It is a no-brainer that outcomes are critical for any business process and so is how efficiently the process executes to achieve the outcomes. Through the last couple of decades, and more, organizations have focused on automating straight-through processes to ensure faster cycle times and higher cost efficiency. However, over time, the process metrics have become the obsession with process owners, the impetus being on identifying and removing all operational bottlenecks. And, it is sometimes difficult to figure out if this obsession is in fact leading to counter-productive measures vis-a-vis broader business goals and eventual outcomes. The realization is slow to sink in.
Also, today, global leaders do realize that many of the critical business processes are complex and unpredictable. The process flows for many such processes are not 100% definable and hence cannot be optimized from the perspective of cycle time or operational efficiency. The success of these processes hinges more on the quality of outcome than the time taken to complete the task.
For example, in case of a fraud investigation by the finance department of an organization, the key is to get to the root cause of the discrepancy and much less to stick to a path taken to reach there. Often, the investigation invokes several work steps that are unpredictable and hence unplanned. However, if it is able to trace the source of fraud or culprit, it
