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Notes from AQIP about Process (P) items in general

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AQIP has reviewed the Notes presented here to make sure they conform to AQIP and HLC policies, and to ensure they present sensible strategies and useful practices for Systems Portfolios. Every organization preparing a Systems Portfolio is not obligated to follow the advice presented here, but organizations can be confident that heeding this advice will not mislead them. Notes pages are locked, and only AQIP can change them.

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View or contribute to Support about Process (P) items in general

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Processes

 

A process is the method(s) by which work is accomplished. A process consists of a series of actions that lead to a desired result, a set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs into outputs, and includes the combination of people, machine and equipment, raw materials, methods, and environment that produces a given product or service.

 

Sometimes processes, patricularly large complex ones, are called systems: "What is a system? It is a  series of functions or activities (sub-processes or stages) within an organization that work together for the aim of the organization" wrote W. Edwards Deming, one of the founding gurus of quality management.

 

AQIP uses system to refer to a group of processes that an institution operates in order to achieve its goals for its stakeholders. AQIP presses institutions to examine each system, using a group of questions organized under one of nine distinct categories, to look closely at the processes by which work gets done. For example, in any institution’s system for Helping Students Learn (AQIP’s Category One) we could study key processes:

 

• for designing academic courses and programs;
• for determining when to schedule courses, how to offer them (e.g., face-to-face or via distance education), and which students to enroll in them;
• for establishing learning goals that drive curricular design, and for communicating these expectations to students and stakeholders;
• for operating effective academic support processes (such as advising);
• for admitting students, placing them into appropriate courses, and graduating them when they have met organizational goals and expectations; and
• for the other key academic process that are essential for a higher education institution’s operation of its courses and programs of study.

 

Institutions accomplish work through the processes they use, regardless of whether these processes are formal, prescribed, and documented or informal, voluntary, and unwritten. If external conditions remain static, an institution that continues to do its work in the same as it has done it in the past can expect its performance to be about the same as it was in the past. External conditions remaining the same, to improve its performance an institution must improve the processes that produce it.

 

Processes may directly benefit an institution’s stakeholders (as when a higher education institution teaches students to write in a credit course, or when it provides theatrical performances and concerts for its local community). A process may be internal to the organization (and often invisible to its stakeholders) but  essential for supporting the processes that benefit stakeholders directly (as when payroll issues checks to pay faculty that teach writing courses or maintains the theater or concert hall.)

 

Michael Hammer (The Agenda, Re-engineering the Corporation) suggests processes can be sorted into three groups: (1) processes that directly produce value for customers or stakeholders; (2) internal support processes essential for the processes in #1 to work; and (3) processes that fit neither in group #1 nor group #2.  Hammer suggests that all group #3 processes are waste (in that they make no contribution to the organization achieving its goals), and therefore should be eliminated. The trouble, he says, is that often employees enjoy doing the group #3 processes, or that the processes may actually benefit people — but not the people served by the organization.

 

Many of the key processes upon which higher education institutions depend are not operated out of a single office or department, but are the result of a variety of activities carried out by different employees across the institution. Take, for example, the process of teaching students to write, or of helping them to choose a major, or of helping them learn to use their time efficiently — the activities that constitute each of these processes are spread across a variety of departments, courses, offices, and other resources. The pieces can be seen as smaller sub-processes, and each sub-process could become the focus for improvement.

 

Process managers

 

Processes consist of diverse activities controlled by different groups.  In some organizations, complex processes are managed by a single individual or group — a process manager. This person is responsible for making sure the process operates as designed, achieves the goals and performance levels it should, and runs with the resources (people, money, equipment, etc.) budgeted for it. The process manager may (and probably should) have the responsibility to make sure the process improves over time.

 

 

Each process consists of one or more activities carried out by the institution’s faculty, staff, or administrators. Individual faculty control some processes, for example when they design and operate courses to help students learn “inorganic chemistry” or “English composition” or “world history before 1815” or a variety of other subjects. In teaching a course, the faculty member decides on virtually all aspects of the process: what the students will read, what they will do when they meet together for classes, what assignments they must complete, and what standards will be used in evaluating their learning of the subject.

 

Other processes are controlled by groups. The English department may centrally control how courses titled “English composition” are structured, or the institution may assign the same course to a group of faculty members, allowing them to make collective or independent decisions on method, texts, and expectations.

 

Often processes operated by different individuals are standardized, both to produce consistent results and to avoid the variation that comes from independent control. Most institutions attempt to execute personnel processes (hiring, evaluation, reappointment, dismissal).

 

Process items in the AQIP Categories describe processes or systems that are key to the operation of the organization. You can describe a process by telling

 

• who does it
• who "owns" or controls it (and therefore has the authority to change it if changes are necessary or desirable)
• what equipment, training, or special skills are required to do it
• what output it produces
• what inputs it requires
• what steps, tasks, or activities are involved in doing it
• when it occurs and how long it takes
• what would happen if it failed to operate properly
• what its goals or objectives are
• how broadly the process is deployed (used) across the organization
• whether it is important for the process to always produce similar results

 

and the like.

 

The goal of focusing on systems and processes is to have an institution ask itself:

 

• How explicitly have we spelled out the objectives for each of our key systems (or groups of related processes)?
• How do we design and operate processes that permit us consistently to achieve the objectives we seek?
• How broadly have we implemented our processes across our different departments, operations, and locations?

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Documenting processes:  This outline describes how many organizations document their key processes in order to share that information with employees.

 

Title of Process

 

A descriptive name for the process that people in the organization use to refer to it.

 

Introduction

 

Any introduction should be short, no more than 2 sentences.

 

Your brief summary should help users identify whether the process applies to them. After reading this short summary they should know if this page applies to their needs.

 

Announcements

 

Normally empty. Announcements should be added when a process changes, etc.

 

Tools and Forms

 

Quick links to tools and forms for those who already know the process.

 

Identify any tools – online, print, or software – Applicable to this process. Please describe it briefly. You may want to describe it in greater detail in the procedures section or the “other resources” section below. You may, instead, prefer to create a link to further documentation if it already exists on the web.

 

If there are forms or documents used in connection with this practice, provide access to them here. If a version of the form can be completed and submitted over the web, link to that form. If not, provide a link to the form as a word or pdf document. For example, if this process calls for preparing a budget or a checklist, there may be an Excel budget template available already formatted for that use. We will help you upload that document and create the link to it. Describe that document briefly here.

 

Procedures

 

This is the heart of the page. I should describe procedures and describe and have links to tools and forms and have links to additional relevant information found elsewhere on the web. These procedures could alternatively be called a task checklist, the workflow, the process map, or it may be as simply as a description of a form that needs to be filled out correctly. Use the format that makes the most sense for the topic. Try to write this so a person not familiar with the process can understand it and perform the process correctly.

 

Applicable Policies

 

Policy titles linked to policy with summary of their applicability to this procedure. This section may not always apply. Procedures often have touch points with policies. Because policies can address many issues, provide a brief summary describing how each relevant policy applies to the procedure along with links to the full university or college policy.

 

Calendar

 

Applies only for processes that are driven by dates, either time of the year (budget, year end closing, etc.) or time of the semester (grades, advising, graduation, etc.). Enter relevant calendar items here or link to a separate calendar document. Each calendar entry should have a due date and a description. It may also have a start date and a link to other relevant material as well.

 

Training

 

Identify required and recommending training. Please describe the training and provide a link to more information, or contact info to find out more.

 

Related Processes

 

Other related processes. Simply provide a list of short descriptions. When we post this to the web we will turn the descriptions into links to the relevant web pages.

 

Other Resources

 

Catch all for anything we missed, in particular it might include links to campus web sites that weren't included in the procedures section above.

 

Contact Information

 

Provide appropriate contact information for the office or the individual(s) that people might want or need to contact in relation to this practice. In some cases you may need to include a contact for each department. In some cases you may simply want to link to a webpage listing the relevant people, department financial officers, for instance.

 

Talking about processes

 

When people question, describe, examine, or evaluate processes, there are certain terms that occur frequently, and knowing them is helpful. Some of these words occur in Process items in the AQIP Categories.

 

System

 

Any group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent parts that form a complex and unified whole that has a specific purpose.

 

Process   

 

The method(s) by which work is accomplished.

 

Stakeholders   

 

Individuals and groups that have a stake in a system or process, whose expectations and requirements must be satisfied for them to judge it a success.

 

Suppliers   

 

Individuals, groups, or organizations that provide the inputs to a process.

 

Inputs   

 

Who and what a system or process requires to work.

 

Input requirements

 

The standards that the inputs to a process must meet in order for the process to work effectively as it was designed.

 

Expectations of the stakeholder(s)

 

Description of of the expectations of those who depend on the inputs expect the inputs to achieve.

 

Outputs   

 

The results of work – the tangible services and products a system or process produces

Output requirements.

 

Expectations of the stakeholder(s)

 

Description of the expectations of those who depend on the outputs of the process.

 

Feedback loops

 

Collection, transmission and return of information to inform (and hopefully to be used to improve) parts of a process. Feedback on whether the process' inputs were "up to standard" can help make sure future inputs are appropriate to do achieve their purpose. Feedback on whether the outputs where "up to standard" can help make sure that the process activities are the "right" ones, or that the inputs to the process are the "right" ones.