Definitions:

Policies:
Policies are guiding principles that are intended to influence decisions and actions across an organisation and govern the implementation of its processes.

Procedures:
Procedures define the specific steps necessary to perform activities in a process.  They document the way activities are to be performed to facilitate consistent conformance with organisational requirements and to support quality and consistency.

Process owner:
The process owner is responsible for designing the processes necessary to achieve the objectives of transforming inputs into outputs. The process owner is responsible for the creation, update and approval of documents to support the process. Many process owners are supported by a process improvement team.

Processes:
Processes are related activities or actions that are taken to produce a specific service, product or desired result.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA):
Root cause analysis is a collective term that describes a wide range of approaches, tools, and techniques used to uncover causes of problems.

Swimlane
A swimlane is a visual element used in process flow diagrams, or flowcharts that visually distinguishes job sharing and responsibilities for sub-processes of a business process. Swimlanes may be arranged either horizontally or vertically.

Work Instructions:
Work Instructions are a form of procedure and are generally recognised as a subset of procedures.

Overview of Process Management

A process is usually defined as a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform input into outputs.  One Process Modeling Tool is known as the SIPOC Diagram.  It gets its name from its five components:

• Supplier;
• Input;
• Process;
• Output; and
• Customer.

SIPOC Diagram
(Supplier-Input-Process-Output-Customer)

Inputs to a process are most likely to be outputs from other processes.  A ‘supplier' is not necessarily a company but may be even be a co-worker.  For example, a ‘supplier' in the ‘Placement of an Advertisement in the Press' process would be the head of the Requesting Unit.

It should also be noted that within an organisation the ‘customer' may not necessarily reward the ‘supplier' with something tangible.

After undergoing the process, the input should have greater value as an output.  In this example, an advertisement giving notification of a vacancy in a centre, department or unit; a new diploma or degree being offered or requesting a service to fill a need such as procuring reagents for a lab.

A second Process Modeling Tool which can be used is the Deming Cycle or PDCA (Plan→Do→Check→Act).

The 'Facilitating the Documentation of Procedures' Process Map will be reviewed against this Process Modeling Tool.

Plan
The Senior Specialist meets with representatives of the centre, department or unit to plan this process.  The objective of this process of ‘Facilitating the Documentation of Procedures' is to develop procedures that are formatted in the official UTT template for procedures.  These procedures should have information in each section based on the guidance given in the template.  The steps from the Senior Specialist's swimlane to the Quality Representative's swimlane indicate how this objective will be accomplished.

Do
All the Position Holders (Senior Specialist; centre, department or unit; Administrative Assistant; Head of Department; Document Control Administrator and Quality Representative) identified in the titles of the swimlanes will perform their respective tasks.  Data (for example, length of time for centre, department or unit to submit draft procedure to Senior Specialist and length of time the Senior Specialist takes to provide guidance to centre, department or unit) can be collected and processed.

Check
Any data collected can be processed and analysed to check on the performance of the process.  This analysis can also include checks against stated objectives and variability, consistency and trends which may be developing.

Act
Action can then be taken based on the review of the findings.  The process may remain unchanged or may be improved by implementing the process with these revisions.

Types of Processes

There are three main types of processes

1. Management processes, the processes that govern the operation of a system.  Typical management processes include ‘corporate governance' (Processes used to control UTT and how decisions are made) and ‘strategic management' (Processes to formulate and implement major goals).

2. Operational processes, the processes that constitute the core business and create the primary value stream. For example, the Process for Recruiting Students and Process for Requesting Stock Items.

3. Supporting processes, the processes which support the core processes. Examples include the Process for Accessing Emergency Medical Care, Process for Making Deletions to Structure/Establishment, Process for Refunding Student Payments, and Process for Reporting IT Security Incidents and Response.

Processes should be designed to add value for the end-user and should not include unnecessary activities. The outcome of a well-designed process is increased effectiveness (value for the end-user) and increased efficiency (less costs for the organisation).

SYMBOLS AND DESCRIPTIONS

COMPARISON OF POLICIES, PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES

Reference: Tristan Boutros and Tim Purdie (2014). The Process Improvement Handbook (Version 1.0)