Good processes mitigate people’s shortcomings while freeing them up to do what they do best on projects think, create, improvise. The best processes don’t create extra work. Instead, they serve specific purposes, ensure efficiency and consistency, and tend to become ‘invisible’ to those who use them.
This is the second article in a three-part series exploring the relative project value of people, process and tools. The first installment, ‘The People Premium,’ discussed the attributes of people that make them indispensable to project work, but can also cause problems. This article looks at the role of processes in compensating for human shortcomings.
People are a critical part of every project, precisely because of the unique abilities they bring to the project. Their creativity, vision and intellect are what enable projects to build complex systems or derive new concepts, but their propensity to error, omission and imprecision put a serious damper on the results that can be achieved.
People make mistakes, and those mistakes waste time and money. They forget things, and those omissions force teams to go back and rework what has already been done. And they are imprecise. What is ‘good enough’ for one person may not be enough for another, and is often insufficient for the machines we must interact with.
Clearly, to gain the full benefits that people bring to our projects, we must look for opportunities to mitigate for their shortcomings. And this is the reason for processes. Effective processes enable our most precious resource our people to work their magic.
The Nature of Processes
We all follow processes in many things we do. Our processes are the routines that help us to make our way through the day without having to stop and think through every step of everything we do each time we do it. These routines free up our minds to focus on the things that require our conscious attention by providing a ‘program’ for those activities that we repeat regularly.
So, it is not a question of whether or not our teams should follow processes. Processes exist, and people do follow them. Just as surely as they follow their morning routines, from coffee to commuting, much of the project work they engage in is defined by processes that they follow. They may not call them processes, and may even be unaware of them, but they are processes nonetheless. Following processes is just part of being human.
So, why is the subject of ‘process’ such a hot issue? Why do agile proponents and others rail against them? Probably because much of what is done in the name of ‘process’ fails its primary purpose: It doesn’t meet the needs of the people who must follow it. Our unconscious processes are invisible precisely because they meet our needs without getting in our way. A process becomes visible to us when it either fails to meet our needs, or it requires us to do things that are wasteful of our effort or time. These ineffective processes are what people complain about.
Meeting People’s Needs
People have shortcomings that can impede their effectiveness at capitalizing on their creativity, vision and intellect. Processes meet our needs by compensating for those shortcomings or errors, omissions and imprecision, and by doing so in a way that makes efficient use of our time and energy.
People make errors, so our processes must help mitigate that propensity. Most of the time, a good process will help us to avoid making an error in the first place. A laundry process that includes matching socks before putting them away will prevent one from wearing mismatched socks to work. A morning routine that includes listening to the traffic and weather report can help us to choose the best method and route for our commute.
People also omit things. We forget to do certain steps, or do them in the wrong order, so our processes help us to do all of the things we must do, and to do them in the right order. In our morning routine, we tend to bathe, shave, brush teeth, dress, and eat in the same order each day. This consistency helps to ensure that we don’t forget to do any of the steps. Just think about what happens on those days when your routine is upset. The results can be embarrassing (if you don’t put enough extra thought and effort in to compensating).
And people are imprecise. We don’t always focus on important details, so our processes point us to the level of detail and precision that is required of us. Many of us have a process for picking out the clothes we will wear that includes rules about which colors and patterns go with others, and which do not. These guidelines help us to make appropriate choices without spending too much time and effort.
But not every error, omission or imprecision can be avoided, so our processes also include checks and balances that help us to detect and correct those mistakes before they cause problems. One last look in the mirror before we walk out the door allows us to detect and correct problems before they can ruin our day.
In the same way, the processes that we employ on our projects must be tailored so that they provide the needed support for the people who do the work, while helping them to be as effective and productive as possible. When processes meet peoples’ needs, they truly become invisible; and people will often believe they are not following a process at all.
Consistency
While we use processes for many things, we can be inconsistent in how we apply those processes. And that inconsistency can result in the benefits of good processes being lost in some cases. A process that is followed inconsistently will produce inconsistent results. While one that is followed faithfully will produce very predictable results.
Achieving consistency does not necessarily require formality. The morning-routine example is almost never formalized, yet most of us follow it faithfully every morning. In fact, achieving consistency is usually easy when the process meets your needs efficiently. But in organizations, where many people are involved, process consistency becomes much more challenging. First, it is a rare process that can be tuned to the point that it is invisible to everyone who is affected by it. Each person, if left to their own discretion, may choose to do the activities in a slightly different way. While there are times when those minor differences are of no consequence, more often those differences can result in problems.
Therefore, most processes require someone to pay attention to the consistency with which they are followed. Whether that job is done by peer reviews of work, peer pressure to conform, a ‘coach’ who guides the team members, enforcement by a manger, or double-checks by an auditor, it is generally important to use some mechanism to assure that processes are followed consistently.
Documentation
There is tremendous variation in the degree to which processes are documented. Even individuals create checklists to help them achieve consistency. Yet in small organizations, there is often little that is written down. The founders of a company figure out how to work with each other, discuss problems that arise, and agree on future actions. Often these agreements are not written down. But as the company grows, the need to document operating procedures, guidelines and processes grows.
The more people who are involved in the process, the more likely it will be that some amount of documentation will be helpful in achieving the required consistency. When new staff is added, the documented processes help them to learn the rules and work patterns more quickly, and to know what is expected of them.
In large organizations, more process documentation is generally needed so that different groups or functions can dovetail their work effectively to assure that the needs of the organization as a whole are being met. But it is possible to go overboard in producing process documentation. Some organizations pursuing an ISO 9000 certification or a CMMI Maturity Level Rating produce shelves of documents that are aimed at achieving the certification or rating. Unfortunately, when the primary purpose of the processes to support people in doing the work is overshadowed by those goals, the resulting processes can be cumbersome. And, of course, if too much process documentation is written, then people won’t read it, or will be unable to find in it the guidance they need.
Processes exist. And their primary purpose is to make people efficient and consistent in the way they work. When processes are cited as problems, it is often because that primary purpose has been obscured in some way. Effective and efficient processes tend to be invisible to those who use them. They mitigate for people’s errors, omissions and imprecision, and enable them to apply their creativity, vision and intellect to achieve their goals.
Next:
Tools for People and Processes
