Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide > Planning Workflow Processes >

Gathering Information for Workflow Process Planning

Start gathering information by looking at how your organization currently handles workflow issues, business processes, and overall workflow. These current processes are the basis of what you will create using Siebel Business Process Designer.

If you currently have an automated system, you need to gather information on the processes handled by that system. It is also important to understand the limitations or problems that the current system has that you want to address with Siebel Workflow Processes.

There are two primary areas you may want to research for information on your current workflow processes: existing process information and areas for improvement or new process requirements.

Researching Existing Process Information

Existing process information can come from a variety of sources:

• Current automated processes
• Management guidelines
• Written guidelines of process rules or approval paths
• Internal procedures, written or unwritten

An example of gathering information about an existing process would be to document each step that a new work item, such as a service request, takes from the moment it is initiated to the moment it is complete. Include information about decision points in the process, such as when a service request should be escalated or which approval path an order takes when it is high priority versus low priority.

Researching New Processes and Areas for Improvement

After you have gathered as much information as you can about existing processes, review the information you have to see if there are areas for improvement in the process or whether a new process might be useful. Think of the following possibilities:

• New management guidelines or business requirements
• Current problems that need to be solved
• Areas that you would like to make more visible
• Customer satisfaction issues
• Workflow processes that you would like to automate