Business process improvement: implementation and impact analysis

During the implementation phase of a BPI project, you need to think about the changes that need to occur in order for the new improved process to work as designed. Will the finance department have an objection to a particular change for any reason? Will another department affected by a transfer have a concern? Will a stakeholder disagree with a proposed change? Business process improvement causes change in any organization and not everyone likes change.

Impact analysis, a key component of the implementation phase in any BPI project, provides you with a tool to identify all the issues that may arise that could create obstacles to your implementation. Develop your impact analysis by traversing the newly improved process map and identifying any activities that require organizational change. Create a table in Microsoft Word or Excel that includes the following information for any potential problem areas that you identify:

1. Reference number
2. Process change
3. Fundamental reason
4. Impacted area
5. Affected population / group
6. Change management

• Process change: This is where you describe the change that must occur. For instance, remove three of the current approval levels. You must decide whether to include changes that only affect external groups (outside the sponsor’s scope of control) or all groups.
• Fundamental reason: Please indicate why the change is important to the company. For instance, reduces cycle time by speeding up the approval process.
• Impacted area: List the departments or business areas affected by the change. For instance, buyer, legal or the whole company.
• Affected population / group: List the population or groups affected by the change. For instance, purchasing manager, suppliers or customers.
• Change management: This is one explanation for the anticipated rollback you expect with the proposed change. For example: Purchasing may not be comfortable with a small number of approvals and want to set a dollar limit on purchase approvals, or customers are not used to being told “no” despite that your request is outside the department’s guidelines.

You can do this step at the end of your work or while you are building the new process map, but I like to take notes as you build the new map because you listen to the project team discussion of potential problems and this helps you remember everything. .

Sponsors appreciate impact analysis because they often have most of the responsibility for agreeing on the required changes, and this summary gives them the information they need to do their job.

Copyright 2010 Susan Page