This reading begins a series of discussions on the subject of process analysis using coordination theory. (Malone and Crowston 1992) and (Malone, Crowston et al. 1993) offer more in-depth descriptions of the theories that drive these techniques. Our focus here will be on the practical details of using coordination-theory-based process mapping to understand organizational innovations quickly, clearly, and comprehensively.
Summary material used for these notes can be obtained from the Microsoft Word file dys2096.doc.
Table 1 suggests a ten-step approach to developing a process map that supports process innovation and system design based on process decomposition, specialization, and dependencies. We'll use this table as a guide to discussing practical process analysis. This note focuses on process representation using dependencies and preliminary process analysis using specializations. The Note on Process Analysis focuses on process specializations and trade-off matricies. The Note on Dependency Analysis discusses dependencies and process innovation.
| Phase | Activity | Output |
| Process Representation |
| Context description Decomposition hierarchy |
| Process Diagnosis |
| Specialization hierarchy Dependency description Coordination analysis Trade-off matricies |
| Process Innovation |
| Dependency description Coordination analysis Trade-off matricies New process design |
One way of thinking about process analysis is in terms of three
phases of activity: process representation, process diagnosis,
and process innovation. Representation consists of describing
process context and developing a multi-level description, or decomposition,
of process activities. Diagnosis consists of understanding which
groups of activities within processes actually represent similar
types (or specializations) of more generic processes, and of describing
dependencies between process activities that are explicitly understood
by the current process design. Diagnosis ends with a description
of coordination options currently used within the process to manage
key process dependencies, including an analysis of the tradeoffs
inherent in these choices. In the process innovation phase, attention
turns to understanding implicit dependencies - i.e., those that
are not explicitly understood by the current process design. Surfacing
such dependencies and understanding the process tradeoffs that
they represent offers the opportunity to suggest new coordination
strategies that result in new, innovative process designs.
Malone, T. W. and K. Crowston (1992). The Interdisciplinary Study of Coordination. Cambridge, MA, Center for Coordination Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Malone, T. W., K. Crowston, et al. (1993). Tools for Inventing Organizations: Towards a Handbook of Organizational Processes. 2nd IEEE Workshop on Enabling Technologies Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises, Morgantown, WV.