Effort Engineering Quarter

Process Engineering Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Effort Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Controlling Quarter.

Concepts

1. Process engineering.
2. Process. A series of activities undertaken in order to achieve one or more of particular results. In simple words, a process is a way of work; this way may be predefined, empiric, and/or merely chaotic. Process engineering defines that those activities convert inputs into desired outputs utilizing some process assets such as tools and techniques and while being influenced by some enterprise factors. Those processes that are performed by people for enterprises are called enterprise processes. Those processes that are performed by systems including computers, robots, and/or machines are called system processes. Projects or operations can be also viewed as a set of processes.
   • Input. Anything consumed in a process. In systems engineering, items that are processed by the system.
   • Output. Anything that directly emerges out of a process. In systems engineering, items that the system produces.
   • Process asset. All materials used by groups within an organization to define, tailor, implement, and maintain their processes.
   • Technique. Techniques alter the way a business analysis task is performed or describe a specific form the output of a task may take.
3. Business process. A set of defined ad-hoc or sequenced collaborative activities performed in a repeatable fashion by an organization. Processes are triggered by events and may have multiple possible outcomes. A successful outcome of a process will deliver value to one or more stakeholders.
   • Feedback. (1) Data that is an output from one system delivered back to one of the systems that feed the system that produces the data; (2) Information based on data that is an output from one system delivered back to one of this system's suppliers; (3) The degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual's obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.
4. Outcome. A key factor that is affected by some other variables.
   • Desired outcome. The business benefits that will result from meeting the business need and the end state desired by stakeholders.
5. Production.
   • Process production. The production of items in continuous process.
   • Unit production. The production of items in units or small batches.
   • Production environment. A term describing the setting where a product is put into use by customers on a regular basis.
   • Operational support. A stakeholder who helps to keep the solution functioning, either by providing support to end users (trainers, help desk) or by keeping the solution operational on a day-to-day basis (network and other tech support).
6. Activity. Any enterprise effort performed as part of a process. An activity shall have its own name and description; most often, they have one or more predecessor activities and successor activities. Planned activities may have their expected input resources, process assets, time frames, and costs; completed activities may have their actual data. Activities may be subdivided into tasks.
   • Activity diagram. A model that illustrates the flow of processes and/or complex use cases by showing each activity along with information flows and concurrent activities. Steps can be superimposed onto horizontal swimlanes for the roles that perform the steps.
   • Workflow diagram. A graphical representation of activities and actions conducted by users of a system. (Sometimes called an activity diagram.)
7. Process model. A visual model or representation of the sequential flow and control logic of a set of related activities or actions.
   • Swimlane. The horizontal or vertical section of a process model that show which activities are performed by a particular actor or role.
   • Network path. Any continuous series of connected activities in a project network diagram.
   • Float. The amount of time that an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the project finish date. Float is a mathematical calculation, and can change as the project progresses and changes are made to the project plan. Also called slack time, total float, and path float. See also free float.
   • Slack time. The amount of time an individual activity can be delayed without delaying the whole project.
   • Process map. A business model that shows a business process in terms of the steps and input and output flows across multiple functions, organizations, or job roles.
8. Logical relationship. A dependency between two project activities, or between a project activity and a milestone. The four possible types of logical relationships are: (1) finish-to-start — the initiation of work of the successor depends upon the completion of work of the predecessor; (2) finish-to-finish — the completion of the work of the successor cannot finish until the completion of work of the predecessor; (3) start-to-start — the initiation of work of the successor depends upon the initiation of the work of the predecessor; (4) start-to-finish — the completion of the successor is dependent upon the initiation of the predecessor.
   • Dependence. B's relationship to A when A possesses something that B requires.
   • Predecessor activity. The "from" activity.
   • Successor activity. The "to" activity.
   • Lag. A modification of a logical relationship that directs a delay in the successor task. For example, in a finish-to-start dependency with a ten-day lag, the successor activity cannot start until ten days after the predecessor has finished. See also lead.
   • Lead. A modification of a logical relationship that allows an acceleration of the successor task. For example, in a finish-to-start dependency with a ten-day lead, the successor activity can start ten days before the predecessor has finished. See also lag.
   • Network logic. The collection of activity dependencies that makes up a project network diagram.
9. Scheduling. (1) The process of planning and arranging orders to maximize productivity, cost, and delivery times; (2) Detailing what activities have to be done, the order in which they are to be completed, who is to do each, and when they are to be completed.
   • Timebox. (1) A fixed period of time to accomplish a desired outcome; (2) An assigned period of time during which an individual or team works toward an established goal. The team stops work when the time period concludes, rather than when work is completed. The team then assesses how much work was accomplished toward the specified goal.
   • Timeboxing. Setting a duration for every activity and having it last exactly that (i.e. neither meetings nor sprint are ever lengthened - ever).
   • Milestone. (1) A significant event in the project, usually completion of a deliverable or significant part of it; (2) A scheduled event to mark the completion of a major element of a product. Milestones are flags to signify that some amount of work has been completed.
   • Visual scheduling. A real–time database of shop floor activity including new work, current work–in–progress, and completions. As work moves through the plant and operations are completed, the user receives instant feedback and is able to make adjustments to both the load (work orders) and the capacity to achieve a do-able schedule.
10. Business event. A system trigger that is initiated by humans.
    • Event. An event is something that occurs to which an organizational unit, system, or process must respond.
    • Temporal event. A system trigger that is initiated by time.
    • Event response table. An analysis model in table format that defines the events (i.e., the input stimuli that trigger the system to carry out some function) and their responses.
11. Sales.
    • E-commerce. The process by which goods and services are bought and sold via the internet utilizing web sites that are virtual stores. Examples include businesses from banking to baked goods and everything on between.
    • License selling. A way of granting multiple people access to the same shared software application. An ERP buyer pays a one-time fee for each named or concurrent user to use the software.
    • Point of sale (POS). The time and place that a sales transaction took place. In ERP software, this is normally the ability to handle retail or counter sales.
12. Commerce transaction.
    • Business-to-consumer.
    • Business-to-business. A commerce transaction in which the vendor and consumer are both businesses, not end consumers. This transaction describes a business that is targeting another business with its product or services. B2B technology is also sometimes referred to as enterprise technology. This is different from B2C which stands for business to consumer, and involves selling products or services directly to individual customers.
    • Business-to-government.
    • Business-to-employee.
13. Production process.
    • Bottleneck. A machine or workstation through which many production items must flow and which when overloaded causes a delay in the production process.
    • Cycle. Refers to the total amount of time it takes for a single task or work item to travel through the workflow from the beginning of work until it ships.
14. Quality assurance (QA). (1) Enterprise efforts undertaken in order to evaluate overall performance within processes on a regular basis to provide confidence that the deliverables will satisfy the requirement specifications, customer expectations, and relevant quality standards. In other words, quality assurance include the activities performed to ensure that a process will deliver products that meet an appropriate level of quality; (2) The organizational unit that is assigned responsibility for quality assurance.
15. Optimization. The process of choosing the best alternative that will satisfy the needs of the stakeholders under the constraints given (e.g. cost, schedule and available technology).

Methods

1. Precedence diagramming method (PDM). A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by boxes (or nodes). Activities are linked by precedence relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.
   • Precedence relationship. The term used in the precedence diagramming method for a logical relationship. In current usage, however, precedence relationship, logical relationship, and dependency are widely used interchangeably, regardless of the diagramming method in use.
2. Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). An event-oriented network analysis technique used to estimate program duration when there is uncertainty in the individual activity duration estimates. PERT applies the critical path method using durations that are computed by a weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely duration estimates. PERT computes the standard deviation of the completion date from those of the path's activity durations.
   • PERT network. A flowchart diagram showing the sequence of activities needed to complete a project and the time or cost associated with each.
   • PERT activity. The time or resource needed to progress from one event to another in a PERT network.
   • PERT event. End point that represents the completion of major activities in a PERT network.
   • Critical path. The longest sequence of activities in a PERT network.
3. Critical path method (CPM). A network analysis technique used to predict project duration by analyzing which sequence of activities (which path) has the least amount of scheduling flexibility (the least amount of float). Early dates are calculated by means of a forward pass, using a specified start date. Late dates are calculated by means of a backward pass, starting from a specified completion date (usually the forward pass' calculated project early finish date).
   • Critical path. The series of activities that determines the duration of the project. In a deterministic model, the critical path is usually defined as those activities with float less than or equal to a specified value, often zero. It is the longest path through the project. See critical path method.
   • Critical activity. Any activity on a critical path. Most commonly determined by using the critical path method. Although some activities are "critical," in the dictionary sense, without being on the critical path, this meaning is seldom used in the project context.
4. Six Sigma. A quality program designed to reduce defects and help lower costs, save time, and improve customer satisfaction.
5. DevOps. Practice and a set of concepts, based on that practice, that define culture of unifying software development (Dev) and software operations (Ops). Its signature toolchain represents a chain of tools that fit one of the following categories: (a) Code, (b) Build, (c) Test, (d) Package, (e) Release, (f) Configure, and (e) Monitor.
6. Process consultation. A meeting in which a consultant assists a client in understanding process events with which he or she must deal and identifying processes that need improvement.

Instruments

1. Flowchart software.
   • LibreOffice Draw.
   • Dia software.
   • Inkscape.
2. Big visible chart. A large chart displayed near the Agile team that show how the team is progressing. You could make a big visible chart to show defects, velocity (burndown chart), customer acceptance tests, or to find out how much time the team is wasting.
   • Burndown chart (or Burndown chart). The chart that represents all outstanding work. The vertical axis represents the backlog, while the horizontal axis represents time. The work remaining can be represented by story points, ideal days, team days, or other metrics.
   • Burnup chart (or Burnup chart). The chart that tracks how much work has been completed. There are two lines on the chart—one line represents total work and the other represents work completed. The vertical axis represents the amount of work and can be measured in number of tasks, hours, or story points. The horizontal axis represents time, usually measured in days.
3. Work breakdown structure (WBS). A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed within a project or operations. This structure organizes and defines the process scope. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the work.
   • Responsibility assignment matrix (RAM). A structure that relates the organization structure to the work breakdown structure to help ensure that each element of the work is assigned to a responsible individual.
   • Resource leveling. Any form of network analysis in which scheduling decisions (start and finish dates) are driven by resource management concerns (e.g., limited resource availability or difficult-to-manage changes in resource levels).
4. Linear programming. A mathematical technique that solves resource allocation problems.

Results

1. Performance measurement baseline (or baseline). A point-in-time view of requirements that have been reviewed and agreed upon to serve as a basis for further development and possible changes. In other words, the baseline is any originally-approved plan adjusted by approved changes. Usually, the term baseline is used with a modifier such as product baseline, process baseline, cost baseline, and schedule baseline.

Practices

The successor lecture is Operations Management Quarter.