1. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
PLAN
and the methodologies used
Barry Botha
barrydylanbotha@gmail.com
Abstract
This plan can be applied to any company and gives a comprehensive plan for improvement;
from finding out where the problems are to working out the solutions.

2. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PLAN BARRY BOTHA
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1. Initial Question: Is there something specific that needs to be improved (i.e. a specific process,
department, system or method)? - This can form the start of the product backlog.
If the answer is yes, find out the specifics of the problem and focus the remainder of the
improvement plan on that problem.
If the answer is no, you will be focusing on the entire business. The remainder of the process
improvement plan should be approached departmentally (preferably with a bottom-up approach –
starting at the first process). This should allow for minimal impact.
2. Departmental Layout: Draw up a brief layout as a skeleton of the business.
Example:
START Operations TeamSales Team Legal Team
Administration
Team
On-going
Consultants
Team
END
Legal
Administration
Team
Support Team
Finance Team
MANAGEMENT
IT Team
Core Structure
Sub Structure
Independent
Management
Note 1: This does not have to be 100% accurate; it’s purely a base to work from. It should not take
up too much time (depending on company size).
Note 2: If you are focusing on a specific problem (and therefore don’t need to focus on the entire
business) you may want to draw up a skeleton of the specific department/process/method – It will
be covered later so isn’t necessary.
3. Employee Mapping: Draw out a company (or department) employee structure. This is used to get
an understanding of the people involved. The information that should be collected is (capture in
Excel):
a. Employee Name
b. Employee Title
c. Employee Department
d. Reports To
(Additional Information can be included if required, for example):
e. Employee Number
f. Employee Tel No.
g. Employee Cell No.
h. Employee Email

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Once collected into Excel, the data can easily be transferred into a Visio Organisational Chart;
Please see Appendix 1 for example.
4. Process Mapping: Complete a full process map – this is an expansion from the skeleton of the
departments.
a. Use a bottom-up approach
b. Do each department separately and then link
c. Focus on the process from a client’s perspective
d. Include as many variations as possible
Note: The easiest way is to capture all the relevant data into Excel. Once all the data has been
collected a graphical process map can be created.
A couple of questions should be asked for each process step:
a. What is the primary function
b. What are the secondary functions
c. What information is required
d. Where does the information come from
e. What is required from the client (i.e. documents, etc.)
f. Any additional requirements
g. Any waiting periods
h. Where does the process go next
Note: There are many additional questions that can be asked that will be completely situational. You
want to try and get as much information about the processes as possible and try to get consistent
information across departments.
5. Brainstorming of problems: The reason why the first brainstorming session is at this point in the
plan is mainly due to the fact that once you have the process map there is a more fundamental
understanding of the entire process; you can now relate what comes up to the process map.
The primary topic for this brainstorming session is to get the first idea of any problems and/or
bottlenecks; brainstorming is a great way to get this information as you are speaking to the people
that are affected by it first-hand.
Some questions that should be considered:
a. What is the primary problem with your process
b. What are the secondary problems with your process
c. What do these problems relate to:
a. People
b. Systems
c. Client
d. Documentation
e. Other
d. How long (time) does it slow you down by
e. Any suggestions on how problems can be reduced? (For quick-wins)
Note 1: Depending on the amount of problems, they should be graded from most problematic to
least problematic. After this, they can be graded on ‘easiest to fix’ to ‘hardest to fix’. This will then
allow you to manage any quick-wins.

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Note 2: This brainstorming session is purely to discover initial ‘obvious’ problems and to discover any
quick-wins. You may not discover any obvious problems but engaging with the departments is
important.
Note 3: It may be worthwhile having the brainstorming session with no form of management
involved to allow for employee anonymity.
General Note: Brainstorming is a powerful tool that can be used throughout the process
improvement plan. It essentially allows for a consensus on any point. Multiple brains are better
than one.
6. Time In Motion (TIM) Analysis: Using the process map, collect the time each process takes. This
will allow you to see where the bottlenecks are. The time analysis should be conducted in two
ways:
a. Ask employees to estimate the amount of time each of their processes take.
b. Physically time each process (this should be done with multiple employees and averaged to
take into account outliers.
The reason why you first ask the employees to estimate the time before you physically time the
process isn’t sinister; you are not trying to catch anyone out. It firstly gives you a base to work from
and secondly, it can often come as to a surprise to the employees that a particular process takes so
long – This then allows them to see the opportunity to improve that particular process.
Once the TIM study has been completed, you’ll be able to see where the bottlenecks are. As per the
brainstorming session, bottlenecks should be scaled in terms of importance and in terms of ease to
fix.
7. Grouping bottlenecks: You should now have a good idea of what all the bottlenecks are and you
have also already grouped them by importance and ease of fixing. It’s important to further group
the bottlenecks so that the can be approached in an organised manor with minimal disruption.
Grouping will often be situational but a couple of suggestions below:
a. People, Systems, Client, Documentation, Other (as per Brainstorming session)
b. Departmental
c. Area (If business is across different provinces)
d. Frequency
e. Etc.
Note: Not only does grouping give you a better understanding of where many of the problems stem
from but when you need to start working on improving you can minimise disruption to the business
(i.e. for future brainstorming sessions when trying to work out solutions you can have them
departmentally and focus on those bottlenecks that are specific to those departments).
I prefer to use SCRUM methodologies from this point. Although SCRUM is usually implemented
for a single, large project that has multiple parts, pieces of the methodologies can be used
throughout the business.

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General Note: The main difference is that SCRUM usually uses a single team whose main purpose
is to complete the product; what we will be doing can be across different departments so
management of the different pieces are important.
8. Ordering of bottlenecks: You would have already touched on this by scoring the bottlenecks but
now it’s time to more formally order the bottlenecks by business value. This should not be one
person determining the value but rather should be decided as a group.
General Note: You could use Planning Poker, where everyone involved gets a deck of cards and
pulls a card for each bottleneck; you continue the process until everyone pulls out the same card.
9. Sizing of bottlenecks: You need to understand how long each bottleneck will take. This doesn’t
need to be actual time values but rather time values relative to each other (this lands up being
more accurate and actual time values can be assumed after completing a couple of the
bottlenecks).
Note: Use a pseudo-Fibonacci scale; non-linear numbers: 1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,100.
10. Re-ordering bottlenecks: After sizing, go through the ordering to take this into account. You may
find that a bottlenecks that has high business value will take a large amount of time where another
bottleneck that has relatively high value can be completed much quicker. This should be discussed
within the group.
11. Analysis of Bottlenecks: Now that the bottlenecks have been grouped, it’s important to try and
gather information them. Gather any data that relates to the bottleneck (statistical data or
database data). By analysing the data you can often find improvements; any outliers to the mean
can be scrutinised in order to improve on the good outliers and understand more about the ‘bad’
outliers.
Note 1: The data that is available will be situational; try to gather as much as possible.
Note 2: Through studying the data you may find that a certain employee seems to produce better
results on average. This opens up opportunities for them to discuss how they approach the situation
which will allow to improve the entire team.
By this point you know where the problem areas are and now it’s time to focus on improvement.
Improving on issues is a very dependent on what the issues are. For that reason I will focus more
on techniques that will help to work on those improvements.
General Note: From this point you should apply these techniques in the order they have been
assigned (as per SCRUM methodologies). As the process improvements could be across multiple
teams, some can be done concurrently but generally you should be using a top-down approach
(i.e. you may have 5 bottlenecks relating to systems, focus on the top of the list and work your
way down. If you also have 5 bottlenecks relating to training, the top priority bottleneck can be
done concurrently.
*Try to focus on single items, many improvements can fail because focus is being split.

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12. Brainstorming of solutions: As per the original brainstorming session, having the people that are
affected involved will greatly increase your chance of improving. Now that the bottlenecks have
been discovered, these can be the focus points of the brainstorm. Focus on the top ordered items
first and be sure that you have thoroughly covered the point before moving on.
General Note: You’ll be surprised that most solutions can come from within the business. Obviously
the employees know their process better than anyone else, that’s why it’s important to get their
input and allow for an open discussion.
Write down all solutions that are brought up and then sort through them as a group. It may even be
a good idea to give out a list of the problems, get each employee to individually give their solutions
and the go through them at the latter part of the session for discussion; strengths and weaknesses
can also be listed for each option.
Note: You don’t need to cover every single item on the list, it can actually often be
counterproductive. You need to keep focus on the items that will be covered first. Essentially you
only need to brainstorm the items that will be in the initial sprint; any other solutions that come up
are a bonus but only if the initial items are covered.
Note 2: As stated above, not all items can be covered in 1 brainstorming session, you can set up
more brainstorming sessions as you go. Make sure to rather limit the brainstorming session (1-2
hours) to not only be less disruptive but also to keep focus on the important (first) items.
13. Researching of solutions: I’m a firm believer that almost all of the solutions can come from within
the business, but sometimes not. It’s always good to research possible solutions as most of the time
there will be someone who has improved on a similar process. If you haven’t come up with a
solution internally, researching external situations can be helpful.
14. External Input: If there are no other alternatives, consider getting in external consultants to help
with the issues. As per above, I believe that this is a ‘last resort’ as most of the improvements will
be able to be implemented from the business itself.
General Note: With all solutions you must always consider the impact of the changes not only on
the process in question but other processes. The solutions need to be sustainable across the entire
business and mustn’t affect any part negatively.
15. Pilot: Once you have determined an appropriate solution, it’s always a good idea to test whether
it’s effective. You don’t want to roll out an entire new process only to find out that it doesn’t work
out well in practice. Pilot the new process with a handful of employees (I wouldn’t suggest only
having one employee testing as that limits your scope).
Get them to give any feedback (both positive and negative). If there are any glaring problems,
tweak them accordingly and then complete a new pilot. Continue this process until there are no
kinks.
16. Review & Monitoring: This is a huge part of making sure that improvements that have been
implemented are successful. We would all like to think that the solutions that are put in place will
automatically be a huge success; unfortunately this is not the case. Not only that but if an
improvement has been successful, with minor tweaks it may be more successful. The two best ways
are as follows:

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a. Team Discussion: As simple as it sounds, the people that are affected by the
implementations will be the first to know. Setup another brainstorming session a month or
2 after the implementation to review the improvements.
b. Statistical Process Control (SPC): Statistics on a process can tell an interesting story,
especially if you have statistics from before the improvement implementation and after. You
will then be able to see if the implementation is improving the process. A great form of this
is a Control Chart which includes Mean, Upper and Lower Warning and Action lines.
Example below:
Note: Continuous monitoring is a great way to look out for potential future bottlenecks. You may
complete daily or weekly SPC’s when the implementation is taking place but it’s a good idea to
continue to complete SPC’s into the future. Businesses and industries are constantly changing
therefore monitoring allows you to keep on top of potential bottlenecks.
17. Side Notes: Simply a couple of side notes to consider throughout the process:
a. DRIVE:
i. Define - the scope of the problem the criteria by which success will be measured and
agree the deliverables and success factors
ii. Review - the current situation, understand the background, identify and collect
information, including performance, identify problem areas, improvements and
“quick wins”
iii. Identify - improvements or solutions to the problem, required changes to enable and
sustain the improvements
iv. Verify - check that the improvements will bring about benefits that meet the defined
success criteria, prioritise and pilot the improvements
v. Execute - plan the implementation of the solutions and improvements, agree and
implement them, plan a review, gather feedback and review

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b. SCRUM:
i. Sprint Planning
ii. Daily Scrum
iii. Spring Review
iv. Sprint Retrospective
Discover, Analyse, Solve, Implement, Monitor.

9. Employee 1
Chief Executive
Officer
Management
Employee 2
Chief
Information
Officer
Management
Employee 5
IT Manager
IT Team
Employee 39
IT Support
IT Team
Employee 40
IT Support
IT Team
Employee 41
IT Support
IT Team
Employee 3
Chief Operations
Officer
Management
Employee 10
Legal Manager
Legal Team
Employee 33
Legal Consultant
Legal Team
Employee 34
Legal Consultant
Legal Team
Employee 35
Legal Administration
Team Leader
Legal Administration
Team
Employee 36
Legal Administration
Consultant
Legal Administration
Team
Employee 37
Legal Administration
Consultant
Legal Administration
Team
Employee 38
Legal Administration
Consultant
Legal Administration
Team
Employee 7
Sales Manager
Sales Team
Employee 11
Sales Team
Leader
Sales Team
Employee 13
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 14
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 15
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 16
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 12
Sales Team
Leader
Sales Team
Employee 17
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 18
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 19
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 20
Sales Consultant
Sales Team
Employee 8
Support
Manager
Support Team
Employee 42
Support
Consultant
Support Team
Employee 43
Support
Consultant
Support Team
Employee 44
Support
Consultant
Support Team
Employee 45
Support
Consultant
Support Team
Employee 9
Operations
Manager
Operations Team
Employee 21
Administration
Team Leader
Administration
Team
Employee 22
Administration
Consultant
Administration
Team
Employee 23
Administration
Consultant
Administration
Team
Employee 24
Administration
Consultant
Administration
Team
Employee 25
Administration
Consultant
Administration
Team
Employee 26
Administration
Consultant
Administration
Team
Employee 27
Administration
Consultant
Administration
Team
Employee 28
On-going Consultant
Team Leader
On-going Consultants
Team
Employee 29
On-going Consultant
On-going Consultants
Team
Employee 30
On-going Consultant
On-going Consultants
Team
Employee 31
On-going Consultant
On-going Consultants
Team
Employee 32
On-going Consultant
On-going Consultants
Team
Employee 4
Chief Financial
Officer
Management
Employee 6
Finance Manager
Finance Team