A business process playbook (BPP) provides a central location to document processes, improve process management, and foster a common understanding of processes. It features visual process maps, allows searching by different attributes, and identifies process owners. The BPP also monitors process performance. Maintaining an up-to-date BPP can be challenging and requires organizational buy-in, but it offers benefits like standardized processes, improved training, and a basis for process improvement.

1. Business Process Playbook
An Introduction

2. Why have a Business Process Playbook (BPP)?
Staff, with a reasonable knowledge,
can’t find and read the documentation
and successfully execute/follow an
instance of the process.
People often don’t have a common view
of the steps in a process. If you don’t
have a process down in black and
white, then you are relying on what is
in people’s heads.
Different versions of what
people/depts are doing start to
emerge.
People learn the process from
those already doing the role,
potentially inheriting bad habits.
Secret processes exist that only
one or two key employees know
how to perform.
There is No common vocabulary
used or different definitions are
followed.
We don’t measure how well our
processes are performing
Business Manager

3. Why have a BPP?
If your documentation is on paper, how
good are you at updating all the
copies? Having one central, searchable
location for your documentation is
obviously preferable to printed copies.
Once we have documented processes
they always end up out of date. No one
in the business keeps them up to date.
For suggested improvements we
are unaware of the impacts and
the consequences are discovered
later on.
We repeatedly run process
workshops going over the same
processes.
Our Business users find process
documentation dull, too technical
and they lose interest. We need
something more accessible.
We don’t completely know who
does what or what systems are
used for which processes?
Business Architect/Analyst

4. Why have a BPP?
• The APQC survey 2016
identified Process
Management as the top
challenge for organisations
86.1
73.6
68.4
55
51.9 51.9
Process
Management
Performance
Management
Change
Management
Big Data and
Analytics
Quality
Management
Project
Management

5. Poor Process Management Leads to
• Increasing complexity in the organisation
• Inefficiencies & inconsistencies
• Lower productivity
• Longer upskilling for new employees
• Miscommunication
• Higher error rates/exception handling
• Reduced capability for change

6. Purpose
• A Business Process Playbook (BPP) can be a valuable part of
your Business Process Management approach.
• The aims of the process playbook are:
– To provide a means to communicate what the process is.
– To provide a structure to record, maintain and share processes across the
organisation
– To improve the governance and stewardship of processes within your
business
– To cultivate a focus on process management
– To support process performance management
– To be highly visual and acceptable to non-technical business users

7. BPP Features
Business Process
Playbook
Functionality
Visual Maps with
clickable links
Process Owner
view/responsibilities
Hierarchy tree view
Searching by system, role
or business function/area
Process
Performance
Monitoring

8. Visual Maps can be used to
represent business capabilities
Menu:
Model View
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View
Care & Support Services Business Development &
Commissioning
Homeless Services
Property Care Services
MH Corporate Services
Sales & Lettings
Tenancy Management
New Dev & Asset
management Services
Contact us
Different styles can be
used to represent such as
a Rich picture like this or
Value chains or Capability
blocks.
Business people are more
receptive to this style.
A Menu system allows
navigation to different
ways to access process
information
Each element on the map
can represent a business
capability. This example
shows a Housing
Management operation.

9. Visual maps – levels
Menu:
Model View: MH Corporate View
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View
Accessing one part of the
previous Model can take the
user to the next level of
detail. Multiple levels
representing capabilities,
services, functions or groups
of processes can be defined.
Each level could
incorporate performance
information and provide
a set of KPIs relevant to
the capability, service,
function or part of the
business represented.
Select a service or
function to go to next
level of detail

10. BPP Process Level
Menu:
Model View: MH Corporate: Process group 1
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View
At the lowest levels BPP can provide a simple model or list
of 1 or more processes depending on your standards.
At this level the BPP is about document control
BPP allows collaborative
review, publishing, feedback of
any process documentation.
A single process links to a process description
which can conform to BPMN standards and include
swimlane models, or be a user story, a textual
description or a combination depending on your
standards.

11. BPP Content
Menu:
Model View: MH Corporate: Process group 1: Process XYZ
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View
• With “Process Documentation” you may think about the narrower
topic of “Process Mapping”.
• But business process documentation can include any and all
documents that go to support and manage a process.
Performance KPIs
metrics (discussed
in a moment).
Process descriptions
which can be in the
form of User stories
or Process Models
etc.
Process Owner
(who is responsible) &
Users/Roles useful for
answering access rights/
who does what? Which
links to Organisational
Structure.
Data Sources for saying
where data is used for what
purposes? which links to
Data Architecture.
links to
applications/systems
used that enable the
process, which links to
Application Architecture.
Work instructions/training
documentation to guide users &
list other documents, policies,
forms with options to view,
review, publish, or delete doc
At the lowest level the BPP can provide details of:

12. Process Performance Monitoring
Including Performance statistics as part of the BPP
provides a one stop shop for your processes.
• Pick the right measures - You can define what
performance metrics (KPIs) are important at different
levels of the process hierarchy.
• Benchmarking/Risk control points - You can set
simple rules or limits for KPI’s and alerts should the
KPI exceed limits.

13. Process Performance Monitoring
• Once you have defined your Metrics,
various visual scorecards or dashboard
can be used to show the performance of
certain processes to the business.
• The performance information could be
incorporated from your BI or other
systems.
• You can monitor performance and this
helps you identify processes that need
attention, go to individual instances, and
act to bring them back on track.

14. Hierarchy Tree
• Main Process navigation Map
– Capability area 1 (dashboard, map, processes)
– Capability area 2
– Capability area …
• Process group 1 (dashboard, map, processes)
• Process group 2
• Process group …
– Process 1 (dashboard, description, assets)
– Process …
» Process Asset 1
» Process Asset 2
» Work instruction
» Process KPI
» etc
– Forms & Docs
– Applications
– Roles
Menu:
Model View
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View Essentially a process playbook is
the representation of the Business
architecture and hierarchy tree
provides a simple view of the levels
of the business architecture.
These typically start with high level
capability views and drill down into
lower levels of details
Different types of assets can be
represented by a different icon in
the hierarchy, be it a process, work
instruction, template, guidance or
KPI statistic
These Sections can provide lists by asset types
allowing direct access.

15. Process Owner View
• Fosters ownerships and provides for Process Owners:
– List of processes owned
– Alerts of out of date processes up for review
– Alerts on KPIs out of tolerance/limits sets
– Feedback received on their processes
• The responsibilities of the Process Owner are very simple:
– Hold frequent and regular performance reviews
– Involve everybody who is part of the process in any changes to the
process
– Maintain the documentation
– Notify everyone who needs to know of any changes
Menu:
Model View
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View

16. Alternate Search by routes
• Sometimes you want to find something via different access
point.
• BPP supports searching processes that are…
– supported by a system/application?
– involve a user/role?
– for a business unit/dept?
– uses a data source?
• This can be useful for impact analysis for changes.
Menu:
Model View
Search By
Hierarchy
Owner View

17. Delivery Steps
• Build or procure a process repository.
– BPMS packages offer process repository but tend to be for more specialist use
rather than for business use.
• An exercise of process discovery.
– Define all capabilities of the organisation at a high level. Do this in visual form
because it’s really a very effective way to engage and convey what happens.
– Start with documenting the core processes.
– Slowly build up when addressing change in a Business area.
• Establish process owners.
• Integrate with BI Dashboards for performance statistics.

18. Challenges
• BPP success depends on its acceptance by the business and a
commitment to use and maintain.
– Culture of the organisation and management buy in
– Level of process maturity within the organisation
– Investment required and proving value add
• Processes can quickly become out of date which erodes the value of
the BPP.
– Don’t expect compliance through documentation. Often senior managers assume that once you
document the process all will be well. Sadly, knowing what the process is and sticking to it are two
different things. Brings into play other aspects of process management:
– Auditing and Compliance
– Performance management
• The best way to combat this is to:
– Have a plan in place to maintain your process documentation.
– Appoint a Process Owner.

19. Benefits of a Business Process Playbook
One source of Process Identification/definition
Collaboration, sharing, common understanding, standardisation
Foster business ownership of processes
Improve Training
Reduce Knowledge vulnerability
Supports Lean and other process improvement initiatives
Tracks process changes
Faster business change impact analysis
A basis for process performance management

20. https://toppersconsulting.wordpress.com/