Adapting to Case Management

Adapting to Case Management

Copyright 2009 © All rights reserved. Global 360 Inc.2

Adaptive Case Management Defined

“Adaptive Case Management enables non-technical business users in virtual organizations to seamlessly create/consolidate structured and unstructured processes from basic predefined business entities, content, social interactions, and business rules.”

“ACM differs from business process management (BPM) in that the case information is the focus and the thing around which the other artifacts are organized. And it is the case information that persists for the long term.”


A quote to start things off

“Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say”

- G.K. Chesterton

Adaptive Case Management isn’t simply about enabling technology, it

represents a fundamental shift in approaching knowledge work

Challenge #1 Predicting and predefining how knowledge work happens


Process Modeling Starts Here


Gets More Complex


And Ends Up Here

And that’s for a reasonably simple, well-defined process


»“Does Unpredictable Work Exist?”

»Can you really know all possible “states and transitions” associated with how work is done?

»Is this a practical approach?

»What would this look like?

Predictability and Practicality


Pre-defining all states and transitions


Real World Limitations

“We modeled the process as best as we could, but it seemed like there were about 1300 use cases possible.”

“Trying to model the process for the BPMS implementation so explicitly created a proliferation of tasks and UI implementations, most of which were run by the same participant.”

“We’ve now temporarily abandoned it…”

“There is growing consensus that our biggest miss was that we didn’t recognize … for the more complex use cases … a case management pattern/approach would have probably worked best.”



Adaptation #1 Predefine only what is necessary and repeatable and give users guidance when needed or wanted


From Predefined to Adaptive

Define states and goals

Incorporate rules where appropriate

Enable ad-hoc addition of tasks and documents

Link in structured processes and services to eliminate repeatable steps

Knowledge work doesn’t happen the same way every time

Don’t lay down iron track

Allow participants to use their judgment and experience


Coordination through Case Folder


Tools and Guidelines

Provide only the tools a user needs- Notes- Discussions- Dashboards- Reports

Give participants control over user experience – personalization

Communications and mentoring are key

Incorporate rules to enforce task order or state changes

- Minimizes “not in good order” scenarios


Collaboration

Cases are by nature collaborative

Who did what, when and why is auditable

Individuals and groups can be assigned tasks or work within the case

The case folder should deal with the complexity of multi-access automatically

Work may involve activities outside of the system, e.g. researchers, underwriters.

Work from cases shows up in personal work queues as needed

Multiple people work on a case simultaneously

Challenge #2Dealing with constant change in business


»Regulatory requirements

»Market conditions

»Competitive Pressures

»Government mandated programs and service levels

The Only Constant is Change


Typical Process Lifecycle

Model

Execute

ControlMeasure

Optimize

STOP

Many variations of this model exist

Modeling is synonymous with creating process maps

Time between model and execute is often longer than desired

What happens when change is needed?

Challenge #2Dealing with constant change in businessChallenge #2Dealing with constant change in business

Adaptation #2 Give users tools to deal with ad-hoc work and empower them to adjust the solution in place


Tools for Dealing with Ad-hoc work

»Configurable template that serves as the starting point or best practice

‣Expected elements of a case folder can be setup in advance

»Dynamic creation and assignment of tasks or documents

‣Select from tasks previously used

‣Create new tasks on the go

‣Include placeholders for expected documents

‣Access to library of standard documents

»Ability to incorporate snippets of work, processes and services

»Modification of the template by authorized users while in production

Challenge #3Force fitting business into a process model


Process Centric ApproachHuman Resources On-boarding

People Job Applicants Hiring Manager HR Specialist

Business Process Requisitioning

Talent Acquisition Interviewing

Hiring Orientation

Documents Job Description

Resume(s) Application

I9 Form Identification

Benefit Summary


»Finding the process structure is hard

‣Some problems have a lot of variability

‣Temptation to force process change to simplify

‣Exception cases typically not well understood

»Everything must be in the workitem

‣Cramming everything into one place makes it complex

‣Alters the designer’s conceptualization of the problem

»The workitem is transient

‣The process updates a system of record

‣Loss in fidelity

‣Can’t mine history for process improvement ideas

Process Centric Challenges

Challenge #3Force fitting business into a process modelChallenge #3Force fitting business into a process model

Adaptation #3 Move beyond creating only process maps and start thinking about the business entities you deal with


» Identify the business entities

»Describe their relationships

»Fill in the details

»Specify tasks to be done

»Create a template library

Data Centric Solution

Manager Positions

Candidates Recruiters

Interviews References


»People understand correspondence, contracts, employees and invoices and can easily describe these entities

»Provides a foundation for other solutions through reusable “objects”

»Potential for use of ACM platform as a system of record

How is this different?


So Where Does that Lead Us?


Adopting Adaptive Case Management strategies can be successful because it

centers on describing your business in your terms

You don’t have to change how you think about your business or agency, the tool

adapts to fit what you do

Conclusion


Learn more in our online

Case Management Resource Center

or on our blog

Because Process Matters

Conclusion

http://bps.opentext.com/bpm-and-case-basics/case-management-101/

http://bps.opentext.com/bpm-and-case-basics/case-management-101/

http://www.becauseprocessmatters.com/

Technology

Adapting to Case Management