PMI guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)

Many large corporations are running infrastructure and product development projects that will drive the evolving business model and ensure the organisation's Value Proposition, Profit Goals and Objectives are maintained.

The organisation's internal projects will have an impact on future performance of the organisation and should be an integral part of the companies strategy for success. I have found that PMI’s Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) to be an excellent tool for helping to define project processes and the knowledge areas required to support the projects. I have used PMBOK on some of the contracts I have worked on and keep a copy of the “Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge” on my Kindle. The above diagram has been extracted from PMBOK defining the five main Process Groups and the supporting Knowledge areas.

I have worked as a CIO and had to quickly learn the importance of delivering successful projects on time and to budget and meeting the demands of a successful dynamic international company. Integrating key projects to the Organisation’s Value Chain helps achieve this.

Project Management Value Chain

Critical projects that drive the future Business and Customer Value can be defined in a Value Chain and integrated with the Resource Processes allowing the impact of projects on the future business model to be assessed and corrective action taken.

The Value Chain approach establishes the value the project contributes to the success of the organisation and provides a mechanism for the key stakeholders to understand the status of the project and risks associated with delays and issues associated with not meeting the project objectives. Also the Value Chain can be decomposed into more detailed processes and activities. Below is an example of the decomposition of the Initial Process Group.

The diagram has been developed using ARIS EPC nomenclature and shows the interfaces to the Organisation’s project decision processes which in turn will link to their operational needs. Once a project has been completed it will be handed over to the operating units to manage with their feedback on the the success or failure of the deliverables.

eTOM Process Framework (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map)

I have work on a couple of Telecom and Electricity providers projects and have found the eTOM framework very useful. This model suites any organisation that provides a service and where customer service and revenue assurance is a particular issue.

The Framework is organised around seven end -to-end processes grouped into two groups of activities:

1. Strategy Infrastructure and Products
1. Strategy & Commitment
2. Infrastructure Lifecycle Management
3. Product Lifecycle Management
2. Operations
1. Operations Support & Readiness
2. Fulfillment
3. Assurance
4. Billing

This is underpinned by a group called Enterprise Management that covers all the Resource Management processes.

Strategy Infrastructure and Product

The Strategy, Infrastructure & Product Process Grouping includes processes that develop strategy, commit to the organisation, build infrastructure, develop and manage products, and that develop and manage the Supply Chain. In the eTOM, infrastructure refers to more than just the IT and resource infrastructure that supports products and services. It includes the infrastructure required to support functional processes, e.g., CRM, HR, Marketing. The Strategy, Infrastructure and Product processes direct and enable Operations.

These processes are not day-to-day processes that interact with the customer on a regular basis.  They are processes that plan, commit, build, develop, assess and determine direction.

Operations     

The Operations Process Area is the heart of eTOM. It includes all operations processes that support the customer operations and management, as well those that enable direct customer operations with the customer.  These processes include both day-to-day and operations support and readiness processes. The eTOM view of Operations also includes sales management and supplier/partner relationship management.

The Operations (OPS) process area contains the direct operations vertical process groupings of Fulfillment, Assurance & Billing, together with the Operations Support & Readiness process grouping.  The "FAB" processes are sometimes referred to as Customer Operations processes.     

Enterprise Management

This process area includes those processes that manage enterprise-wide activities and needs, or have application within the enterprise as a whole. They encompass all business management processes that are:

• necessary to support the whole of the enterprise, including processes for financial management, legal management, regulatory management, process, cost and quality management, etc.;
• responsible for setting corporate policies, strategies and directions and for providing guidelines and targets for the whole of the business, including strategy development and planning, for areas such as Enterprise Architecture, that are integral to the direction and development of the business;
• that occur throughout the enterprise, including processes for project management, performance assessments, cost assessments, etc.
• Many process groupings within Enterprise Management will contain elements that relate to both policy setting and support of the enterprise. For example, Human Resources Management is concerned with both strategy and direction as well as supporting the management of Human Resources throughout the enterprise.

These processes are sometimes collectively considered as the “corporate” functions and/or processes.

 

For more information on the eTOM Process Framework please visit their web site at http://www.tmforum.org/ .

APQC Process Classification Framework - PCF

At the outset of all BPM projects participants should agree a standard convention and nomenclature. It provides a means for all BPM developers and project participants to establish a consistency throughout the project and set a baseline on which future enhancements and improvements can be measured.

To provide a basis for establishing a Unique Identifier the APQC Process Classification Framework (PCF) provides a standard nomenclature framework of unique identity numbers down to the activity level that is divided into 4 levels.

1. Category: The highest level within the PCF is indicated by whole numbers (e.g., 8.0 and 9.0)
2. Process Group: Items with one decimal numbering (e.g., 8.1 and 9.1) are considered a process group.
3. Process: Items with two decimal numberings (e.g., 8.1.1 and 9.1.2) are considered processes.
4. Activity: Items with three decimal numbering (e.g. 8.3.1.1 and 9.1.1.1) are considered activities within a process.

Most Business Process Tools require that each element has a unique identifier, which is usually assigned by the software. However, in my opinion it is better to adopt a standard such as APQC – PCF as it provides a classification system for grouping processes and activities and for establishing a performance framework on which to identify areas of improvement and manage future changes.

More information on this the Process Classification Frmaework (PCF), along with downloads of generic and industry specific PCFs can be downloaded from http://www.apqc.org/process-classification-framework.

I have successfully used this framework on a WebSphere Business Modeler project, in conjunction with IBM’s Business Component Model. It proved to be an invaluable tool in lining up the business processes and activities to the Component Model structure.

Value Chain - Consumer Products Processes

Building Value Chain from Holistic Business Model

The high level processes in the Holistic Business model are transformed into a Value Chain to support the Business Modelling Profit Model. This links the lower level work activity to supporting and achieving the Goals and Objectives of the Company and provides the ability to continuously monitor the performance of the organisation. The diagram below has been created using ARIS Event-driven Process Chain (EPC) modeling language which provides a structure for drilling down from the process type/category to the process elements (activities). The process map below covers all the the process types and categories defined in the Holistic Business Model.

The diagram below shows how a hierarchical process model provides the means of monitoring the lower level activities and linking them through to the higher level end-to-end processes that impact the achievement of the companies objectives and goals. This diagram highlights the importance of Business Intelligence when implementing a Business Process Improvement (BPI) project and how other supporting projects such as Six Sigma, Balanced Scorecard and Lean Management can provide a means of identifying continuous improvement projects through the assignment of business process ownership .

To assist and ensure all processes are identified there are a number of Frameworks I have found to be  used as reference models:

• APQC Process Classification Framework (PCF)
• eTOM Process Framework (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map)
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
• Balance Scorecard
• Supply Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR)
• Six Sigma
• PMI guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

In the next few BLOGS I will discuss in more depth some of these frameworks. In addition to frameworks for building a business architecture there is a need to document the design process and there also a number of frameworks that can serve as a structured repository for this purpose.