"Adapting to Case Management" originally presented at Process.gov meeting in April 2010.

1. Adapting to Case Management Tom Shepherd Director, Case Management

2. Co-author, “Mastering the Unpredictable” 15 Years in software focused on platform (rather than applications) Advocate of practical solutions Disorganized knowledge-worker without enough support staff Believer that “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough” (thanks Einstein) Of Backgrounds and Perception Biases Business Process and Case Management Rules / Configuration 2003 2007 Today 1995 1999 Product Lifecycle Management Enterprise Content Management

3. Adaptive Case Management Defined “Adaptive Case Management enables non-technical business users in virtual organizations to seamlessly create/consolidate structured and unstructured processes from basic predefined business entities, content, social interactions, and business rules.” “ACM differs from business process management (BPM) in that the case information is the focus and the thing around which the other artifacts are organized. And it is the case information that persists for the long term.”

4. A quote to start things off “Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say” - G.K. Chesterton

5. Adaptive Case Management isn’t simply about enabling technology, it represents a fundamental shift in approaching knowledge work

6. Challenge #1 Predicting and predefining how knowledge work happens

7. Process Modeling Starts Here

8. Gets More Complex

9. And Ends Up Here

10. And that’s for a reasonably simple, well-defined process

11. “Does Unpredictable Work Exist?” Can you really know all possible “states and transitions” associated with how work is done? Is this a practical approach? What would this look like? Predictability and Practicality

12. Pre-defining all states and transitions

13. Real World Limitations “We modeled the process as best as we could, but it seemed like there were about 1300 use cases possible.” “Trying to model the process for the BPMS implementation so explicitly created a proliferation of tasks and UI implementations, most of which were run by the same participant.” “We’ve now temporarily abandoned it…” “There is growing consensus that our biggest miss was that we didn’t recognize … for the more complex use cases … a case management pattern/approach would have probably worked best.”

14. Challenge #1 Predicting and predefining how knowledge work happens Challenge #1 Predicting and predefining how knowledge work happens Adaptation #1 Predefine only what is necessary and repeatable and give users guidance when needed or wanted

15. From Predefined to Adaptive Knowledge work doesn’t happen the same way every time Don’t lay down iron track Allow participants to use their judgment and experience Define states and goals Incorporate rules where appropriate Enable ad-hoc addition of tasks and documents Link in structured processes and services to eliminate repeatable steps

16. Coordination through Case Folder

18. Discussions

19. Dashboards

20. ReportsGive participants control over user experience – personalization Communications and mentoring are key Incorporate rules to enforce task order or state changes - Minimizes “not in good order” scenarios

21. Collaboration Cases are by nature collaborative Multiple people work on a case simultaneously The case folder should deal with the complexity of multi-access automatically Who did what, when and why is auditable Work may involve activities outside of the system, e.g. researchers, underwriters. Individuals and groups can be assigned tasks or work within the case Work from cases shows up in personal work queues as needed

22. Challenge #2 Dealing with constant change in business

23. Regulatory requirements Market conditions Competitive Pressures Government mandated programs and service levels The Only Constant is Change

24. Typical Process Lifecycle Many variations of this model exist Modeling is synonymous with creating process maps Time between model and execute is often longer than desired What happens when change is needed? STOP

25. Challenge #2 Dealing with constant change in business Challenge #2 Dealing with constant change in business Adaptation #2 Give users tools to deal with ad-hoc work and empower them to adjust the solution in place

26. Tools for Dealing with Ad-hoc work Configurable template that serves as the starting point or best practice Expected elements of a case folder can be setup in advance Dynamic creation and assignment of tasks or documents Select from tasks previously used Create new tasks on the go Include placeholders for expected documents Access to library of standard documents Ability to incorporate snippets of work, processes and services Modification of the template by authorized users while in production

27. Challenge #3 Force fitting business into a process model

28. Process Centric ApproachHuman Resources On-boarding People Job Applicants Hiring Manager HR Specialist Business Process Requisitioning Talent Acquisition Interviewing Hiring Orientation Documents Job Description Resume(s) Application I9 Form Identification Benefit Summary

29. Finding the process structure is hard Some problems have a lot of variability Temptation to force process change to simplify Exception cases typically not well understood Everything must be in the workitem Cramming everything into one place makes it complex Alters the designer’s conceptualization of the problem The workitem is transient The process updates a system of record Loss in fidelity Can’t mine history for process improvement ideas Process Centric Challenges

30. Challenge #3 Force fitting business into a process model Challenge #3 Force fitting business into a process model Adaptation #3 Move beyond creating only process maps and start thinking about the business entities you deal with

31. Identify the business entities Describe their relationships Fill in the details Specify tasks to be done Create a template library Data Centric Solution Manager Positions Candidates Recruiters Interviews References

32. People understand correspondence, contracts, employees and invoices and can easily describe these entities Provides a foundation for other solutions through reusable “objects” Potential for use of ACM platform as a system of record How is this different?

33. So Where Does that Lead Us?

34. Adopting Adaptive Case Management strategies can be successful where because it centers on describing your business in your terms You don’t have to change how you think about your business or agency, the tool adapts to fit what you do Conclusion

35. Questions? Tom Shepherd Director, Case Management tom.shepherd@global360.com @TomShepherd on Twitter Blogging at www.tomshepherd.net