This is an excellent article which really helps gel together all the other great postings and videos about Process Street. So far I only saw a small mention of policies (in one of your workflow videos). Many organisations will have fairly formal frameworks with a policy, process and procedure hierarchy and its great to learn more about how Process Street addresses this. We are only just starting off on the job of building Standard Operating Procedures for our Managed IT Services business and I’ve been looking for an application that will shape how we go about it. Process Street certainly seems to be a rare contender in directly solving this need, simply and effectively. Perhaps you could give us more on how to create a template that brings these 3 things together so that procedures are linked up to policies. Show Reply Adam Henshall says: June 26, 2017 at 12:23 pm Hi Alex! Thanks for the positive feedback. I’m glad to hear you found a lot to take away from the article! In a reply to Samantha below, I put in a link to an article of mine from a few weeks back on writing standard operating procedures. https://www.process.st/writing-standard-operating-procedures/ Maybe there can be something in here which could inspire what you’re looking for? What exactly do you feel are the current difficulties you’re finding in creating a system which brings all these elements together effectively? It would be great to see what problems you’re facing, as I’m sure you’re not the only one! It would give us a chance to look at the issue and see if we could work out the best way Process Street could be applied to it. Cheers! Reply Jonathan says: October 12, 2017 at 10:39 am Hi Adam, I just signed up for a paid plan and have been reading quite a few of the entries in the blog over the past week (very well done!). I’m surprised this one didn’t have more comments as it seems to really get at the crux of things. I believe I understand well the distinction between Policy/Process/Procedure, but I got a bit confused by the ISO-9000 Structure Template. It seems like this document is set up to be an entire process manual, with each process defined within the sub tasks? It seems to me this would become a massive single document. My impression of the app is that ideally you would create a new Process template for each unique process. For example a separate process for each: Reship customer order, Wrong item(s) shipped to customer, Handle outstanding invoices, Handle incoming shipment, etc. Is this more granular than it should be for it’s own process document? Regarding policies, in terms of actual storage and reference, where do you normally keep them? It seems to me that keeping policies in PS makes the most sense so that everything is in a central location that can be searched, but I’m not sure if the format makes sense. I realize some of this is subjective, but I’m curious how you guys are handling it. Best, Reply Adam Henshall says: October 18, 2017 at 9:39 am Hi Jonathan, I’m glad you’ve been enjoying the posts and I hope Process Street continues working out for your business! To tackle some of your points: – Yes, the ISO 9000 template is designed to conform to the specific needs of ISO-9001:2015 specifications for a QMS Mini-Manual. As such, the way in which you interact with this template is different to the granular approach Process Street primarily aims at. For some large companies, they need to adhere to ISO specifications, so I wanted to demonstrate how you could maintain adherence while also bringing in a practical use which can give further operational benefit. You can read more about the thoughts behind this here: https://www.process.st/writing-standard-operating-procedures/ – Carrying on that theme, most people find Process Street to perform best when working with the granular approach you describe. In house, we make use of the folders and sub-folders to categorize our individual processes. Each process then has a specific scope which pertains to that task and that task alone. However, it is possible to link those together or build a process with greater length. We like to keep the use case for each process clear so that it most effectively works as a process: start on task 1 and work through until completion; rather than opening a huge process and having to find a starting point within the process which suits your needs. – In terms of policies, it can depend on what those policies are. Basecamp use their employee handbook to outline and centralize their policies. We do similar, using a PS template or set of templates within a folder to define our approaches. But it’s my personal opinion that policies should not just exist on dusty documents (analogue or digital!) when they should be actionable. As such, we make sure we reference policies when necessary when we build new templates. Sometimes we even do this subconsciously, as you can imagine! You can read a bit more about Basecamp’s approach and what we liked about it here: https://www.process.st/company-policy/ What are the 4 types of organizational structures?What Are Some Types of Organizational Structures? The four types of organizational structures are functional, multi-divisional, flat, and matrix structures.
What are the 3 aspects of structure of organization?Structure is composed of three components: complexity, formalization and centralization. Discuss each of these components. Complexity is the degree to which activities within the organization are differentiated.
Why is formalization important in an organization?Formalization leads to system stability, simplifies coordination and control. Employees know exactly what to do and how to do it. From a management perspective, it is certainly easier to manage a highly formalized system than an organization without any official rules.
What is the process of specifying or procedures to duties to the employees in written and oral form called?Formalization. Formalization refers to the process of specifying or mentioning rules, procedures, and duties to the employees as an individual as well as to the teams, departments, units, and the whole organization by managers in written form too.
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