Process Optimization Management:
2.1 — Define Phase — Part 1

3 min readFeb 26, 2021

Define Phase Part I

The first step for each process optimization project is the Define Phase. This phase is mostly overlooked and bears the biggest issues in the future, if not handled properly. Here, the problem you want to solve is clearly defined and drilled down until it can be expressed in numbers.

The Define Phase can roughly be broken down into two parts.

In the first step you select and define your project in a structured way. Furthermore you identify all stakeholders involved. All relevant questions here will be broken down into three documents:

- the business case

- the project charta

- and the voice of the customer

The second step will look at a rough process exploration. It will end up with a high level process map which roughly identifies the process which creates the relevant process output (e.g. customer dissatisfaction) you want to fix. In later stages we will use this high-level process map and create second and third level process maps, drilling deeper and deeper in detailed processes. The high-level process might describe the processes flowing through the whole company, while the 2nd level process map describes a process part within an department while the 3rd level process map describes work on a more microscopic level really defining what a person or machine is really doing.

Step one: Project selection, Project Definition and Stakeholder Identification:

Business Case

Each business case statement always follows the same pattern and reads as this example:

During FY 2005, the 1st Time Call Resolution Efficiency for New Customer Hardware Setup was 89% . This represents a gap of 8% from the industry standard of 93% that amounts to US $2,000,000 of annualized cost impact.

Try it yourself. Imagine a project you want to work on.

During ____________________________ , the ____________________

(Period of time for baseline performance) (Primary business measure)

for ________________________ was _________________ .

(A key business process) ……(Baseline performance)

This gap of ____________________________ from ___________________

(Business objective target vs. baseline) (Business objective)

represents ____________________ of cost impact.

(Cost impact of gap)

Could you already fill in the blanks below? Did you gather all business relevant data to comfortably fill out the blanks above? If not, you are not ready to truly see the business side of you’re A.I. project. So keep going 

If you are interested in A.I. leadership education or want to start your A.I. journey, just contact me at ansgar_linkedin@goldblum-consulting.com