.....ice is back with a brand new invention.....
No I am not going to carry on with arguably some of the best lyrics of a generation ha ha.
We've all been there haven't we, rushing off to the shops for the weekly shop without a list or packing up the car and forgetting something.
That's why my life pretty much works off a list of some form or another. Yes, ok I am a bit of a freak when it comes to planning but being organised is the key to success and a happy marriage and content children in the back of the car when you are on a 300 mile trip to Devon.
Anyway.... I am steering away from the point a bit. What I am trying to say here is, for the bigger process Flows we really need to plan. We need to embed ourselves in the current process, documenting it, drawing use case diagrams with the customer/business stakeholder and flushing out all of those nuances that come from those kind of discussions.
It is here where you get a real insight into what the customer needs are and what they are trying to achieve with Flow. It's also amazing to watch, because I love watching passionate people describe what they do. It's one of the best parts of my working life.
Continuous Process Improvement is really what it is all about. As you can see from the cycle below:
It is really important to iterate using this process, Plan first. You need to document what the process is and once the process is documented, the flow should be easy, or easier to create. Once you have a blueprint of what they are trying to achieve the customer and you can come together and iterate on the Flow to get it to the best version it needs to be. I will quite often go over and over a flow in many different versions before getting to the one that covers all the bases.
That leads to side point. Always have a backup. After any major changes, just save a copy of the flow and then start working on the copy. It just helps if you make a mistake and need to go back to a previous iteration.
Another great thing about the process brainstorming and the Flow creation is that you effectively have documented a business process ! Well done you ! Quite often you see in business undocumented processes, where key people just know everything. What if they leave? Well then you've got the Flow and the business process documentation you created before the Flow to fall back on.
DO - Test the flow, test it again and again and again.
CHECK - check the results of the test, have they met the customer's expectations ?
ACT - Choose the best iteration and go with that. But don't be afraid to go back to the plan an d re-iterate, it is a cycle after all.
Nice !
Hope you all have a good day, and feel free to reach out to chat about Flow, kids, Devon holiday parks or whatever :)