LinkedIn: Answers: I understand that Six Sigma and other QA approaches are about mapping and documenting organizational processes, identifying

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I understand that Six Sigma and other QA approaches are about mapping and documenting organizational processes, identifying weaknesses and of course recommending changes. What tools do you use to monitor that changes and calculate success?
I would like to say my question is completely benevolent, so up front I will say “it is not”. I believe there is a great opportunity to align a Business Process Management solution with a Quality Assurance program and I am seeking to connect with those who can help me determine if my feelings are correct. I would truly appreciate everyone’s thoughts on the subject and please offer suggestions on how to proceed?
Christian Murphy

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Some experience with Business Process Management(definition: BPM, as a discipline, allows you to model, execute, automate, control, measure and optimize the flow of business process steps that span your enterprise’s systems, people, customers and partners within and beyond your corporate boundaries.) and ISO 9001 quality management system (which is process-centric approach since year 2000).

Often ISO 9001 is implemented as a “system based only on documents” even if they contain diagrams of business processes. While it must be a “system for an organisation to manage its business processes” and maintenance of the quality management system documentation is only one of the needs.

We found that basic quality management requirements can be embedded into a BPM / SOA system. In the quality management system we usually have three types of document: quality manuals, business procedures and records. A modern BPM suite allows implementing EXECUTABLE business procedures which generate reliable records (good for traceability and for performance measurements). So, instead of maintaining “paper” and “program” versions of the same business process, you will need to have only one source understandable for both people and computers. For example, one of my clients (related to Quality of Medicines & HealthCare) took a modern BPM suite to model all business processes by business owners; execution of these models will be next step for this client.

It is very important that your BPM / SOA system is easy to evolve (or agile) – this, of course, requires some architecting (see a presentation below).

Thanks,
AS

Links:
http://www.improving-bpm-systems.com/pubs/AS-AW08-keynote.pdf