Define BPI's Scope, Goals, and Schedule

Clarify how it relates to other existing processes, as well as to important stakeholders, such as your company's customers or suppliers. 

Define the scope, goals, and schedule for the selected process improvement project.  Scope defines what will and won't be included in the effort.   For example, to improve the way his office sets up new accounts, Joe decides to focus on changing the way people and technology interact to establish accounts.  He prefers not to change people's jobs or adopt new technologies if he can help it.

Also specify how the BPI effort supports your organization's goals.  Clarify how it relates to other existing processes, as well as to important stakeholders, such as your company's customers or suppliers.  And express the desired improvement in numerical terms.  Joe, for instance, determines that improving how his office sets up new accounts will help his company achieve its strategic goal of serving customers more efficiently and quickly.  The process of setting up accounts directly affects customer's satisfaction levels and has links to the other processes involved in approving loan applications, such as evaluating applicants' credit histories.  Joe expresses the desired improvement as: "Customers have to provide financial information only once in order to establish an account with us."

To define schedule, specify which milestones you'll need to achieve in order to change the problematic process and approximately when you expect to reach each milestone.  For example, Joe's BPI milestones include mapping the current new-account process within two months and conducting a trail run of a revised process by the end of the third quarter.

ACTION POINT: Define process improvement efforts with scope, goals, and schedule.