Approach 1: Work Procedure Handbook

Many organizations already have a structured description of their business processes, maybe in the form of a work procedures handbook or a section in their quality assurance policy book.

In this case, each business process is typically described only once. Each process has some unique code and a description of detailed steps. Processes are categorized in high-level chapters such as Customer Relationships, Purchases, Orders, Delivery, Quality Assurance.

One advantage in this approach is that you can achieve a mapping between existing business process structures and USoft structures using ID codes. You can push this further by actually using handbook texts and USoft Business Rule description texts, or even using the USoft TeamWork repository as the online work procedures handbook.

To use this approach in USoft TeamWork:

•Use the same business process codes or IDs as in the handbook.

•Be sure to include all information in USoft TeamWork, even if Business Rules are not immediately apparent. You can later relate (newly discovered) Rules to known process structures.

•Enter both high-level categorizations and lower-level step descriptions as USoft TeamWork Business Process Steps. Then connect these steps using the Belongs To field.