Identifying stakeholders and process owners for process analysis
Key Takeaway
Bring in everyone who manages, uses, or is affected by a process as early as possible. Treat the people who use the process as the experts on how it works.
Before you can find blockers in a business process, you need the right people to explain it. Identifying stakeholders and process owners means choosing who manages, uses, and is affected by a process, so your picture of how the process works today is complete and accurate. If you get the team wrong, you risk missed steps, conflicting requirements, and rework later.
Who needs to be on the team
Building the team is an early step in process analysis. First you pick which process to map, such as one that is underperforming or one that directly affects customers. Then you identify who needs to be on the team.
The right team includes the people who manage the process and can give input about it. Everyone's input is needed, so check that the team fits the specific process you are mapping.
The people who use a process are the experts on it, so listen to them. They are your best resource for judging whether a process will work or not. When a process isn't written down anywhere, the people who manage and use it are where you learn how it actually works.
A valve manufacturer wants to map how its plant handles rush orders. Nobody ever wrote the process down. The team invites the production scheduler who manages the rush-order queue and two customer service reps who take those orders every day. The reps explain that they phone the plant supervisor to confirm a production slot before they promise a ship date. No one outside their team knew about that call. Without the people who use the process, the map would have missed that step.