Business Process Improvement (UT-BA-BPI)

Course Description

Perhaps no other skill can yield such immediate results and payback than learning how to improve business processes. Business process improvement efforts can increase quality, reduce costs and waste, increase operational efficiency, and enhance productivity. This course explores the need for a business process focus, the essential steps for process improvement, and the critical success factors for making the effort successful. It provides a practical framework for improving processes, process improvement concepts and techniques, and valuable tips on how to introduce process change into the organization and to get the most from your process improvement effort.

Note: This course has been approved by PMI for 14 PDUs and by IIBA for 14 CDUs.

Course Objectives

1. Describe an industry-standard Business Process Management framework and how BPI fits into it.
2. Describe the purpose, benefits, and critical issues of Business Process Improvement (BPI).
3. Employ industry-standard techniques for analyzing the root cause of process problems.
4. Determine appropriate metrics for analyzing business processes.
5. Use process maps to discover and analyze process problems.
6. Design new processes using lean techniques that eliminate waste and maximize business value.
7. Use three standard principles to optimize process design.
8. Discuss the importance of monitoring and managing processes.
9. Identify key metrics for the ongoing monitoring and reporting of process performance and efficiency.
10. Facilitate the introduction of process change in the organization using practical techniques.

Course Outline

1 - Business Process Improvement (BPI) Overview

• Framework for business process management (BPM)
• Business process improvement challenges
• Case for business process improvement
• Business process improvement benefits

2 - Process Measurement

• Analysis and metrics overview
• What to measure
• Benefits of measurement
• Data types – attribute and variable
• Data variation and data collection

3 - Process Analysis

• Analysis key concepts, steps, and challenges
• Analysis Tools / Techniques (SIPOC, Value Stream map, Process map, BOLO, Pareto Chart, Histogram, Scatter Plot, Run Chart, Rolled throughput Yield, Castle Steps)

4 - Process Design

• Process Design Principles
• Time optimization Techniques
• Quality Optimization Techniques
• Value Optimization Techniques
• Common Design Flaws

5 - Process Transformation

• Identify transformation tasks
• Four stages of change
• Resistance to change

6 - Process Performance Management

• Data management
• Displaying data

Course Prerequisites

• Experience in modeling business processes strongly encouraged. The course Business Process Modeling satisfies this prerequisite.

Course Information

Length: 2 day

Format: Lecture and Lab

Delivery Method: n/a

Max. Capacity: 16

Who Should Attend

Process analysts, business analysts, project managers, business process owners, general business staff, and anyone who needs the skills to improve and/or manage business processes.