As processes become more intelligent, we will likely want to measure the level of intelligence, as I discussed in "How Smart Is your Business?"  Doing this will give organizations an idea where they are in a continuum of trying to become a smarter business over time.  This month I will cover the first "A" portion of the "ISAA" [Intelligent, Social, Agile, Autonomous] framework described in that column.

I propose the following five levels of process agility that build on each other.

1.  Explicit Parameters

Where process/logic volatility can be planned ahead of time and represented by external data, explicit parameters can be leveraged.  The parameters are usually bound into the logic at the very last second, allowing for up-to-the-last-second change (explicit).  This allows for a basic level of agility and can be made handed over to business professionals for change (usually via forms/screens).

2.  Explicit Policies/Rules

Where process/logic volatility can be planned ahead of time and be represented by decision tables, decision trees, visual logic flows, or linguistic forms, business rules can be leveraged.  The rules are bound into the logic at the very last second.  In some instances, the rules can be used to not only induce, but to also deduce, logic.  This is a higher level of intelligence and agility that generally leverages a business-friendly development environment.

3.  Dynamic Sequencing of Services (logic)

While adding agility within a fixed process model is a good start, not all process paths can be modeled.  In this situation, sequenced work and process activity can be dynamically arranged and completed.  While common patterns can be identified and modeled over time, this approach is aimed at variable work sequences.  This can be accomplished by aggregating fixed process snippets (small modeled sub-processes) guided by rules or case management guided by milestones (mini completion points).

4.  Dynamic Milestones

In completely unstructured processes that are milestone driven, changes in priorities can be accomplished by changing the milestones in flight.  This approach is particularly useful for cases that have emerging new outcomes to handle cases where the work sequences are highly variable.  This is often leveraged by adaptable case management technologies.

5.  Goal Directed

The ultimate in agility is where processes reconfigure themselves around new set of goals or goal weightings.  This can be accomplished by having goal models that can change through a business-friendly development environment or the dynamic/real time setting of goals/weightings leveraging analytics.  These kinds of processes generally are getting real-time feedback from the Internet of Things or other real-time sensors.

Net; Net

There are definite levels of change intelligence that processes can enable.  We will need to learn to utilize various levels of change agility over the coming years.

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