Documenting Processes…and Interfaces

Posted on: January 29, 2010 | By: SuperUser Account | QAD Business Process

The documentation, and any subsequent revisions of major business processes, is always deemed a sound and proactive business practice. Illustrating or “drawing a picture” often simplifies complex business processes allowing management a more detailed operational view into the organization’s inner workings and providing the ‘rank & file’ a look where they fit into to overall picture or business process. Often overlooked, yet essential to more effectively managing an organization, is documenting the business process of system interfaces – between QAD and other business systems. It is very important that these activities are visible, understood and documented.

The documentation can be managed, depending upon your organization’s QAD investment and infrastructure, outside of QAD by way of an easily accessible company intranet site or a network folder or directly in QAD Enterprise via Process Maps. When managing the process and operational flows outside of QAD, the documentation will typically be stored as a Visio business flow in combination with the “step-by-step” procedural documentation. If your company has later versions of QAD Enterprise (e.g., 2008, 2009.1) graphical process flows using the Process Viewer and Process Editor will allow you to map workflows and then link to programs, browses and other process maps.

Documenting the tying together of business processes and data from different systems, and the structured set of activities required to “make this happen,” is important to the operational success of any organization. No matter which process flow documentation option – internal or external to QAD – is embarked upon, it should not be overlooked or glossed over. Not only are the processes visible to management and the user community, it allows a constant view into the process smoothing the way for continuous improvement.

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