5 tips for streamlining processes

Processes are everywhere: development processes, purchasing processes, processes for new employees, processes for departing employees and many more. It's no wonder that entire branches of industry are involved in process management and optimization.

Processes can drive complexity and be very complex themselves. It is therefore important to regularly rethink, adapt and automate processes where it makes sense to do so. In other words, to streamline them.

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Processes and systems engineering

The ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 deals with the processes of the system life cycle and clearly demonstrates how strong the process reference is in systems engineering. Implementation is left to the users. Therefore, "on demand" is also a process - even one that is completely sufficient for some tasks. However, this changes as soon as security and compliance come into play. It is often necessary to demonstrate process maturity to the legislator or client, for example via a ISO 9001-certification or SPICE.

On the one hand, the evaluation of the maturity of processes is to be welcomed, as it can be used to indirectly assess the quality and reliability of products. On the other hand, however, there is a risk of processes becoming an end in themselves.

In this article, I assume that organizations already have a certain level of process maturity. Only when this is the case is it worth thinking more deeply about streamlining processes.

Here are a few tips on how we can cleverly streamline processes:

1. relieve the strain on people

As already mentioned, processes are not an end in themselves. Processes ensure reliability, for example. But it is almost always people who have to live the process. People should therefore be at the heart of process optimization. For example, can a process be automated, or can this lead to major problems if the script gets stuck?

2. maintain processes holistically

Many processes also emerge "from below" because there is a need for them. This can result in a series of similar processes that unnecessarily complicate the process landscape. This is where the regular holistic view helps to bring similar processes together.

3. try out manually before automating

There are many ways to automate processes, especially with modern tools. However, automation is time-consuming and requires maintenance. Hence the recommendation to first introduce new processes manually to determine whether (1) they are correct and (2) whether automation is worthwhile at all.

4. only one tool per process if possible

There are many tools for capturing requirements. Ideally, a single tool is used, which makes the corresponding processes much more reliable. In practice, however, it is often unavoidable that there are several tools, for example in different specialist departments. This is where Tim Weilkiens and Andreas Willert have come up with the EEE check developed a pragmatic approach to detoxification.

5. regularly analyze processes

We should regularly analyze existing processes from various perspectives: Are they still necessary? Can they be simplified? Are they being practiced at all? Companies like Celonis process mining" to answer precisely these questions.

Conclusion

We are struggling with increasing complexity on all fronts. For us as systems engineers, the focus is usually on the complexity of the product. But in order for us to focus on product complexity, the processes must not get in the way. Regularly streamlining processes keeps our backs free.

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