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The most common structure for accomplishing a business process review is to form a number of process evaluation teams around the major business processes that will be affected by the software replacement being considered. In conjunction with this activity (or a simpler business requirements approach, if that option is selected), a technology evaluation team will also need to be formed to work closely with the business teams to develop proposals that will align the institution's information technology infrastructure with identified strategic directions and business requirements.
If your institution has not been previously involved in business process review efforts, it may be useful to bring in an outside consultant or peer manager from another institution, who can provide some initial training and exposure to the issues to be addressed and examined. In addition, as recommended earlier, it will be important to provide some training in the skills needed for working in a team environment, as often the people responsible for transaction processing in financial organizations have not previously been exposed to such skills and these will be key players in the process reviews.
The work of the business process evaluation teams will be taking place in concert with the technology evaluation, with frequent interaction between the technology team and the business process teams. This will enable the evaluation of available resources for the highest priority redesign proposals, as they are discovered, and will ensure that the suggested process changes are supportable with existing tools. The technology evaluation team will build on the work of the business teams as they move forward, as well as articulate the existing institutional technology environment and investigate the technology marketplace, within the context of the institution's broader technology strategy.
Depending on the scope of the project or size or complexity of the institution, it is quite possible that the project management team might choose to establish a single evaluation team, charged with both business process and technology evaluation. The functions described for the business process teams thus would be combined with those described for a technology evaluation team, and the combined team would progress through the business and technology evaluations together. For example, at Sinclair Community College, during the evaluation phase the technical staff (the systems analyst for the business area) prepared a draft of the business functions and features which the business staff validated, revised, and updated. This process, in fact, was also used to identify gaps in the existing system and propose additional functions and features for the new system. Similarly, at San Jose State University, the module "owner" prepared the needs analysis and the systems analyst interpreted it into a possible solution, which was then negotiated to the actual solution.
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