Process approach to organization management. Process and system approaches to management. Principal elements of process management

Process approach in management.

The essence of the process approach is that each employee ensures the vital activity of specific business processes by directly participating in them. Duties, areas of responsibility, criteria for success for each employee are formulated and make sense only in the context of a specific task or process. The horizontal connection between structural units is much stronger. The vertical relationship "boss - subordinate" is slightly weakened. The employee's sense of responsibility is qualitatively changing: he is responsible not only for the functions that the boss has assigned him, but also for the business process as a whole. The functions and the result of the activity of parallel structural units are important for him. Responsibility for the result of the business process as a whole pushes him to responsibility to his colleagues, the same participants in the business process as himself.

When building a process-oriented management system, the main emphasis is on the development of interaction mechanisms within the process, both between structural units within the company and with the external environment, i.e. with customers, suppliers and partners. It is the process approach that makes it possible to take into account such important aspects of the business as focusing on the final product, the interest of each contractor in improving the quality of the final product and, as a result, the interest in the final performance of their work. The process approach to management ignores the organizational structure of the organization's management with its inherent assignment of functions to individual units. With the process approach, the organization is perceived by managers and employees as an activity consisting of business processes aimed at obtaining the final result. The organization is perceived as a network of business processes, which is a set of interrelated and interacting business processes, including all functions performed in the organization's divisions. While the functional structure of a business defines the capabilities of an enterprise by establishing what should be done, the process structure (in the operating system of a business) describes the specific technology for achieving the goals and objectives, answering the question of how it should be done.

The process approach is based on the following principles:

The activity of the company is considered as a set of business processes.

The execution of business processes is subject to mandatory regulation or formal description.

Each business process has an internal or external client and an owner (the person responsible for the outcome of the business process).

Each business process is characterized by key indicators that describe its execution, result or impact on the outcome of the organization as a whole.

The principles of the process approach to management define the basic rules, guided by which it is possible to organize the effective functioning of a business aimed at the final result.

The first principle defines the vision of the company's activities as a set of business processes. It is he who determines the new culture of perception of the organization in the process approach.

The second principle of the process approach, which requires mandatory regulation of business processes, is based on the fact that the regulation is a document describing the sequence of operations, responsibility, the order of interaction between performers, the procedure for making decisions to improve the business process.

The selection of a business process is always associated with the identification of a client or consumer of the result of the process, which has a certain value for him. In addition to the client, each business process has an owner - an official who has the necessary resources at his disposal, manages the course of the business process and is responsible for the results and efficiency of the business process. The owner of a business process is an official, a formal leader, therefore he has the necessary authority, has the resources required to implement the process, manages the course of the business process and is responsible for its result. These advantages guarantee the high performance of the organization, the management of which has a pronounced process-oriented nature.

Process-oriented management allows you to qualitatively change the activities of the organization at the operational, interfunctional and interorganizational levels of its integration. Functional integration ceases to be a source of difficult-to-resolve cross-functional conflicts. The operational level of integration receives a new vision through the network of business processes of the organization and allows:

a) more effectively delineate the powers and responsibilities of personnel;

b) develop an effective system of delegation of authority;

c) ensure the standardization of requirements for performers;

d) minimize the risk of dependence on an individual contractor;

e) reduce the workload of managers;

e) reduce costs;

g) improve the efficiency of personnel management;

h) identify sources for reducing costs and time for the execution of business processes;

i) reduce the time for making managerial decisions.

As a result, the manageability of the organization increases, the influence of the human factor and the cost of products and services decrease. All this leads to a change in the quality of the organization itself and the formation of a process-oriented organization in which the entire team is a conscious participant in the continuous process of activity associated with the final result of the production of products or the provision of services.

The development of the process approach to management has received a wide response, in fact, all the leading organizations in the world have the character of process-oriented organizations.

Based on an understanding of what business processes are performed in an organization, it is possible to build an effective organizational structure for managing them. If the organizational structure has developed traditionally, the operating system of the business can help in analyzing its quality.

Thus, the absence of a process approach in management leads to spontaneous results that cannot be relied upon and which cannot be analyzed, since they are difficult to reproduce. It is the process approach that makes it possible to understand that the final product of the company's activity is the result of the joint work of all its employees without exception, in addition, it allows you to eliminate gaps at the interface of processes, restoring the connection between them. The process approach does not reject the existing management system in the company, but determines ways to improve it and qualitatively modify it.

Advantages and disadvantages- a clear system of mutual relations within the processes and in their respective departments; - a clear system of unity of command - one leader concentrates in his hands the management of the entire set of operations and actions aimed at achieving the goal and obtaining the desired result; - empowering employees with greater powers and increasing the role of each of them in the work of the company leads to a significant increase in their impact; - quick response of the executive process units to changes in external conditions; - in the work of managers, strategic problems dominate over operational ones; - criteria for the efficiency and quality of the work of departments and the organization as a whole are consistent and co-directed. - increased dependence of the results of the organization's work on the qualifications, personal and business qualities of ordinary employees and performers; - managing functionally mixed work teams is a more difficult task than managing functional units; - the presence in the team of several people of different functional qualifications inevitably leads to some delays and errors that occur when transferring work between team members, but the losses here are much less than in the traditional organization of work, when performers report to different departments of the company

Of course, it is impossible to increase efficiency by formalizing business processes alone, and the process approach is not a panacea for all organizational ills. It allows diagnosing problems of both the entire company and the interaction of its various departments in the performance of a common task.

Bibliography:

1. Vishnyakov O. Process-oriented approach in organization management 2008.

2. Efimov V.V. Reflections on the process approach / V.V. Efimov 2004.

3. Repin V.V. Process approach to management. standards and quality. - 2004. - 498 p.

4. Repin V.V. Process approach in practice. standards and quality. - 2004. - No. 1. - S. 74-79.

Systems theory considers a process as a change in a system. Indeed, any activity is an action aimed at achieving a result, which is expressed in the fact that the system acquires a new state. We encounter processes in engineering, engineering, chemistry, and even sociology. However, each of us is a participant in work processes every day. As experience shows, company executives often avoid automation and formalization of processes, it seems to them not quite democratic “tightening the screws”. But in vain. Competent construction and management of processes in a company of any profile helps to ensure adequate interaction between employees, due to responsibility and attention to deadlines. The process approach is not dead - it underlies many fashionable theories of development, company, and personnel management. Today we will tell you where the processes meet, how to manage them, and whether you need them in principle.

Process approach: from cybernetics to management

Process theory defines a process as a model of behavior that consists in performing actions. As a rule, the process does not know about the implementation details of each of the actions (behavior of the system to which it belongs). For example, in the process of approving a document in a company, the terms and procedure for approval are laid down, but the process does not care from which device and at what geographical point the document will be approved. Another important property of the process is its controllability, the ability to be subject to changes from the outside.

In general, speaking about CRM and ERP, everyone is used to hearing the concept of "business process" and often discussions come down to how a business process differs from a process. There is a version that the term is a tracing paper from the English “business process” (business process) and the compound word business does not carry any load, except for highlighting the processes taking place in companies from numerous processes (technical, chemical, biological, etc.). Actually, it is easy to agree with this version, remembering how, for example, a trial is simply called a process, discarding the sign.

predictability of the final result due to the accumulation of a knowledge base and resource management within the project

continuous quality control and creation of improvements through continuous optimization of processes and their separation

the involvement of all elements of the infrastructure and all employees through competent planning based on the results of previous results.

Ultimately, process management reduces the cost of the final product, saves on the release and redistribution of resources, makes the company's work transparent, but retains flexibility - you can always make changes to the process.

Important digression: the place of the process in the quality management system (ISO 9001)

In the ISO 9000 quality system certification standards, one of the most important components of achieving quality is the principle of a process approach to the performance of any work. Here is what is listed in the GOST R ISO 9001-2008 standard:

“This International Standard advocates the application of the “process approach” principle to the development, implementation and improvement of the effectiveness of a quality management system in order to increase customer satisfaction by meeting customer requirements.

To be successful, an organization must define and manage numerous interrelated activities. An activity that uses resources and is managed to transform inputs into outputs can be considered a process. Often the output of one process directly forms the input of the next.
The application of a system of processes in an organization along with their identification and interaction, as well as the management of processes aimed at obtaining the desired result, can be defined as a “process approach”.
The advantage of the process approach is the continuity of control that it provides at the junction of individual processes within their system, as well as in their combination and interaction.

When applied to a quality management system, this approach highlights the importance of:

A) understanding and fulfilling the requirements;
b) the need to consider processes in terms of their added value;
c) achieving the planned results of the processes and ensuring their effectiveness;
d) continuous improvement processes based on objective measurement.

The model of a quality management system based on a process approach, shown in the figure, illustrates the links between processes (organizations - author's note). This model shows that consumers play a significant role in setting the requirements considered as inputs. Monitoring customer satisfaction requires evaluating information about customers' perceptions of meeting their requirements. The model shown in the figure covers all the basic requirements of this standard, but does not show the processes at a detailed level.

Thus, the standard recommends that an organization identify all key activities and learn how to manage them. In turn, an activity that uses resources, has a goal and a result, is already considered as a process. And often the result of one process serves as the entry point of another. The GOST R ISO 9001:2008 standard itself denotes significant species company activities planning, leadership, management review, resource management (including personnel and infrastructure), product life cycle management, design and development, measurement, analysis and improvement.

Processes in Ruli24 - how to steer correctly

“Everything is a process” - it was from this position that we proceeded when designing the Ruli24 system. In the post about the growth of companies, there were diagrams that reflected the three main groups of processes in any company, regardless of its structure, commercialization and organizational-legal form.

Leading processes. They come down to three components: organization, leadership, management. For these processes, it is important to lay down a competent process of coordination, analysis and data collection in software.

This is how the document approval process looks like: each of the chain receives an action notification and electronically approves the document. At the same time, the human factor is minimized: the owner of the process can at any time see who the hitch has occurred and take action. By the way, such processes are configured in the Wheels in BPMN notation, and we do not leave the user alone with the designer, but design the processes accurately, quickly and for the client.

All analytics is built in reports: the user can make the selections he needs and analyze slices using filters, graphical, tabular and chess views.

Basic processes. They strongly depend on the type of activity of the company, but almost always include marketing, supply, promotion.

To implement these processes, a whole arsenal is required: this is CRM, and planners, and calendars, and a Gantt chart. The actions of several departments must be coordinated and focused on the ultimate goal.

Supporting processes - elements of direct production and provision of core activities. This includes personnel management, financial management, security, IT infrastructure, Accounting and so on.

The support processes are numerous and it is important to set them up to eliminate the same human factor as in the management processes. For this, it is used complex automation companies, taking into account the interconnections of processes.

In addition to this division, there is a division, which was mentioned above: into research, design, production and information processes. They are not only interconnected, but also act on any object or its part.

The process control mechanism includes the organization of work in relation to the four specified types of processes. Each process has its own order of execution, form of control and expected result. Work is the input and output of the process.

The system provides several forms of work management. The use of one form or another is determined by the specifics various kinds activities and organizational aspects. Work with information processes carried out with the help of control forms:

"Incoming document" - registration of external incoming documents;
"Outgoing document" - registration of documents sent to external organizations;
"Request" is a universal mechanism for official correspondence, regardless of the administrative hierarchy of relationships.

Work with research and search processes

"Forum" - registration teamwork, distribution of internal documents, discussion mechanism;
"Meeting" - a mechanism for scheduling meetings.

Work with project processes carried out through the control forms:

"Subject" - the form is used to highlight works in certain areas;
"Project" - the form is used to group works on certain projects;
"Total work" - registration of work general, which includes jobs assigned to specific performers.
"Project task" - registration of a specific task to the contractor for the project.

Works on production processes are recorded using management forms:

"Business process" - the basis of the form is a description of the sequence of work to achieve a certain result.
"Task" - a form by which the organization of work and control over execution is carried out, depending on the hierarchy of service relationships

As we have said, the input and output of every process is work. Each job has its own life cycle:

The following functions are performed during the execution of works:

Creation new job– as a result, a record is created in the system with a description of the work in the “Attention” state.
Familiarization with the work - the work is transferred to the "Open" state.
Job execution - the job is transferred to the "Active" state.
Registration of the fact of execution - the date of completion of the work and a report on the work performed are entered. The job is moved to the "Done" state.
Closing the work - the author of the work checks the fact of the execution of the work and transfers it to the "Closed" state. If the result of the completed work turned out to be unsatisfactory, the author transfers the work to the “Closed (-)” state.

If we turn to the Russian development (and the development of their CIS), you can find several classic CRM with built-in business processes, but none of them treats the process as a component of each management and production link. We at Ruli24 started from the focus on the process approach, and did not implement processes as a separate module or fashionable functionality.

If you are reading the post not for the sake of interest in the process approach, but choose a CRM or a suitable automation system for all components of your business, look under the spoiler - the implementation of processes in the Ruli24 interface is clearly presented there.

Slides, slides!

Ruli24 Process control- includes 13 tasks.

Ruli24 Process Management Administrator- allows you to configure activities, objects and user rights.

Handlebars24 Organizer allows you to conduct both personal and collective time management. Here, personal affairs are planned and controlled, simple production (tasks, requests, operational tasks) and research work(meetings and forums). Planning can be done through your calendar or through the employee's calendar. Various files are also available here. electronic documents. All types of work are available in the My Cases folder, where widgets reflect new, open, and overdue cases.

In the task Ruli24 Office work Incoming, Outgoing and Organizational and distribution documents are added to the Organizer objects. Now these documents are also available in the My Cases folder.

In the task Ruli24 Project management Topic, Project, Summary work, Project task are added to Organizer objects. All these works can be seen not only in the Calendar, but also on the Gantt chart and in the Planner. Now these works are also available in the "My Affairs" folder.

In the task Ruli24 Business process management you can create typical business processes and run and monitor business process instances.

In the task Steering wheels24 Work management collected all works from the research process (discussion), from information process(office management), project process (design) and production process (production). Now in the folder "My cases" all the works from these processes are available.

In the task Ruli24 CRM Administrator, CRM, CRM B2B, CRM B2C are added Leads, Deals, Work with B2B clients, Work with B2C clients. Now in the folder "My Affairs" available and work from CRM.

To put it bluntly, all processes within an organization lie between requirements and customer satisfaction. And it just is main process production of goods (goods, works, services). Let's take our client as an example. There is a bank, it has Ruli24, as we joke, in the “luxury” configuration. The bank has two types of customers: legal entities And individuals. They make demands on products: open accounts, conduct transactions, make deposits. They make demands on the level of service, they want a client-bank, a mobile version, mailing lists, etc. The bank satisfies the requirements, and all processes take place within the Ruli24 system: from accounting to product portfolio analytics and internal ticket systems. At the same time, all processes are interconnected, which reduces the average service time and simplifies the collection of business information, on the basis of which new product offers are formed.

However, a process management system in a company is needed not only for such giants as banks, but also for almost any company. For a deeper understanding of the process approach, you can apply the so-called Deming-Shewhart "Plan - Do - Check - Act" (PDCA) cycle. It is "plan - act - test - improve action". Using this cycle allows you to constantly implement continuous process improvement aimed at improving the efficiency of the organization. This concept was deeply reflected in the development of . This is how the volumetric control model looks like, which underlies the idea of the whole system. If the model is presented as interactive, the interrelations and intersections of all components become clear.

The process description form below resembles a PERT diagram, i.e. network schedule. The difference is that not all work can be performed in a specific implementation of the production process, depending on the conditions of the "crossroads". In addition, each job can be further defined (in some of its attributes) depending on the conditions in the process description. But, as we remember, the process does not know about the implementation of procedures and instructions within it.

So, we have decided on the model and will make an approximate checklist for managing processes in your company.

Atomize processes. Each process should be an independent regulated unit, then it will be easier for you to manage the company as a whole. In addition, in the case of organizing company automation as a combination of many small processes, it is easier to identify and fix a weak link, there is no need to interfere in large-scale processes. And this saves time and does not allow work to get up.
Structure processes. Each process must have an owner, responsible, entry and exit points, procedures inside, purpose and result. The process must have time parameters and metrics for its successful/unsuccessful completion. It only seems like bureaucracy from the outside - the human brain quickly adapts to the convenience of automation, and it also receives an additional “bonus”: you don’t need to keep all the cases in your head, reminders and alerts will do the work for the manager.
Link processes This is the only way to get an effective management model. Connections and dependencies between atomized processes will allow you to collect maximum information about leads, customers, work results, etc., and streamline and significantly speed up the activity itself.
Use a suite of process management tools(reports, funnels, Gantt chart, plans). This will allow you to quickly identify problem areas and make changes.
Continuously work with processes, improve them. Even if the best industry experts, your company and Ruli24 developers gather in one place, it will not be possible to create an ideal process and establish management. After the next iteration, it is necessary to revise the parameters of the process, analyze its course and result, and compare it with expectations. after several runs, it will be possible to create the most polished “gear” processes that, without exaggeration, will help your company run like clockwork.
Include suppliers, contractors, part-time workers, freelancers in the processes. The more elements you take into account, the more controlled your company will be for you. Most business automation systems (Ruli24 is no exception) are open to connecting external agents, but this possibility is rarely used. It must be remembered that everyone on whom the result depends is significant.
Draw processes on paper, correct in working groups, allocate resources. Introduce a clear process into the business automation system with unambiguous nodes, stages and transitions.

“To whom are you telling this now? I have small business, guys in the palm of your hand, what processes! - for sure, some of Habr's readers will think that way. We assure you, you are wrong. The management of a company does not begin from the first day of its existence, but from the very idea of creating one. And it is at this stage that the first processes are formed. Start small - automate primary communications and activities, then scale up automation as management grows. Then, when the company grows and the flow of calls or customers becomes tangible, you will not have a mess and the need to automate it. After all, as our crm colleagues have repeatedly joked here, an automated mess remains a mess.

More than business processes Add tags

A systematic approach is an approach in which any system (object) is considered as a set of interrelated elements (components) that has an output (goal), an input (resources), a connection with the external environment, feedback . This is the most difficult approach to management. The system approach is based on the main properties of the system: 1. Integrity - not the elements make up the whole, but on the contrary, the whole generates the elements of the system during its division. The primacy of the whole is the main postulate of systems theory. The integrity of systems includes three main aspects: In a holistic system, individual parts function together, making up the process of functioning of the system as a whole. The cumulative functioning of heterogeneous interconnected components generates qualitatively new functional properties of the whole, which has no analogues in the properties of its components. This means the fundamental irreducibility of the properties of the system to the sum of the properties of its constituent components and the non-derivation of the properties of an integral system from the properties of the components. In other words, non-additivity is inherent in an integral system. The third aspect of the property of the integrity of systems is the unity of the variety of forms, aspects of activity, organizational structures, etc. in the material and spiritual life of society as a whole. 2. Interdependence and interaction of the system and the external environment. The system forms and manifests its properties only in the process of interaction with the external environment. The system reacts to the influence of the external environment, develops under this influence, but at the same time retains its qualitative certainty and properties that ensure the relative stability and adaptability of the system's functioning. Without interaction with the external environment, the firm as an open system cannot function. At the same time, the less disturbances in the external environment, the more stable the firm will function. The manager's task is to predict situations and take measures to adapt the system parameters to environmental factors. 3. Structurality - a set of system components and their relationships that determine the internal structure and organization of an object as an integral system. When studying a system, the structure acts as a way of describing its organization. When researching and designing a system, it is decomposed into components, their functions and relationships are established. The optimal structure of the system should have a minimum number of components, but at the same time, they must fully perform the specified functions. The structure must be mobile, i.e. easily adaptable (adaptive) to changing requirements and goals. The evolution of the structure of the system in terms of content in space and time reflects the process of its development. 4. Hierarchy - each component of the system can be considered as a system (subsystem) of a wider global system. For example, a firm is a subsystem of a higher-level system - a corporation, company, trust, association, industry, region, etc. In turn, the latter is a subsystem of a larger association, region or country as a whole. The country is a subsystem of the global system - the world community. If we consider a department (workshop) as a system, then for it the global system will be the firm, and the subsystems of the department will be bureaus (groups). Technological equipment, located in the workshop, is a technical system and at the same time a component of a wider socio-economic system for it - the workshop. This property of systems must be taken into account when studying the effectiveness of the functioning of any departments of the company and the company as a whole. The hierarchical property of systems is also manifested in the decomposition structure of the company's goals, product indicators, management functions, etc. 5. Continuity of functioning and evolution. The system exists as long as it functions. All processes in any system (socio-economic, technical, biological, etc.) are continuous and interdependent. The functioning of the components determines the nature of the functioning of the system as a whole, and vice versa. At the same time, the system must be capable of learning and development. The sources of evolution of social economic systems are: contradictions in various fields activities; competition; variety of forms and methods of functioning; the dialectic of development and the struggle of opposites, etc. Each company, if it wants to compete successfully in the market, must study the parameters of the listed sources and take them into account in its work. Firms that do not analyze and do not predict external and internal sources of self-development suffer bankruptcy. For example, in industrial developed countries About 10% of firms fail each year. 6. Purposefulness, meaning the obligatory construction of a tree of goals for socio-economic systems, a tree of performance indicators technical systems and others. For example, the global criterion for the functioning of a company at the zero level of the goal tree can be profit maximization, subject to compliance with legislative acts, social and environmental norms and standards. Further, using the methods of analysis and synthesis, ranking and optimization, the company's goals are decomposed to 4-5 levels. 7. The desire of systems to a state of stable equilibrium, which involves the adaptation of system parameters to changing parameters of the external environment, to specific situations by ensuring a high level of organization of the management system in dynamics. The indicators of the organization of the management system include the coefficient of proportionality (the ratio of the minimum value of the analyzed set of parameters to the maximum value) of the main controlled parameters of the system, the coefficients of continuity, parallelism, automaticity, rhythm of partial processes, as well as managerial and production processes. 8. Alternative ways of functioning and development. Depending on the specific parameters of situations that arise during operational management (tax system, customs tariffs, competitiveness of competitors, market infrastructure, reliability of suppliers, etc.), there may be several alternative ways to achieve a specific goal. Some of the most unpredictable fragments, for example, a program, plan, network model, due to the high uncertainty of the situation, are recommended to be developed along several alternative paths. The alternative ways of functioning and development of systems can be objective or subjective. For example, the alternative development of biological systems is largely objective. The development of biological systems is largely determined by genetics and environmental factors. The development of technical systems is determined by subjective factors, and their functioning is determined by the reliability of systems. The alternative ways of functioning and development of socio-economic systems are determined by both objective and subjective factors. 9. Heredity characterizes the pattern of transmission of dominant and recessive traits at individual stages of development from the old generation of the system to the new one. Identification of the dominant features of the system makes it possible to increase the validity of the directions of its development. Dominant and recessive traits are essentially objective. The subjectivity of the process of managing these features should be manifested in their study, highlighting the dominant features of the system and investing in innovations for their development. This difficult complex task. Therefore, at present, the study of the heredity of socio-economic systems is not enough. The results of the study of the heredity of biological systems are introduced into practice very slowly.

Any activity is always a certain process, as it has a duration in time, stages and a result. Therefore, from handicraft or handicraft production to modern high-tech companies, everyone is involved in processes. What has changed in Lately? Why has the topic of business processes become so relevant today? In this material, I will try to analyze the process approach to managing an organization and reflect the specific features of a new view of management, which brought with them the theories of modeling and reengineering.

Background

Researchers in the field of management are constantly concerned about the question of the universality of theories and the provability of solutions. It is desirable, as in mathematics, to find axioms and constants on which one could confidently rely when searching and making decisions. Second important topic is a language for displaying decisions related to organizational and management systems. The most successful attempts to make the science of management more harmonious are accounting and financial statistics. These are very valuable parts of management, but, unfortunately, not suitable for "mere mortals" who need to not only accept correct solution but also convey it to all staff. Here you can also talk about network planning and graph theory, but still this approach remains controversial for many.

In the 70s of the last century, in complex military projects, American specialists came to the need to visually structure activities, and since then such a concept as a business process has been firmly entrenched in management practice. This period can be conditionally called the “structuring” of the business, since the purpose of building visual schemes of activities at that time was to identify logic, separate areas of responsibility, determine the flow of documents and products, and this action itself greatly accelerated and simplified understanding, identified inaccurate places and breaks.

At this stage, the business process was defined as a set of sequentially and/or parallel operations that converts material and/or information flows into the corresponding flows with different properties. Of course, here we are not talking about the fact that for the first time they saw the process in activity (processes were already improved by Adam Smith in the 18th century, and Henry Ford perfectly built production processes), but that a tool appeared for displaying and system analysis of the company's activities through process diagrams .

A visual reflection of the business processes of the enterprise significantly accelerated and simplified the automation activity, therefore, in the period of the 80s, the emphasis shifted to the description of automated business processes. It was a period of active involvement of computers in all areas of production and management. Naturally, one description was not enough for managers very soon, so it began to take shape new level difficulties - process management.

The process approach considers management as the work of a special person (“process owner”) to design an effective sequence of actions to create a formulated result under given conditions and ensure the implementation of these actions (process). That is, the focus from managing people in process management is shifting to managing action flows and results.

Stages of modeling development

Having embarked on the path of streamlining business processes, management must sooner or later switch to process management on a company-wide scale, since the flow of activity, like the flow of water, cannot exist in a closed space - where movement is limited. That is, the company is forced to comprehend all its activities as a network of interrelated processes, to link them so that they strengthen, rather than weaken each other. Here, modeling of all activities in the complex is required. This stage began in the West around the 90s. Everything happens with some lag, but it strongly depends on the industry. Fast-growing industries (such as telecommunications) have long and successfully mastered these technologies.

A feature of process-oriented management is the definition of business processes as an interconnected set of works that ensure the achievement of the company's goals (strategy implementation), which is an order of magnitude more difficult than managing a local process. Here, the focus of management attention is shifted from production and logistics processes to "office".

The evaluation showed that the processes of design, planning, accounting, etc. are often the main culprits for the slow speed and high cost of production processes. That is, they determine, ultimately, the properties of the processes that create value for the client.

Thus, in order to achieve success, the management of the company itself must be subjected to modeling and optimization, but sometimes this is extremely difficult, since most often it is observed:

high uncertainty in the actions of managers;
lack of necessary competencies in process management;
psychological unpreparedness of specialists and managers to “drive themselves into frames”.

Therefore, the next stage in the development of modeling tasks is inevitable - this is the initial competent design of all company processes as a single effective system- business engineering. The methodology of business engineering considers management as a service to the value stream, as it should be. At the same time, the implementation of the process approach occurs almost automatically and does not require efforts to overcome the resistance of any of the personnel groups (of course, if everything is correctly designed from the beginning).

I plan to consider the topic of business engineering in more detail in the following articles. Here I would like to pay attention to the options and subtleties of the business process as a modern management phenomenon.

Management Phenomenon

Having considered the dynamics of the development of the process approach to enterprise management, I think that no one doubts that this is serious and for a long time. My personal opinion is that the transition to process management is comparable to the transition from calculations on the fingers to calculations using records, formulas, rules. With the complication of the control object, management technologies must inevitably become more complex.

But is it really that difficult? Where does the modern manager face the barrier of the advantage of the process approach? My observations show that the manager, by virtue of tradition, imagines the organization in the form of an organizational structure, where the main thing is information about the division of employees into units and about responsibility for each group. Let's compare how the structure and business process diagrams look, drawn using the same visual tools.

Structure

Obviously, the main difference between the schemes is the presence of a flow on the second scheme, which unites all participants with a certain logic. Managerial work is similarly different. With the traditional functional management it is a "sharing" of attention, work, reward, which is a very laborious affair and does not guarantee anything.

With the transition to a process-oriented approach to management, the management of a company can no longer be considered as the work of an "overseer", but rather as the work of a coach, conductor, director, etc. - that is, the task changes from separation and control to the formation of the best configuration of conditions for maximizing the flow of value created.

We can conclude that the whole difficulty lies in the habit of the traditional version of management, and partly in the fact that there are no visual ready-made process models, and their creation from scratch requires serious efforts of the management team.

Principal elements of process management

Revealing key results activities and its comparison of the company's business processes.
Identification of business process clients and their requirements (in the future, it is necessary to establish a strong relationship with them and continuously monitor their satisfaction, since it is the client with this approach that becomes the main measure of the quality of the process).
Creation of the structure of business processes, based on the importance, nesting, chronology of activities.
Definition of parameters of business processes.
Determination of responsible and executors of each process.
Logic design is a technology that should ensure the creation of the desired result at the right time.
Setting up a system for synchronizing the activities of different processes (ideally, automation of planning and monitoring of all process indicators).
Staff training is the formation of readiness for group responsibility for the result (often this requires a sufficiently strong restructuring of the motivation system).
Formation of a cyclic mode of design-analysis-adjustment of processes, based on the results of the analysis - the so-called "business rhythm".

An important stage in the development and description of activities is the definition of the characteristics of business processes. Almost every methodology highlights the following elements.

Process boundaries, which are defined by start events and inputs (resources), as well as end events and outputs (results).
Normative documents of the process. These include both external legislation and company-issued rules, plans, and instructions. Unfortunately, in companies it is rare to find well-written control documents, so the main delay in the transition to process management arises from the need to develop the required number of rules and instructions.
Process resources: performers and participants, equipment and tools, information systems and other important elements without which the process is impossible or ineffective.
Process indicators are measured process variables and their normative values. These may include not only the volume of the result, but also the time spent on the process, the amount of loss of materials or money, the number of defects, the customer satisfaction index, etc.

All this can be described in a simple text or tabular form, but it is not in vain that designers use graphic methods. Any design, including organizational, will be much more deeply detailed and meaningful if it is presented visually and in the context of the rest of the system.

Visualization of processes in the form of technologies can be simple, as shown in the figure above, consisting of infographics available to any employee, or it can be more complex, performed using special process modeling tools. As part of this cycle, I plan to describe all the most interesting and accessible modeling notations. While you can familiarize yourself with two of them - and.

In any case, the methodology provides direction and tools, while the value for the company is created by the management team that forms the management system. No even the most accurate technique guarantees that the mechanism will work like a clock if there is no master who understands, adjusts and maintains this “clock”.

I think no one has a question whether they are needed or not and why business processes are being developed, because when there is a business, by definition there are business processes. Therefore, it cannot be said that working with business processes is fundamentally new era. But still, the shift in emphasis, new tools and technologies significantly change the essence of managerial work. Those who understand this have a chance to create a much more manageable, mobile and efficient business than those who are guided by old-fashioned management - often through psychological pressure on subordinates.

Modern realities make it necessary to adapt the management apparatus to a dynamically developing environment with fierce competition. The opinions of professionals in this regard differ. Some completely deny the importance of organizational and economic methods, others propose to appoint a person responsible for each management function.

Practical experience shows that the use of only functional approach leads to a decrease in management efficiency. What is the essence of other management methods? What is the process approach focused on and what are its advantages?

4 approaches to management

IN modern management There are four types that allow you to take a different look at the organization and management process. This is a quantitative, process approach, systemic, situational, which arose in the twentieth century.

An approach
Quantitative	Arose in 1950, with the development of the exact sciences. Computers, achievements of mathematics, physics began to be actively used in management. Construction of virtual models for resource allocation, inventory management, maintenance, strategic planning etc.
process	The founder of the direction A. Fayol, the time of occurrence is the second decade of the twentieth century. According to the approach, management is presented as a continuous process or cycle. Its foundation is formed by the main functions: planning, organization, motivation and control.
Systemic	Appeared in the middle of the twentieth century. Considers the organization as an open system interacting with the external environment. The internal environment contains elements of the subsystem: divisions, technologies, management levels.
situational	Formed in 60 of the XX century. Proponents of the approach recommend choosing managerial methods taking into account the situation and environmental factors. The most effective method is the one that suits the circumstances.

Process approach in management

The modern process approach is based on a systematic approach to management and considers any organization as a single organism. At each enterprise, a variety of business processes take place, taking resources at the input, and giving a semi-finished product or product at the output. The whole cycle is closed on the release of finished goods, services.

This approach consists in such an organization of work, which is based on the division of all enterprise activities into business processes, and the management apparatus into blocks. The whole system can be represented as a scheme, a chain with separate links - operations. The end result of the production chain is the product. The links responsible for a specific business process are formed from structural units.

Basics of the process approach

In order to make it more clear, we have arranged all the postulates in the table below.

The process approach is based on several principles.	Main features of the approach
Focus on improving product quality and consumer preferences. All participants in the chain are responsible for economic results. Motivation of employees at a high level. Relaxing bureaucracy.	Authority and responsibility are widely delegated to line employees by management. Decisions are made faster by reducing the number of management steps. The quality of a product or service is under scrutiny. All technologies related to business processes are formalized and automated.

Problems in the implementation of the process approach

In theory, the process approach looks simple and logical, but its implementation in the activities of the enterprise in practice turns out to be difficult. At the same time, it is worth paying attention to real examples, the practical result of other organizations, the opinion of professional consultants. For any organization, the implementation of an untested theory results in large monetary and other costs.

The application of the process approach in practice is associated with a number of problems:

management introduces a process approach in management only at a formal level;
the created system does not correspond to the real state of affairs in the organization;
an attempt to introduce an approach at an informal level;
managers do not perceive the approach as a new organizational ideology;
management does not think about the need to regulate processes or does not know how to manage them;
managers are not ready for fundamental changes, for example, a revision of the company's structure;
lack of competence, motivation, dedication, perseverance in optimizing processes.

Process approach in the organization and quality management system

One of the main requirements of ISO 9001:2000 is the implementation of the process approach. According to the standard, it is necessary to identify processes and organize their management, but a specific system of actions is not given.

Many managers, starting work on the creation of a QMS, perceive its implementation as informal. At the same time, they emphasize how significant are the expected changes for the better that arise during implementation, and not the QMS certificate itself. In practice, the implementation of the project creates difficulties. They frighten the management of the organization, which decides to confine itself to complying with the formal requirements of ISO.

Thus, QMS remains at the formal level. As a result, frustrated staff have a negative attitude towards the system itself and the process approach.

Methods of transition to process management

All of them are presented in the table:

Full method	through method
The process and system approach is based on the identification of business processes based on the current organizational structure. After that, there is a transition to the process structure. Its foundation is based on several provisions.	Process and situational approach. The management identifies end-to-end business processes for which a description of the workflow and sequence of work is prepared. At the next stage, they are included in a new process structure, usually a matrix one.
Identification and classification of required business processes. Formation of a chain of business processes within a working structure. Development of standards and methods to ensure the effectiveness of management processes. Creation information base and selection of resources to perform work within business processes. Monitoring and analysis of processes. Implementation of measures to achieve the planned goals. Improvement of business processes.	Preparing the model according to the situation. Analysis of existing business processes. Development of an improved model. Reorganization of business processes based on it. Preparation of a new process organizational structure.

What does the description and regulation of processes provide?

The increase in efficiency is not directly related to the regulation of processes. Descriptions and regulations may not be in the enterprise. The work will still be carried out by employees according to the accepted rules, since the staff knows the production process. Such an organization of work leads to a constant loss of resources. Description and regulation of processes open up a number of possibilities:

Activities within the framework of standards, repeatability of processes create opportunities for management.
Identification of problems, difficult moments, loss of resources in the implementation of processes.
Development of measures to improve processes.
Experience and knowledge of work processes that can be transferred to new employees, branches, other organizations.
Implementation of benchmarking, comparing your company with competitors to improve business processes.
Internal audit.

Regulation is effective if it is accompanied by analysis, development and implementation of improvements.

The ideology of the process approach

The process approach and its real, rather than formal, implementation in the management system causes many difficulties. The problem for management is the lack of leadership skills and the ability to involve staff. Change in the creation of new systems must first occur in the minds of workers.

Employee involvement is facilitated if this approach is perceived as an ideology. First, the idea penetrates the minds of people, and then becomes a tool. Then the staff will be ready to apply new methods and programs, for which they must be encouraged.

Conclusion

In many countries of the world, the process approach to management is perceived as the main success factor in business. It is no coincidence that it became the basis of quality management standards. The effectiveness of the approach has not yet been confirmed by real examples of implementation on Russian enterprises. There are few examples, as well as new benefits from the implementation of the standard. The reason is that many organizations simply changed the terminology: there was a sales department, there was a “Sales” process. Department heads have become process owners.

The process approach in management is the main tool among the tools that are used by management to reorganize the management system.