Summary: Whether you have an existing business process improvement (BPI) practice within your organization, or if you are just looking to get started in building a business process improvement discipline, this article will help you set up the proper guardrails to achieve success.  I offer brief and actionable recommendations on what to think about and plan for when planning for a formal process improvement program.

The 4 Key Components of a Business Process Improvement Practice

The four key components of a successful business process improvement practice are:

• A Process Improvement Leader

• A Process Improvement Strategy

• A Process Improvement Timeline

• A Process Improvement Budget

Below, I look at each of these components separately, even though they only work when built with each other in mind and operate as one function.  These are listed in the order I recommend they be developed because they build on each other best that way, although it is not required.

A Process Improvement Leader

Like any other department or team within your organization, having a leader who champions the effort is incredibly important.  It is difficult to move the needle on real process improvement projects if you don’t have someone who is talking actively with senior leadership, at cross-functional meetings, and spreading the word in general about the benefits of process improvement.  Depending on the size and structure of your organization will help define what level this leader sits at.  That, as well as the responsibility of this individual to guide the direction of organization-wide process improvement and keep it going, are defined within the next component, the Process Improvement Strategy.

A Process Improvement Strategy

Your Process Improvement Strategy is that defining guide for how process improvement exists and operates within your organization.  It is very important that this strategy supports the overall strategic plan of the company.  That might sound obvious, but it is easy for BPI programs to be viewed as disruptive to existing operations, when really BPI needs to compliment the strategic plan of the business.

This strategy helps define the strategic objectives of the program, the desired metrics to track progress and success, and who is responsible for overseeing the BPI practice (the first component I described above), this being the main leader as well as individual process improvement project leaders.

There are a few other important topics the strategy should address.  For example, what processes should be examined in the coming year because they have high impact potential?  What processes should be considered in the coming couple of years?  How will existing processes be impacted with new technology?

This Process Improvement Strategy should be your comprehensive guide for your BPI program, so it will require a fairly large effort.  I also recommend you have your Process Improvement leader in place before this strategy is defined, as they will be responsible for leading the drive for following the strategy.

A Process Improvement Timeline

Defined by your strategy, the next component you will want to consider is your process improvement timeline.  I like to start with a question like when is the best time to implement different process improvement initiatives, based on things like other big projects going on, seasonality, etc.?  Spend the time to talk with department leaders within your organization to get high-level timelines of big projects going on throughout the year.  This will help you best align BPI projects.

The main thing to strive for is to be proactive in timeline planning of BPI projects, not reactive!

A Process Improvement Budget

After you have a leader in place, maybe a team developed, and your strategy and timeline are in place, you should have enough information to define a process improvement budget.  A proper Process Improvement department or project team should have a line item on the P&L.  Things to consider having built into the budget would include things like human resources (leader, team members), any consulting services you may need to hire throughout the year for project support, and and tools you might need.

Finally, I would recommend to start your budget planning by looking at other areas of the organization where process improvement projects are already being invested in, which will give you an idea of where things are at before you request the resources you will need.