WHAT DOES SOFTWARE development and mansaf have in common?
There is no better place to demonstrate the meaning and importance of a process than the kitchen. Every cook uses processes to prepare food and it is easy to identify with the process elements and characteristics when relating them to the cooking process.
For our purposes, we will use the most famous and traditional Jordanian food, the "mansaf", to help us define what a process means and its important elements.
The generic definition of a process is: "A group of interrelated activities performed to achieve a specific predetermined output."
Processes vary in their approach and complexity depending on the output they produce. For example, if we want to make a mansaf we have to use a mansaf preparation process. For building a software programme, we use a software development process.
There might be more than one way to do a mansaf, or build a software programme, developed by different authorities on the subjects. So, Samia might use her mom's recipe which would be different than Ahmad's approach.
Same applies to software development processes; there are different approaches from different schools of thought on how to be successful in developing a software.
Each process requires inputs, produces outputs, and involves interrelated activities.
Outputs are the outcomes from the process. They need to meet preset quality criteria for them to be useful and acceptable to the customer and end user.
The output from the mansaf preparation process is the actual mansaf meal. The objective of the process is to produce a mansaf that satisfies the people who eat it.
Level of satisfaction will depend on preset quality criteria that everybody agrees upon regarding what a mansaf should look and taste like. If these criteria are not agreed upon, then different people will have different levels of satisfaction with the food.
This does not mean the cook was incompetent. Instead, it means the problem was in predefining the standards for what a good output (i.e. mansaf) should look like.
This same dilemma happens in business. Many businesses run processes without clear definition of what the output should look like and without agreement on the quality standards upon which the output will be judged, impacting customer satisfaction.
Every process requires inputs. Some of them might be mandatory, without which the process will fail to deliver the desired outcome. Others might be preferred inputs, which means that having them will help the process achieve better results, but it can still work without them.
Just like business processes, the mansaf cooking process needs inputs. To prepare this famous dish, there are required ingredients, like "Jameed" (a special kind of yoghurt), lamb meat, rice, spices, etc. There are also equipment prerequisites, like a stove, utensils, cookware, etc. Finally there are the people working on preparing the mansaf.
The material, equipment, and people, needed to perform the preparation process are called "inputs" which means they are items used in the actual process.
In business, as in cooking, careful attention should be given to the inputs of the process. They are the first line of defence against poor quality. Sometimes companies wrongfully expect processes to work regardless of the quality of inputs they "throw" at it.
For example, if an inexperienced project manager is assigned to a project that requires a skilled one as a mandatory input, then failure should not be a complete surprise to the performing organisation.
Finally, the process itself consists of interrelated activities. In the cooking exercise, they are the preparation steps for the mansaf. These steps are dependent upon one another so they are interrelated.
For example, you have to cook the meat well before you add the Jameed sauce to it. This is a interrelationship between the activity of cooking the Jameed and the activity of cooking the meat.
As in cooking, not following the process steps accurately leads to failed outcomes. This happens a lot in business. Either the person performing the process tasks is not capable of carrying out the tasks, does not understand them, or underestimates their importance and ignores or forgets some of them. This leads to an incorrect output.
This is why organisations must train their employees on the processes they perform, provide them with a documented and clear process, and stress the importance of them following the process.
Another important point related to process is the importance of using processes that are known to be most effective and efficient in producing quality outputs.
These are called "best-in-class" processes and are proven and tried over and over, and are more reliable in producing the correct outputs with minimal variation.
If new to mansaf, one would use a process that an expert provided, not an ad-hoc process or one that is not trustworthy. Same in business, the processes used should be proven to yield the desired outcomes, and of must be documented to ensure consistency in application.
There is a lot more in this analogy that can be drawn, but I do not dare push my luck any further.
By Ammar W. Mango
© Jordan Times 2006
