There are a lot of tools out there to help us get our BPM project done on time and on budget. One question that comes up a lot is whether we should follow a step by step method when handling these projects or keep some flexibility in our process.
In every case we have a few variables to tie around a methodology. These are our skills, tools and the action steps we take. (The Rock and Roll of this blog posting).
The single path approach
The single path approach. Dullsville!
If we imagine our project as a series of stepping stones with discrete tasks to be followed in a particular order that might well work for a project where we always want the same process to be followed. For example taking a customer order via credit card, or making a cup of coffee in Starbucks. For many project when we miss a step, or don’t have another alternative to reaching the other side, we are in trouble.
Why ski instructors make good project managers
As a ski instructor in the winter months in New England I am often faced with this problem when developing a lesson plan for a new customer. Often the customer will be presented to me with little or no background before meeting them. Then I am faced with a the challenge of improving their skiing in the course of an hour or two.
This requires rapid goal setting to understand what they want to achieve, an assessment of their current skill levels and terrain capabilities and the development of a lesson plan in a very short period of time. As the client is paying a good deal of money for this skill, you better be a very fast study to the client’s goals and expectations and deliver on the goods.
In this situation, there really is no one fits all solution to the problem. Rather a set of lesson plans, skill assessment and delivery that has to customized and agreed with the client very rapidly.
This is precisely what happens in many BPM projects, while we have much more time than the ski instructor to figure out the goals and objectives, we still need a flexible path to how we get to the result.
Stepping Stones approach. More flexibility!
