BPM Baselining

Description

• The analysis of internal organisational data to understand the performance, goals and internal dynamics of the business.

When to Use

• Gathering and analysing this type of information is important at several points throughout a BPM initiative.  It can be used to:
• ”Awaken” a client to problems and issues they should confront (Case for Change);
• Understand information required to create a vision ((Confirmed) Business Vision);
• Focus on the areas of opportunity; and
• Assess/analyse “As-Is” processes (“As-Is” Process Assessment).
• The trade-off between spending additional time and resources to analyse company data in detail must always be weighed against the benefit of working with accurate baseline data.

Approach

This information can be gathered using several approaches.

• Research: performing literature searches, gathering internal documents, etc.
• Benchmarking: Benchmark studies are performed to compare the strengths and weaknesses of an business against its peers and competitors.
• Business Ratio Analysis: There is an excellent book on Key Management Ratio by Ciaran Walsh that I refer too when conducting this type of analysis.
• Interviews: meeting with individuals or groups to gather information
• Pain Chain Analysis: This is a Solution Selling Technique that is used to trace the source of a problem that has a detrimental effect on the outcome of an end-to-end Process.
• “Walk-throughs”: spending time in the operations locations to view the processes and question individuals.

Once the information is gathered, it is put in a format that can be analysed.

1. Prepare for company baselining
1. Before undertaking data collection, understand what is required to know and why it is needed to know, and then identify what information will fulfill those needs.
2. Identify baseline objective(s)
3. Identify information requirements
2. Collect the data
1. Establish where the data will be collected, by whom and by what deadline.
2. Identify what data is not available.
3. Assess options: develop the data; identify alternative data; find another source.
3. Organise and analyse the information
1. Organise the data to show results, prove theories or identify areas of further investigation.  One approach is to answer the question: “How do we look at the data (i.e. compared to what)?”
4. Draw preliminary (or final) conclusions from the information to complete the analysis.  One approach is to answer the question: “What does this data tell us?”
5. Summarise and confirm conclusions.
1. Validate conclusions with the source of information  (if appropriate)
2. Summarise the data
3. Present the results to senior management for approval, as required.

Guidelines

• Ensure that the amount of time spent on data collection and analysis is in line with the scope of the exercise.  For example, organisations undertaking BPM Projects have a tendency to spend too long analysing current performance.  This analysis should be “just in time” and “just enough” to complete other deliverables.
• Baselining is not simply about compiling data.  Set theories and hypothesis and draw conclusions, so that information gathered provides substance to the analysis.
• Recommend Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) http://www.iiba.org/