Column 2 : links for 2010-03-12

{ 2010 03 12 }

links for 2010-03-12

Is the Checklist mightier than the Model? « Thoughts on Collaborative Planning

Keith Swenson expands on Jacob Ukelson's post of a few days ago about checklists for case management. I agree with the idea of a checklist, but see it most commonly required at a specific task in a structured process. Maybe that's just a function of my clients, but usually there's some structured process that looks like the usual process map, then at some of human-facing steps in the process, there's a checklist.

(tags: bpm casemanagement)
8 things you need to know about cloud content management – Digital Landfill

I especially like point #1, which is true for many cloud-based solutions: your business is already using it. Particularly for documents that have to be shared with external agencies and business partners.

(tags: ecm saas)

Posted by Sandy Kemsley on Friday, March 12, 2010, at 2:02 pm. Filed under Links. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog.

Keith Swenson | March 12, 2010 at 4:56 pm | Permalink

Sandy, your are absolutely right this is not going to replace structured processes. If I understand correctly, your clients are in the BPM world: predictable processes worked out in advance. In that situation, and using a process specialist, then BPMN will certainly offer significant advantages. I did not mean to imply that the check list would replace that.

Where I see the checklist being most useful is when the process is not known in advance (an emergent process) and the process must be designed by the end user. Imagine a doctor making a process for what needs to get done. It is not likely that a surgeon will also to process modeling, but a surgeon might make a check list. That is what Peter Pronovost showed at Johns Hopkins. While a crime detective might want to model the course of an investigation, it is much more likely to imagine them using a checklist, than BPMN. The real power of the checklist is in processes that must be thrown together by the people who are also doing the work at the same time. It is not perfect, but it works.
Sandy Kemsley | March 15, 2010 at 6:08 am | Permalink

My comment was really about the emergent nature of what happens at a “case management” type of task, even if it exists within a more structured process. I see checklists and structured processes as coexisting (often within the same process), not competing.