Welcome to a new blog series here on Imaginet.com (an Improving Company). In this series, we will take you through some of the services we provide from our different practices and demonstrate how we deliver them to our clients. We hope to shine a light on the delivery process and how we operate at Improving Winnipeg. Today, we are kicking it off with business process automation.

Selection of a Process

At the very start of this type of engagement, we need to identify a process that would benefit from being automated. This helps to define and limit the scope of our engagement, which helps keep our team on task and define scope changes so they are managed appropriately.

Sometimes, the client will have a process they would like to digitize, or the sales team will discuss what the client would like to automate. Most times, however, business process automation becomes a part of a larger project where we have already worked with the client to set up an intranet or helped them organize or plan their documents.

Working on larger projects leads us to notice patterns and practices that would benefit from being automated. We suggest some options for automation to the client and select one with them. With a process selected we can begin to gather requirements.

Detail and Document

Now that we’ve identified a process to automate, we need to ensure we understand the process entirely by gathering requirements for the different steps of the process and what we intend to build.

We do this by having one or more meetings around discussing the process from end-to-end and documenting how it currently functions and what is expected of it. Once we understand the process, we confirm we are on the same page with the client by reviewing the process documentation and, if aligned, start discussing features of the business process automation.

After defining what they would like the future state of the process to be and how it should be automated, we start documenting the features of the solution using various methods. One will be the information architecture (usually built in excel) of the different data points we need to capture and use either as a SharePoint list, documents, or even Dataverse tables.

Others will include, as needed, a workflow process diagram detailing the new system, wireframes if an application like a Power App or SPFx Web Part are required, and finally a requirements sign off document detailing what the solution will be, within the constraints of the agreed-upon budget.

Business Process Automation Review 

With the documentation delivered, we meet with clients to review, discuss, and take feedback on the solution design. We walk the client through the different documentation pieces, explaining their purpose and details and making updates as required.

Once we agree, we ask that they sign off on the requirements document officially. This isn’t to lock anything in as we work in an agile process, but to be in agreement with the planned features and work against the proposed budget.

Changes are welcome and even expected past this checkpoint but will be required to go through a more formal process to ensure alignment on both sides. With this understanding in place, we begin to build out the solution.

Business Process Automation Solution Build

Our assigned developer(s) will next take the requirements, create a backlog, and get to work. Depending on the size of the project, sprint planning may be utilized to plan the work in iterations of 1-2 weeks in length. In either case, 2-3 check-ins per week are planned to ensure alignment is maintained, work is progressing, and the client is seeing the results of the effort as early as possible.

This allows us to ensure any required changes are captured as soon as possible so they can be implemented into the plan and prioritized by the client with the other work. This would usually result in a Change Request to add the ask to the scope and either add budget or remove other items as discussed with the Client Team. This phase will generally continue until near the end of the project, running alongside our next phase.

Test and Refine

Once our developers have an MVP, we want to get that into the hands of the client so they can see the progress as well as review, suggest changes, and most importantly, perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

UAT is the purview of the client as far as performing the testing, creating any test cases, and overall running the testing process. We help support the process by implementing an issue tracker for users to log issues.

Our contracts always include UAT support hours, which are utilized here to resolve issues. Once items are logged, the development team will review, prioritize with the client, and then work on resolving the issues or providing feedback.

Train and Deploy

Once development is complete and UAT is winding down, we move to create documentation for the solution. General deliverables include User and Administrator guides, which will detain the solution and how to use/maintain it, and train the trainer presentations with the client team, which are then recorded. If required, the solution is also deployed to its final environment for the last time and checked for issues one final time.

Business Process Automation Project Complete

With the project now complete, we will have a project close-out meeting, discussing the issues encountered with the project, if any, how they were addressed, and the client’s overall satisfaction with the project.

In many cases, a support contract is discussed and put in place to allow the client to reach out on a needs basis, as the M365 platform is a constantly changing shared environment that requires a high level of skill and understanding to maintain long term.

This support contract is also often utilized for additional features or work instead of a full project contract if the hours are available.

Conclusion

Hopefully this was a useful insight into our process of delivering this type of project. Obviously, there are many different variations of what has been laid out here, depending on client needs and budgets among other considerations. This blog exists to highlight the most important steps but does not cover everything.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more of our Services We Provide blog series to get an in-depth look at how we perform the work here at Improving Winnipeg.

If you have a different project in mind, get in touch by filling out the form below and make sure to subscribe to our blog.

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