Harnessing The Power of Process

Process is a divisive subject, especially in the digital world where speed is so critical. Success is a function of achieving a high delivery velocity and release cadence without sacrificing service performance. “Process” often carries negative connotations of slowness, frustration and unnecessary red tape. When enacted poorly, it can live up to that reputation. This has led some digital leaders to circumvent process altogether in an effort to increase delivery velocity.

As W. Edwards Deming said, “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” Underscoring his feelings about process, the famous economist also said, “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Process shouldn’t be viewed as some necessary evil that organizations must enact once they are “big enough.” When designed and implemented correctly, process can be the key to success, no matter the size of your organization.

Some important processes to get right that enable successful digital transformations include:

• Upstream content generation: The best tools, design and code in the world cannot make up for subpar content. Clear governance guidelines, streamlined publishing and archival workflows, and explicit authoring expectations make up some of the content processes necessary to generate a meaningful return on investment.
• Ruthless prioritization: No project is ever estimated perfectly since requirements evolve and scope is often added or removed. It’s critical to have processes in place to constantly evaluate priorities and strategically adjust scope to decrease your time-to-market.
• Continuous improvement: Processes that worked for your organization yesterday may be obsolete or overburdensome today. Take time at regular intervals to reflect and adjust to what is most effective.
• Training & adoption: Training is not a box to check prior to your initial launch. It is a process that extends in perpetuity as you add functionality into your digital ecosystem, expand to more departments and operational functions, and onboard new employees to your organization.

“Process” is overdue for a brand refresh to bring about positive connotations of efficiency, clarity through expectation alignment and acceleration through repetition. When was the last time you evaluated your processes to ensure they are still serving your organization and its goals?