Process Level Improvements

Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign ofworkflow within and between enterprises. The authors promoted the ideathat sometimes radical redesign and reorganization of an enterprise (wipingthe slate clean) was necessary to lower costs and increase quality of serviceand that information technology was the key enabler for that radical change.Hammer and Champy felt that the design of workflow in most largecorporations was based on assumptions about technology, people, andorganizational goals that were no longer valid. They suggested sevenprinciples of reengineering to streamline the work process and therebyachieve significant levels of improvement in quality, time management, andcost:1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks.2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in orderof redesign urgency.3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that producesthe information.4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they werecentralized.5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating theirresults.6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build controlinto the process.7. Capture information once and at the source.

Lean Six Sigma A business improvement methodology that maximizesshareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in customersatisfaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital.

Six Sigma improvement methods is required because:

• Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control• Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or reduce invested capital• Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity.

Six Sigma supporters point out that Lean fails to address key concepts like customer needs and variation. Both sides are right. Yet these arguments are more often used to advocate choosing one over the other, rather than to support the more logical conclusion that we blend Lean and Six Sigma.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control – Quality assurance (QA) is a set of activities whose purpose is to demonstrate that an entity meets all quality requirements. QA activities are carried out in order to inspire the confidence of both customers and managers Quality control is a set of activities or techniques whose purpose is to ensure that all quality requirements are being met. In order to achieve this purpose, processes are monitored and performance problems are solved.

The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit provides all of the processes,techniques and frameworks to implement a successful governmentperformance solution. The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis will identify yourstrengths, weaknesses, and cost savings opportunities, and will plan out theexact steps to reaching your performance goals.

Activity Level ImprovementsStrategy Mapping is the process of diagramming how an organizationcreates value by connecting strategic objectives in explicit cause-and-effectrelationship with each other in the four BSC objectives (financial, customer,processes, learning and growth)

Budget Crosswalks, commonly used in finance and budgeting, convert oneset of values to another by applying a specific set of business rules and candescribe the relationship between the budget’s allocated funds and theprograms those funds are expected to impact. Used in the Federal BudgetProcess, Budget Crosswalks are defined as a, “term for the allocation ofbudget authority and outlay amounts in a budget resolution to congressionalcommittees according to their jurisdictions and the committees' subdivision ofthose amounts among their programs or subcommittees.”Activity Based Costing (ABC) is an alternative to the traditional way ofaccounting. Traditionally it is believed that high volume customers areprofitable customers, a loyal customer is also a profitable one, and profits willfollow a happy customer. Studies on customer profitability have unveiled thatthe above is not necessarily true. ABC is a costing model that identifies thecost pools, or activity centers, in an organization and assigns costs toproducts and services (cost drivers) based on the number of events ortransactions involved in the process of providing a product or service

Activity Based Management (ABM) is a discipline that focuses on themanagement of activities as a way to improve customer value and profit. ABMincludes cost driver analysis, activity analysis, and performancemeasurement.

The Most Efficient Organization (MEO) is management’s “bid” to perform acertain function. If the MEO wins an A-76 competition, it succeeds or takesover the work of the existing government function.The President’s Management Agenda urges federal leadership to “compete”functions that are commercial in nature.

Financial Management is the [planning, directing, monitoring, organizing,and controlling of the monetary resources of an organization. The Office ofFederal Financial Management (OFFM) was created within the Office ofManagement and Budget (OMB) by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of1990. OFFM, led by the OMB Controller under the direction of the DeputyDirector for Management, is responsible for the financial management policyof the Federal Government

The Strategic Prioritization and Planning (SP2) process is an evolution ofQuality Engineering Methods, including Quality Function Deployment and Design for Six Sigma, and incorporates various dynamic aspects to form a portable and powerful decision making environment. The process can be tailored to any desired level of detail to enhance the decision making process for investment strategies as more information becomes available. The end product allows for “what if” games to be played through a dynamic and interactive environment and the results of the process can be the foundation for detailed strategic road mapping and quantitative technology assessments and tracking. SP2 is a living process that should guide strategic planning and be continuously updated as a program evolves.

Portfolio Analysis is a method to improve Government business practicesby analyzing a portfolio of systems as a whole, rather than analyzingindividual acquisition programs. Portfolio analysis is the art and science ofallocating scarce resources to satisfy strategic objectives.

Business Case Analysis is a method companies use for project selection. Itanalyzes how fulfilling the business case for the project will implement thecorporate strategy and sustain the competitive advantage of the company.

Performance-Based Budgeting is a results focused planning and budgetingframework which focuses on three elements: the strategy (how to achieveoutcome), outputs (activities to achieve final outcome), and the result (finaloutcome). Performance budgets use missions, goals and objectives to justifyfunding. Through the allocation of resources, performance-based budgingachieves specific objectives based on program goals and measured results.

Decision Support Systems

Decision Support Systems include software, frameworks and other tools thatcan be used as part of a structured decision-making process. Types ofdecision support systems include information control models, paradigmmodels, decision models, simulation models, visualization models andprocess models.

Decision Support Systems and Tools Framework