The complications of a process based design approach are many… Simply because its not a single entity by itself. It’s a network of sub-processes, each having its own complexity. My research is still looking for solutions out of this problem. One approach that I have come across is the approach of ‘systems thinking.’ To quote wikipedia, it is a framework that is based on the belief that the components of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation.
To understand it better, think of the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in California can cause a typhoon in China. So small changes in a complex system can result in much larger implications to the system as a whole.
Presently my project concerns an entire business enterprise and the interactions through paper happening within it. It is therefore useless to adopt a user centric approach as the question is about a number of users each performing an individual task.
Systems thinking enables me to approach a problem by looking at it holistically. By seeing it as a complex system with a number of subsystems working within it and a number of systems attached to it. Here each and every node in the organization is dependent on the other. Take for example the human body. The body is a system which has a number of subsystems like the nervous, cardiac, muscular etc. Each system is in turn interdependen
t on the other. Similarly, a business enterprise, where each department is interdependent. There is a lot of paper work happening to connect each department. Let me quote a simple example. Say I go to a shop to buy a mobile. I tell the shopkeeper to show me the kind of choices I have in my budget. The shopkeeper shows me the choices accompanied with price and features etc. I single out one and tell the shopkeeper to sell it to me. The shopkeeper writes out an invoice/bill for the same. After I have the mobile in my hand I pay him the money. The doorman checks my bill to make sure I have paid for my purchase and I leave the shop.
Same is within a large enterprise except that the activity in italics is all paperwork.
Now comes my question. You read the mobile purchase example. Imagine it as one ystem with a set of activities. Now how would you suggest these activities be made as simple as possible so that my purchase is as quick and simple as can be! Can I eliminate any activity which is not necessary? Can I make the the task simpler from customers or the shop keepers point of view? How can a butterfly flapping cause a change in this process? Suggestions most welcome and help desperately required!! Open to all!
Presently my project concerns an entire business enterprise and the interactions through paper happening within it. It is therefore useless to adopt a user centric approach as the question is about a number of users each performing an individual task.
Systems thinking enables me to approach a problem by looking at it holistically. By seeing it as a complex system with a number of subsystems working within it and a number of systems attached to it. Here each and every node in the organization is dependent on the other. Take for example the human body. The body is a system which has a number of subsystems like the nervous, cardiac, muscular etc. Each system is in turn interdependen
t on the other. Similarly, a business enterprise, where each department is interdependent. There is a lot of paper work happening to connect each department. Let me quote a simple example. Say I go to a shop to buy a mobile. I tell the shopkeeper to show me the kind of choices I have in my budget. The shopkeeper shows me the choices accompanied with price and features etc. I single out one and tell the shopkeeper to sell it to me. The shopkeeper writes out an invoice/bill for the same. After I have the mobile in my hand I pay him the money. The doorman checks my bill to make sure I have paid for my purchase and I leave the shop.Same is within a large enterprise except that the activity in italics is all paperwork.
Now comes my question. You read the mobile purchase example. Imagine it as one ystem with a set of activities. Now how would you suggest these activities be made as simple as possible so that my purchase is as quick and simple as can be! Can I eliminate any activity which is not necessary? Can I make the the task simpler from customers or the shop keepers point of view? How can a butterfly flapping cause a change in this process? Suggestions most welcome and help desperately required!! Open to all!
6 comments:
Can u plz change da bg to lighter shade..:-)
Hmm.. interesting! Well i read it once and my reply too is a very spontaneous one. Well here's the thing.. going by your example of mobile phone, i dont think u can change a lot in the process i.e. Requirement specification-> Requirement gathering and analysis-> Selection of the product->Purchase-> Verification and Validation as part of the security.
I believe each and every part of this 'Systems Component' and can be tweaked a little to make this whole process much more simpler. It is not about avoiding one particular component, it is about integrating the various sub-systems in a such a way that the relationship between them is a smooth one.
And now specifically in case of your mobile phone, it is the selection process which can be very tedious. So maybe a bit more of brainstorming in that direction!!
Till i think of something better, dont follow me!! I just woke up.. cut me some slack!
What Debanjan has said makes a lot of sense. The problem with the mobile phone example is that it is oversimplifying your problem to the level where there is no apparent problem at all. It states three clear steps: Choose, Pay, Leave.
Choose: You need choices, you make selection. No redundancy. One step.
Pay: You pay and collect your proof of payment. No redundancy. One step.
Leave: You exit the store, and prove that you have paid for what you have taken from the store. No redundancy. Two steps.
Now looking at the diagram you have posted, assuming thats the real problem you are dealing with, each of the gray boxes corresponds to one of these stages. In the mobile phone example, each stage had 1,1, and 2 steps respectively while in the diagram, every box has at least 3 steps (6,3, and 4 to be specific).
So my suggestion would be to look at the mobile phone example not as a gist of your problem, but as a solution, the ideal state which you can bring the system to. Your problem areas will be lying somewhere in the increased number of steps in each stage, which you can remove or combine to make them shorter and bring them closer to the mobile phone example.
Basically what I'm saying is, for a company as big as HP, to simplify its systems to a level where it is comparable to one person buying a mobile phone from a store is a really, really idealistic situation which, if it achieves, it has achieved the unimaginable. It will bring the dealings between two corporations to a level as simple as a dealing between two people. If you aim to remove the differences between the two scenarios, I guess you will find at least starting points for thinking.. This is, at least from what I understood of your problem.
Hope that helped :)
Milind is right...mobile phone example will be a solution for you.., to understand your problem i have refereed Human body example you gave...
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after Debanjan & Milind dissected the problem statement properly let me try to take you on a solution course...
I found your " system thinking " approach very interesting.(term " system thinking " it self is interesting!!) It changes focus from user to the CONTEXT. Recently i was reading about Context Aware Computing which leads to CONEXT AWARE INTERACTION.
In your case we have large number of Content (in each step). I believe that, SIZE (Number) of content is inversely proportional to the understanding of the Context.
If we know the context accurately (which is a very ideal condition) we can provide only required amount of content which is actually necessary for that step/component to work. In your problem we have to make sure that the content we are going to exclude will not create any butterfly effect on others components of the system.
I guess with this approach at least we know what will cause the butterfly effect :)
Thanks for the comments guys!
I guess you guys are right... I over simplified my problem. But yes, now to think of it, it really would be the ideal scenario for any complex organization. The simplest way would be to eliminate all the paperwork or tie it up into one single entity.
Providing just the right amount of content required for the interaction seems like a great idea. So if I apply this to my processes and enable only the necessary inputs at each level and remove the redundancy of information, i just might have something fruitful at hand. I got some valuable inputs from Uday regarding this as well. He has also suggested a similar approach.
Thanks for all your inputs and more are always welcome! I shall take up all of them except shashi's...no i am not going to change my bg to a lighter shade!
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