More common than it should
It is
not a difficult task to find inconsistencies in public and private
organization’s process management.
For
instance, what it is written in the objectives is, sometimes, ethereal,
abstract, confusing and instead of providing direction and expressing what the
process must achieve and deliver, it is forgotten, misunderstood or unnoticed.
Unclear objectives
With
those objectives as a reference for performance, there will be difficulties to
define the proper process indicators. Without the guide of a clear objective,
to find the right way of measuring performance will need imagination, trial and
error, search and will produce indicators that will not allow people to see
there the process performance and make the proper decisions. It is often heard
that indicators measure nothing and that it is a waste of time calculating them
periodically.
Useless indicators
Imagination,
nonetheless, produces results: high sounding, attractive indicators get quick
approval from those involved and their authorities. But problems arise when it
is time of using them. Indicators are based on data, for without them there are
not possible calculations and when for the first time process statistics are
needed, it is found that there is none, for a variety of reasons: no one
records or collects data, they are not the kind of information that the process
produces or it is not understood what data are all about or where can they be
collected.
The necessary information is not collected
An
overview on the process shows that nothing in its instructions states the kind
of information that must be collected, or where, or how or who does it.
Although it is possible to find long lists of attachments and forms in a
procedure, their use remains undefined as well as their relevance and clarity.
The process then does not produce the information needed to learn whether it is
running as required or not.
Not helpful for managing
In
this way, to show a good performance will be hard. People –their authorities
included- make efforts to get the expected results, but the absence of a
consistent management schema is of no help. When performance is to be reported,
it is necessary to look for information and to conduct last minute calculations
and analyses. A coherent management schema would have defined all these management
elements from the very start in a consistent, relevant and objective way.
Inconsistent managing
The
cause of a messy management schema lies in the ignorance of the members about
the meaning of defining and performing it, which are its elements and their
relations. Order is what it is expected form a management schema. On the
contrary, incoherence produces confusion, reproduces disorder in process
performance and makes difficult both to obtain the desired results and the
presentation before others.
