systems MAPPING and process evaluation for our program management team

Background. W. Edwards Deming said, “If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Because organizations invest significant resources to develop strategic plans and implement initiatives, teams need to align on their work and processes, understand and mitigate risks, and effectively develop and prioritize improvements.

The Project Management (PM) team underwent a major restructure asked our UX Research team to apply our methodologies and expertise to help them get a better picture of the current state of their team processes in order to focus effectively on process improvements.

Method. Our UX research team adapted a holistic framework (upper left graphic) for mapping a system derived from Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge. This approach, call “by what method”, allowed the PM team to visualize their current state as well as enabled stakeholders and cross-functional teams to better see and understand gaps and risks in their process. At a workshop / analysis phase we also incorporated existing team pillars—strategic dimensions that support the vision—so the results of the research had a strong and relatable context. 

Results. System mapping, along with identifying the pillar-risk graph (lower left graph), helped our product management team gain alignment on the aims, risks, and goals across the stages of their current project management process. The flexibility of employing this mapping technique with workshop feedback and the strategic pillars allowed the PM team to understand the broader system for their processes in a way they had not been able to visualize previously. Subsequently they used the insights from our deliverables to address ownership and communication strategies in early stages of the PM lifecycle.