends as a result to over-simplify the actual process needed to deliver the real business process.
One of the main reasons that process automation can fail is that the Client may not fully understand or specify to a level required to properly undertake the commissioning of software development.
Taking an inadequate level of a mapped process to a software developer is one of the main reasons for software failure upon implementation, and akin to signing them a blank cheque.
Intelligent Actions – 5 stages of Process Discovery
Intelligent Actions uniquely provides access to our Verification Engine during Process Discovery. This verifies that the Process being discovered delivers the desired result as it is being captured. (Agile Discovery)
- The Flow – This is the initial stage of Process Discovery when a company maps out how they think their business process operates.
- Task Identification – In Intelligent Actions terms, a Task is an activity which has defined input, that is a series of actions that capture business information and creates a defined output. This task may also have defined contributions from several other people. The Task Flow is reviewed by one of Intelligent Actions Change Agents, to see if elements in the Flow, are individual tasks or are a number of tasks. Sometimes several sequentially mapped parts of a Flow can be combined into a single Task.
- Data – Once tasks are defined it is necessary to identify in detail what information is required and what information is created as a result of the Task being completed. Intelligent Actions captures this information as attachments to the master diagram used as the Design Specification.
- Logic – This is where the interactions of the captured workflow can be tested in real time. Using the information captured in the master diagram Intelligent Actions implements The Flow, step by step in its workflow engine, entering the required data and creating the desired output. At this point, the method used by Intelligent Actions starts to show its merit. Using their technology, the order in which tasks are processed and their interactions with other tasks, can be tested in real time.
- Exceptions – Affectionately known by Intelligent Actions engineers as the ‘headache stage’. It is a ‘What If’ review conducted on each task element, looking to see if all variants of the possible input data have been considered. As the system can be easily updated, changes can be quickly made to documentation should issues be discovered.
Intelligent Action tools facilitate Process Discovery and at the same time building a model so you can test the captured process logic as you Discover it.
Once the Process is fully Discovered the master diagram can be used as a proven, detailed, Requirements Specification for third party software development.