Business Process Management: Profiting From Process

Overall Tricks and Traps for the Understand Phase

In the Understand phase, people often tend to work at the wrong level of detail. Some teams and individuals tend to skim along the surface, relying only on their general impressions, looking for evidence that supports their preconceived notions of the process. Others delve to the lowest level of detail in the operating procedures and don’t see the overall picture at all until they’ve studied every aspect to death. The answer really lies in a balanced approach, in which some aspects of the process are drilled down through, but others aren’t.

The objective is to understand, not just to build an “as-is” model. The model will be a tool and communication device—that’s all.

The Understand phase must ...