Software request or process redesign?

Dear Bob …

I have been wondering around in the wilderness of Business-Process automation & just realized you just might be a source of clarity.

Here’s my problem: A project I’m working on (I’m a DBA) involves “automating” a process the business users have. Specifically, they want to automate a check sheet they use to control how income is verified (we’re in the home mortgage business). They want a Windows screen, which is basically an electronic check sheet.

Now, this is ok, as far as it goes, saving paper and all that. However, one of the business’s continual complaints is that our process for closing loans is too expensive. We need to make it more efficient.

Whenever we get a project for “automating” something, it usually seems to be making a piece of paper electronic. I have expressed my opinion that making a piece of paper electronic isn’t really automating the process; it is just making it paperless. What needs to be done, in a case like this is modifying the existing application to incorporate the checks into the process. For example, when an income for a borrower is recorded, instead of having the loan processor go to a check screen to verify that the employment of the borrower is verified, generate a Verification of Employment dialog box; don’t allow the loan to move to the next stage until the VOE (Verification of Employment) is completed, or some helpful process that would incorporate the idea of verification being accomplished, rather than forcing the processor to go to set a check box.

Is there some theory somewhere that talks about what automation is? What constitutes automation? Are there stages of automation? Is there some process that can show the levels of automation achievable? I’ve done some checking on the internet, with no usable results. Do you know of any resources?

Finally, I suspect you are a philosopher by training, or, more correctly, by inclination. IT is just a field you’ve applied what you’ve learned. Am I close?

– Automator

Dear Automator …

Random thoughts:

* For what you described as the actual request, wouldn’t an Excel spreadsheet do?

* I think you’re closer to the mark when you talk about levels of automation than when you say automating a piece of paper isn’t automating the process. The challenge is deciding where the process boundaries are – this is a matter of preference, not of definition. By one definition, the check sheet probably does constitute a process. It just isn’t the most useful definition.

* Overall, I agree with you – everyone would be better off starting with a redesign of the “whole process,” starting with agreement as to what whole process you’re redesigning. I’m not sure how to help you proceed with that here – it’s something that requires training and experience (“Or the assistance of … ahem … an outside consultant,” he said with as much humility and discretion as he could muster).

Resources: There are a number of different process design methodologies available. None is so simple and straightforward that I’d be comfortable pointing you to a resource and figuring you’d be safe. The short version: Six Sigma is about reducing variability; Lean is about reducing waste; Theory of Constraints is about eliminating process bottlenecks; Rational Unified Process (RUP) is about translating process design to system requirements.

You might find Business Process Change: A Manager’s Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes by Paul Harmon to be a useful starting point if you want to become more familiar with this whole subject. It isn’t a light, easy read, but then you’re a DBA so you’re accustomed to what it takes to understand a discipline.

Oh … and no, I don’t think of myself as philosopher by inclination. I’m a scientist by training and inclination, only after spending a number of years being exposed to actual geniuses I figured my more modest talents were better-suited to the world of business, where lesser intellects receive far greater remuneration.

– Bob