Using business process mapping to meet the Navy Housing mission.

1. I FEATURE I
By Carol Casto
Using business process
mapping to 1neet the
Navy Housing mission
•
1n
N
avy Housing customer services encompass the core
customer service functions of home finding, issue
resolution, listings management, and customer out-
reach. Each of these functions is provided at every
installation to support the Navy Housing mission to assist cus-
tomers with finding suitable, safe, and affordable housing.
Within these core functions is a multitude of customer services
that are more detailed and difficult to measure and standardize
because each customer is unique. As we know, customers are
not an asset with easily tracked maintenance costs or occupancy
rates. Simply measuring the number of customers we've seen or
counting the time we've spent with them doesn't speak to the
level ofeffort or the expertise required to meet individual custom-
ers' needs. Customer satisfaction measurements-the traditional
measure for customer services-can only help us understand cus-
tomer satisfaction with the services we provide, but not whether
those services are being executed properly or even necessary. To
identify and measure the services we provide to ensure they are
reliable and standardized, we must conduct a multi-dimen-
sional and detailed review of what it takes to provide them.I
Meeting the Mission
Process mapping is; a widely accepted project man-
agement tool that documents and outlines the
steps it takes to move from a trigger, which sets
the process in motion, to the desired output.
Since all of our work begins and ends with
our customers, each trigger must map to a
customer need. In tum, each desired output
must meet that customer's need and achieve the
Navy Housing mission to assist customers with
finding suitable, safe, and affordable housing.
In the case of Navy Housing customer services, most
triggers are external to Navy Housing and driven by a direct
customer need, such as a request for counseling and/or assis-
tance, receiving complaints, or obtaining new listings from land-
lords. The activities that we implement when these triggers occur
make up the bulk of the process map and include both activities
JULY I AUGUST 2013 37

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The landlord-tenant dispute process within the issue resolution function outlines the process from when the trigger of a landlord or tenant
complaint is registered to when desired output of negotiated settlement is reached. It shows high-level decision points (diamonds) and activities
(e.g., mediation and negotiation between parties), as well as relationships to other processes, such as the Complaint Inspection Sub-Process.
It is a long road from visual, high-level
maps to detailed policy and perfonnance
measurement, and we are only at the
beginning of that road.
that must be performed and decisions that must be made to
reach the desired output.
The outputs support meeting the customers' needs and
achieving the Navy Housing mission, and result in informed
and efficient placement into housing, up-to-date inventory of
listings, mutual resolution, and, where necessary, referral to
other offices. Once the output is reached, the process ends.
Ultimately, these process maps document the services we need
to provide to meet our customers' needs and outline how pro-
viding them fulfills those needs.
Navy Housing identified and mapped 15 processes across all
four core functions. By documenting each process, we can set
the ground rules by which all installations will operate. Because
they are intended for all installations, they map the processes at
a very high level. This high-level process mapping supports two
needs-it gives adequate understanding of installation services
to headquarters to ensure Navy-wide standardization and it pro-
vides fle.:·<ibility to installations to tailor the process and deliver
the output in a way that makes sense locally.
Standardizing, Measuring Services
Once completed, the process maps will serve as a "charted
38 DEFENSE COMMUNITIES
course" and will enable us to see how the customer services
we provide align with our customer needs and our over-
all goals. And while all of the core functions are already
addressed in existing policy, a comparison of the policy with
these process maps concluded that more robust and detailed
policy is required to define and describe the customer service
activities in order to ensure they are provided in a standard-
ized and reliable way for customers.
As the adage goes, "what gets measured gets done," and a
significant part of policy development also must focus on per-
formance measurement. The process maps make it easier to
identify key performance measures because we can now refer
to concrete activities or decision points within the process
that need to be measured to ensure standardization across the
Navy. This will give us our first glimpse of data that can be
compared across all installations.
It is a long road from visual, high-level maps to detailed
policy and performance measurement, and we are only at the
beginning of that road. But even at this high level, the process
maps enable Navy Housing staff to begin aligning their ser-
vices with what the rest of Navy Housing is doing, and allow
for better understanding of how their work directly relates to
meeting customers' needs and the Navy Housing mission.
For the customer, they can expect more reliable and standard-
ized services across the Navy. And giving our customers what
they need and expect is at the heart of what we do. •
Carol Casto is a housing refeJTal services program analyst,
Commander, Navy Installations Command. Reach her at carol.
casto@navy.mil.