Sit in the director's chair

Discipline is an important aspect of the design process, particularly in larger organisations, where getting people to do things 'by the book' can be the difference between projects succeeding and failing. But which is the best way to get designers to follow the company line? It's something which Atego believes it has a solution to with the launch of Process Director, a web based environment for process definition, management and deployment. According to Atego, Process Director delivers a 'scalable, extensible and pragmatic' range of process oriented capabilities, with application in operational, engineering and development process authoring, roll out, management, governance measurement and optimisation. Hedley Apperly is Atego's vp of product and marketing. "There are a number of audiences for the product," he said. "Generally, it's suited to any organisation with the need to document processes so they can be repeated and improved." One question Apperly asks is 'what is a process and why use one?'. "It's a connection between objectives, people and tools," he explained. "Companies use processes to control how things are done so they can be repeated. Over time, the way things are done can be improved. Without a process, companies can't deliver on time or to budget." One of the problems which Apperly sees with processes is that they need to be used. "The process has to be applied and it must save the company time and money. But it also needs staff involvement; there's no point in designing a process unless you get it deployed." Atego notes there exists a number of ways of documenting processes, ranging from large printed documents to what it calls 'enormous intranets'. But it claims that such methods are expensive to author, research and improve. Apperly says Process Director's databasing approach makes things easier. "The database allows you to break down the project into chunks, then plug them together into a matrix. This approach means Director's features can be reused, changed and applied across a range of processes." The software is a thin client web application which runs on a multiuser repository. It implements the Atego Process Perspective, which is the company's technique for process definition, selection, management, deployment, measurement and improvement. The process authoring process is said to be speeded because Process Director comes loaded with a selection of industry best practices, such as waterfall, spiral, staged and to budget. The system can also accept existing process documentation and allow new processes to be authored, as well as a combination of these approaches. By preloading best practice processes, Atego believes the time taken to create a project can be reduced by up to 25%. Meanwhile, modular process documentation and built in consistency are said to bring a reduction in process maintenance overhead of up to 30%. Because process authors can use familiar text editors, including Word, and import their existing content, learning curves and start up costs are reduced. "The software is also suited to managers who want to apply generic company processes to their project. It takes what could be a 1000 step process and allows the user to tune it to what is needed," Apperly continued. "This makes it attractive to get a process implemented and used." Process Director features a Steps Editor, which allows the user to create process diagram using a drag and drop approach. A question and answer wizard means the system can be set up to meet the needs of the project in hand. Once the project has been set up, Process Director provides the ability to estimate and assign individual tasks to those involved. "There are a lot of triggers included in the system to help people make use of it," said Apperly. "For example, when someone on the project is allocated a task, they can be sent an email with a link to the relevant information." He noted there are three broad types of user for such a system: the process author; process managers; and process consumers. "We provide a balance of features across these groups." One of the benefits, in Apperly's opinion, is that Process Director allows the system to be set up from a 'clean sheet of paper' or from the preloaded best practices. "It also provides separation between the author and the management process," he continued. "For example, it can report whether certain steps have been missed in a project and whether that step is also being missed in other projects. This feedback is useful when the system is being applied to a rigorous process; in the mil/aero domain, for example." The system's flexibility allows new processes to be created and old ones removed. Parallel tasks can be created and optional steps can be included. Once the process is created, the user can then create a project. "Process Director will asks questions based on the steps selected and the result is a tailored process specific to the project," Apperly said. "Managers can then estimate task duration and allocate tasks to particular users. The system also allows for the project to be monitored using Project Planner." This ability to create specific project plans is said by Atego to be an ideal way to apply best practice to new projects. "Because you can readily set up new projects from scratch," Apperly noted, "it avoids cutting and pasting from previous projects and companies can use best practice on all projects." On the other side of the fence are the process users; by definition, a much larger group than the process authors. Atego is catering for this audience with Process Consumer, which provides access to an organisation's particular processes. Along with the email notification facility, Process Consumer allows users to maintain 'to do' lists or to access task lists. Both approaches are said to feature 'hot links' to relevant process help pages, as well as which techniques and tools to use. Users can record progress on each allocated task. Process Director and Atego Process Consumer provide users with simple process visualisation and understanding. The views are said to be consistent, which means that, once someone understands one process, they can pick up the next. A search facility and the provision of 'tag clouds' make it easier to find relevant process information. Typically, Process Director is targeted at larger companies, but the software is also suitable for use within a supply chain. "If a company was, for example, outsourcing software development," said Apperly, "it could use Director to enforce standards." One of the particular features of Process Consumer is that it can run on a range of devices: from desktop pcs to iPads and iPhones. "We have a customer in North America," Apperly noted, "where half of the engineers use handheld devices and need to see the process. Process Consumer is a proactive way of getting information into user's hands. And because of the task logging features, they don't have to fill in time sheets," he concluded.