In process management, three developmental phases can be discerned in general. Each of those which will be briefly discussed in this article.

Initiating Phase

This first phase in process management can be summarized in a single action: ‘Describe the processes as they currently are.’ In many cases, the process descriptions in a company are too excessively detailed, with more detail than is required for the functioning of the company.

This first phase is supposed to help in reducing needless detail and resulting in a very accurate description of the company processes. The analysis in this phase restricts itself to what is called the AS IS situation, meaning looking at processes the way they are.

Continuous Improvement Phase

In the late nineties of the previous century, many companies introduced Total Quality Management (TQM) and/or Continuous Improvement Programs (CIP). These types of management or programs are meant to make people observe the company processes and regularly identify opportunities to improve. Most present day organizations still find themselves in this phase.

Project management models, such as CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration), EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) and PMBOK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge) originated from reflection over this phase. Here, the SHOULD BE situation will be discussed, meaning moving from the situation as it is (AS IS) to how it should be (SHOULD BE) through optimizing the existing processes.

Creativity and Innovation Phase

Stimulating innovation and creativity should lead to economic growth, work opportunities and wealth. When processes near the end of the optimizing, creativity is important to come to the innovation of the processes, meaning new process forms will be designed. This goal can be reached through creative think techniques, which, with the aid of process mapping, can lead to the recognition and construction of what is known as the COULD BE situation.

When arriving at this phase, the company will take a long, hard look at its processes and identify (parts of) processes that can be done better in another way. This is never easy for a company, but it can certainly add value when done in the right way. Some criteria that can be used in these observations are:

• Reducing the time it takes for a complete process to be completed.
• Reducing costs if possible.
• Eliminating bottlenecks.
• Reducing the number of defects.
• Keeping up to date with technology (specifically information technology).
• The influence of and processes used by the competition.