The project path: five phases and eleven steps of a process project, and where patchley starts, carries and ends

The project path: from "is this worth doing?" to a process that stays current.

A process project is a sequence of decisions, and most of them are taken by people, not by tools. This path lays the sequence out in five phases and eleven steps. The steps with their own page answer the questions a team asks at that point, show where patchley changes the work and what stays with the team, follow one running case, Tannhof Armaturen GmbH, a fictional valve maker whose complaint handling is captured, corrected and analysed, and come with a small helper tool. The others are named so that the whole is visible.

Five phases, eleven steps

Decide, set up, understand, shape, deliver

Each step has a question the team has to answer before moving on. Three steps have their own pages; the others are listed with the question they answer.

Phase 1 · DecideIs this worth doing?Two steps that end in a sponsor and a budget.

Frame the problemAgree what hurts, where the process starts and ends, and which process comes first.

Build the business casePut figures on the steps that carry the waiting and the manual work, and take the budget decision on them.

Phase 2 · Set upWho does it, and who is on board?Two steps about people, roles and consent.

Choose the project structureWho is on the team, how much time they get, and where the project's material lives.

Align the stakeholdersWhat people hear before they are asked to explain their work, and the agreement with the works council where one exists.

Phase 3 · UnderstandHow does the work really run?Three steps, each with its own page, the running case and a helper tool.

Prepare the analysisEverything needed before the first interview: people, documents, hypotheses and conventions. Tool: interview guide generator.

Capture the As-IsGet the real process out of people's heads and agree on one version of it. Tool: BPMN checker.

Analyse the processMove from a picture of the process to findings someone will act on. Tool: findings prioritiser.

Phase 4 · ShapeHow should it run, and with what?Two steps from the As-Is to a chosen option and a chosen platform.

Design the To-BeStart from the As-Is, test options, decide what people keep and what systems or agents take over, within limits you set.

Select the solution and vendorTurn the To-Be into requirements, compare vendors on your own process, and leave as standard files.

Phase 5 · DeliverDoes the change last?Two steps about the roll-out and what happens after it.

Implement and bring people alongTraining from the diagram and the SOPs, lane by lane; the roll-out led by the people who own the process.

Sustain and improveOwn the process, keep the model current, and start the second process from what the first one set up.

Where patchley starts, carries and ends

Along the whole path, but not the whole job

patchley runs along the whole path, but it does not do the whole job. Each step page says what gets better and what stays with the people.

Starts at the first conversationAs soon as someone describes the process, a first draft can make scope and boundaries visible. In steps 1 to 4 it supports work that is mostly about people and decisions.

Carries steps 5 to 8From the first draft through capture and analysis to the To-Be and the deck. This is where patchley takes on the most work.

Ends at the hand-overStandard files for the chosen platform, material for the roll-out, and a model that stays current. Running the process itself is the Executions pilot, in preparation.

Core of patchleypatchley helps, people leadRunning the process: Executions pilot, in preparation (after step 11)

The steps in depth

Three steps, one case, three tools

Every step page has the same six parts in the same order, theory, better with patchley, helper tool, best-practice outcome, common traps, ready to move on, plus the running case.

Step 05

The project path: from "is this worth doing?" to a process that stays current.

Decide, set up, understand, shape, deliver

Along the whole path, but not the whole job

Three steps, one case, three tools

Prepare the analysis

Capture the As-Is

Analyse the process

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