Part 1:
Those of you who have ‘worked’ with me ;-) would know how much I philosophize on this subject. The main reason being, all the quality manuals/policies/procedure documents/guidelines/templates of any company would have loads and loads of information on How/What/When/Which/Where/Who and what not? But, there would not be any mention on “Why we need these processes”. May be the Quality Evangelists always thought that this is a silly question. And, it is “understood”.
The fact of the matter is, unless we face a challenging situation, we never realize, as practitioners, “Why” we need these processes.
Without asking a “Why” knowledge is not complete. For those of you who follow Tamil and have watched our evergreen “Puratchi Thalaivar” singing “En endra kelvi ingu ketkamal vazhkai illai” (translated “there is no life if we do not ask the question why”).
Asking a why enriches the knowledge by making one understand the rhyme and reason for every theory/concept/action.
So, again, WHY processes?
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Part 2:
There are successful small-timers who do not have processes. But they have to have the same set of people executing the projects.
So, first step, we need processes so that what person A does very well is repeatable by person B (and all the others), in more or less the same precision as person A. This is the baby step towards becoming BIG. Avoid ‘people-dependency’.
Else, we would stay in that ’small-timer’ position until we breathe our last.
However, the choice is yours! Do you want to grow “BIG” or remain where you are and be contented with that? Ask yourself…
More to come…
சீமான்
5 years ago
7 comments:
Very well said G.D, proccess is extremelly important else there is a huge dip in performance when the resource leaves.
I had left my previous comment with out a name. It is indeed a very thought provoking question on why we do not focus on process. Keep blogging. - Shoba
Process is my pet topic. Almost 10 years ago when I wrote a policy document that had processess in it, I felt it was just perfect. My manager read it and promptly trashed it saying I need to wear the hat of a reader and redo it all over again. It was a hammer blow but I asked for it. The 2nd version came out well. The lesson I leart that day was, in a business organization, policy or process document are not read by policy or process makers. These are read by ordinary employees for whom it is written.
Thanks Shoba! I was wondering who this Sanjay is!! In fact I was so (secretly) thrilled that even strangers have started visiting my blogs :-). I was truly surprised by my instant popularity...
Jokes apart, thanks so much for taking time to give your views...
More to come on processes...
Kumar,
Always the 2nd try will be better... See, I am the 2nd child of the house! And that says it all ;-)
Watch out for more on the process front. Will write more on my experiences (similar to yours) on processes...
GD, Quick spark from my small brain - Process VS Project
Eating is process
Cooking is project, correcta GD.
Rams,
Had you said "eating" is a program and "cooking" is a project, I would have kind of agreed. For a program, you have the same processes repeat over and over again. For eg. newspaper publication is a program. Anything one time, with a set of processes to be followed, which are tailorable, becomes a project.
As a matter of fact, one can give so many explanations to define these terms. Just remember that a process is important for any task. Even if you are picking up a thing and putting it away, your brain and the central nervous system has a pre-programmed process.
Have I confused you enough?!
- GD
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