Process management: human-centered vs. technology-centered

Why are you looking for a software solution?

You are looking for software for your process management because

• The process documentation in your company is not up to date.
• Your process descriptions therefore offer no added value in the everyday lives of your employees.
• Your process descriptions and reality are becoming ever more diverging and process descriptions must be updated by you before each audit.
• Your employees do not act in accordance with the laboriously prepared process documentation.
• Many employees don't even know your process descriptions.
• The responsibility for modelling or describing lies with a few specialists or even with you alone.

The decisive question: Man or machine?

Regardless of what goals you are pursuing with your process management, you should answer one fundamental question before choosing the tool: Is the addressee a computer or a human being?

Many companies want to democratize their processes and let their employees participate in the design of process documentation in order to make the valuable knowledge of employees available to everyone. If you opt for technology-centered software with this goal, failure is inevitable. With a technology-centered solution, the process participants, i.e. the employees, often have no opportunity to participate, or the co-design is so cumbersome that no employee uses it. The result: The process model is not lived in the company.

The rarer case is exactly the opposite: Human-centred process management software is being introduced for the goal of automating processes. Due to the different notation, this method means that the processes can only be transferred to a workflow engine with effort.

The most important differences: technology-centered vs. human-centered process management

To make it easier for you to decide which software solution is right for your company, we have compiled the most important differences between technology-centered and human-centered process descriptions and provide you with the characteristics of both variants.

Objective: Cooking recipes for people or BPMN for machines?

At the beginning, there is always the question: What is your goal? Is it automating processes or communicating guidelines and best practices within the company? If guidelines and best practices are the answer and you've been using a BPMN solution so far, this is exactly where the problem lies. Because do you know how many of your employees are BPMN presentation understand? In our experience, in most cases only IT and quality management representatives. The executing employees often do not understand the complicated process models. Although they are consistent and complete, Everyday tips are missing and tips, such as simple work instructions, but also screenshots or videos. This creates frustration in everyday life and leads to Documentation not used will.

In addition, most of our customers would like their Employees can become active and help shape — in reality, this is exactly what often doesn't work with BPMN, as employees are not exactly aware of the differences in semantics and changes are therefore only introduced by a few responsible persons.

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With a human-centered solution Can you present work processes in a simple and understandable way, so that every employee understands and carries them out Can. If you also opt for an interactive solution, the design of the processes is transferred to all knowledge carriers of the process — your employees become participants from those affected. This has several advantages: The previously responsible specialists are relieved, the involvement of employees leads to a higher level of identification with their own processes and the process descriptions are continuously improved and are consistent with the actual work of your colleagues.

This works completely differently than you are used to with BPMN models: With Needs-based process descriptions that are structured like cooking recipes, do you give colleagues exactly the information that usually leads to ambiguities and thus discussions, or that threatens to be forgotten. In contrast to the BPMN presentation, a 100% presentation is rather disadvantageous here, as the documentation becomes confusing due to too many details and thus loses relevance. If, on the other hand, you document relevant information in bullet points, the workflow is easy to understand, frustration in everyday life is avoided and the Process descriptions create real added value for your employees and ultimately your company.

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Tip: How to tell whether software is human-centered or technology-centered

Not immediately apparent to many: Is the software human-centered or technology-centered? To answer this question quickly, it is usually enough to look at the pricing model: Is there a difference between process modelers and standard users? Then it is highly likely that it is a technology-centered software. Do all users have write access? Then the software is designed for collaboration and is a human-centered tool.

A second important point: How does the provider measure the success of its system? Is it for example reading and writing accesses? Then it is very likely a human-centered system, because collaboration is the basis of this solution and employee activity is an important measure.

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Which is the right process management tool for your company?

So far, there is No software that ideally supports both objectives And this will never exist due to partly diametrical requirements. Therefore, you shouldn't try to take both approaches with one tool. If you are still unsure which solution is right for you, you should therefore ask yourself our question from the beginning of the article:

Who is the addressee of the process descriptions — computer or human?

• When the Answer for you the computer, or is the workflow engine, then our recommendation is a BPMN tool, where a few experts can model and automate your process data models.
• When the Answer for you the human Is, then we recommend a human-centered software, with which you can create simple process documentation for all employees and democratize your processes.

If you want both — as crazy as it sounds — you need two tools.