This sample shows how IDCI defines an agency’s business processes before the agency selects or configures a system. It presents pages from a process definition catalog we delivered and describes the outcomes the catalog produces.
This excerpt comes from a delivered engagement. A public agency was preparing to procure a system to administer a new franchise program for commercial solid waste collection. Before it wrote a single requirement, the agency needed one agreed description of every oversight process: who owns it, what triggers it, what it produces, and which requirement it supports. We removed the client’s name and staff names before publishing these pages.
1 · Our approach
Processes before products
We define each process before anyone selects or configures a system, so that requirements rest on the way staff actually perform the work.
One template for every process
Every definition follows the same template, which lets the sponsor compare, prioritize, and trace each process to the solicitation.
Disciplined Project Management
Each process carries a number, an owner, a priority, and a reference to the requirement it supports.
Information Systems Expertise
The definitions name the inputs, the deliverables, and the data each process depends on, which together form the content of the future system’s data model.
Business Acumen
Each definition states its business impact and the consequence of leaving the process undone, so priorities follow the agency’s mission.
2 · The work product — excerpt
The catalog held more than eighty definitions grouped by functional area: contract management, compliance monitoring, fees and audits, facility certification, and strategic planning. The viewer shows five complete definitions and three of the process flows that accompanied them.
Process definition catalog
View only. Use the arrows, the thumbnails, or your arrow keys to turn the pages; on a phone, swipe.
The excerpt pages are available for viewing at idcinc.net/worksamples/business-process-definitions.html and are not reproduced in print.
3 · What the sponsor gains
✓
One shared vocabulary for the agency’s oversight work across every division.
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Traceable requirements. Every future requirement traces to a defined process and a named owner.
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A focused first release. Priorities set before procurement keep the first release on the processes that matter most.
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Prepared evaluators. The agency enters vendor demonstrations knowing exactly what each product must support.
4 · How we work, and what we will not do
Process definitions
One definition for each process, written in a single template and confirmed by the process owner.
Process flows
A swimlane flow for each process that crosses an organizational boundary.
Market scan
A short survey of the software categories that could support the catalog, which informs the options analysis.
What we will not do
We do not recommend a product before the processes are defined, and we do not write definitions from documents alone. The people who perform the work review every definition.
Questions about any of this?
If you are preparing for a system procurement, the fastest way through is a conversation. Bring the solicitation, the current procedures, or the part of this sample you want tested. Thirty minutes is usually enough to establish whether we are the right fit for the work.