Categories: Process analysis

Process scan at work

A process scan is a structured way to outline work processes. Within a cultural organisation, such a work process could, for example, be the realisation of a performance, exhibition or event – from the draft concept right up to evaluation.

Relay race

An organisation produces products and has suppliers and buyers. Within the organisation, each department produces a (partial) product with its own suppliers and buyers. The work process up to the product is a ‘relay race’ whereby different people or departments in turn pass the baton on to one another.

A process scan is achieved by interviewing key people (usually departmental heads) about their position within the relay race and their role in the realisation of the organisation’s products.

Guiding interview questions:

What are the organisation’s most important products?
What are the primary conditions for your work?
Where does your responsibility and authority start and end?
What do you require from others in order to start work?
What tools do you use for your work?
When is your work finished?
What do you pass on to others so that they can start their work?
To what degree do others have control over or supervise your work?
To what degree do you have control over or supervise others?
What does your activity schedule look like?
What are the bottlenecks in the work process?
What is the secret behind the organisation?

Components

The result of the process scan can be broken down into three components:

A table with a step-by-step description of the work process, with each phase giving the person(s) responsible, a description, time specifications, and annotations;
A schematic representation thereof;
Evaluation and conclusions.

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