When it comes to managing what work gets done, we’re often faced with a choice: is this a project, a process, …or both? Project vs process, the age-old debate.

Different tasks need different approaches.

You need multiple techniques in your skillset and understanding the difference between projects and processes, and how this impacts on work, makes for a very useful tool.

In this Process Street article, we’ll look at:

• Project vs Process: What’s the difference?
• What is a process?
• What is a project?
• The principles of process management
• How projects can become processes
• Get started with process management today

Processes are a lot more interesting than you’d first think. That isn’t some kind of joke — they’re interesting, I swear. But what is a process?

Although they’re defined as “a collection of interrelated work tasks initiated in response to an event that achieves a specific result”, there’s a bit of a backstory that helps us cut through the corporate tranquilizers and understand what a process is, and why processes matter.

First, a few examples of processes:

• Cleaning the store
• Finding an email address
• Deploying software
• Customer profiling
• Onboarding a new employee
• Planning a wedding

But why are those processes? Why aren’t they just jobs to be done? The point is that when you formalize a process, you think about the workflow with productivity in mind and it makes it easier to execute and optimize.

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Why do you need a MEDDIC process in place?

From sales prospecting to cold calling and emailing, and qualifying leads to closing the sale, it’s a well-known fact that sales reps have their work cut out.

But did you know that, according to research by The Bridge Group, 1/3rd of salespeople fail to meet their sales quotas? Not just from time-to-time either, but on a permanent basis.

As somebody who’s at the helm of your sales team, it’s your duty to supply your colleagues with the right systems, processes, and tools. You must make sure your team succeeds.

For sales success – specifically, qualifying leads for the sales pipeline properly, getting higher close rates, meeting quotas, and dramatically boosting your bottom-line – use the MEDDIC methodology and process.

Never heard of MEDDIC before?

No sweat.

Read through the following sections in this Process Street post to get clued up:

• What is MEDDIC?
• Why is the MEDDIC sales methodology so useful?
• How to do the MEDDIC sales process properly
• Bolster your sales team’s efforts with Process Street!

Or, if you wanted to make use of our MEDDIC Sales Process Template straight away, grab it here:

Click here to get the MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

Let’s dive on in.

When you’re building a business, a team, or any kind of system, you need ways to understand how well you’re doing. That means finding the maturity model that matches the state of your business.

You want to be able to look at your performance and set base standards that have to be met and be able to contrast those standards with an understanding of what best practice looks like.

You want to understand where on that scale of performance you are at.

It’s why we use things like KPIs, OKRs, or other goal/objective-driven metrics.

But those metrics, as useful as they are for some things, are often hard to apply to qualitative data.

This is where maturity models can become an incredibly useful tool.

One model we’ll discuss here is the Capability Maturity Model, and the CMMI Institute alone appears to have about +8500 accredited users of this model (interestingly, in 2018 ~80% were pairing it with agile methodologies).

The problem, though, is that maturity models are often shrouded in complex terminology and overly-convoluted systems. How am I supposed to implement one in my business if people can’t understand it?

In this Process Street article, we’ll tear through the jargon and look at:

• What is a maturity model?
• What are the current limitations of business process maturity models?
• Which are the best business process maturity models?
• What is a Capability Maturity Model (CMM)?
• What is the Agile ISO Maturity Model (AIMM)?
• How does Process Street fit into your maturity model?

Guest post by Revv’s Seema, originally a Product Expert at Revv, whose document automation and eSignature technology was later acquired by LegalZoom. She believes in the power of words and storytelling, and she writes here from her own experience explaining the difference between closely related business terms.

A business plan is the company-wide roadmap for how a business will operate, grow, and fund its goals. A business proposal is a tailored offer designed to win a specific client, project, or opportunity. You may use both, but they serve different readers and decisions.

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Companies need to undergo change all the time. But when do slight improvements need to be made and when is radical change a necessity? That’s where process reengineering and continuous improvement come into play. 

Each is vital to the success of a company but can’t be used to handle the same set of changes. Optimizing your business operations means knowing when to make continuous improvements and when to use process reengineering efforts. 

So, when’s the right time to use what?  

• Diving into process reengineering
• A look at continuous improvement
• What is the difference between process reengineering and continuous improvement?
• Process reengineering vs continuous improvement: Which should you pick? 
• Optimizing your processes looks different for everyone 

86% of executives and employees believe a lack of collaboration is the main reason behind company failure. From this, it’s easy to see how an entire company feels more connected when everyone is working with the same vision and information. 

That’s what makes process transparency so crucial to organizational success. Studies show that organizations with more transparent processes help enhance collaboration, increase engagement, and improve productivity. 

Along with this, employees also believe workplace transparency to be a large contributing factor to job satisfaction. 

So, if your company lacks process visibility, you’re not providing transparency in the workplace and run the risk of losing valuable employees. 

• Why is process transparency important? 
• What are the common signs your processes lack transparency? 
• What happens when process visibility is poor? 
• What do you get from good business process transparency? 
• Investing in the right tools makes everything more transparent 

Business process management software (BPM) can increase company success by 70%. That’s if you’re using a tool that aligns with your business needs. 

With so many options on the market, it can be daunting to pick the right one. Doing a quick Google search will leave you paralyzed because of the endless options available. 

That’s why you’re here. We’re keeping to our promise of ‘the best,’ which is why we’ve rounded up some of the greatest workflow software solutions available to make your choice easier. 

In this Process Street article, we’re talking about all things workflow software solution-related to help you find the perfect match for your company: 

• Do you need a workflow software solution? 
• How good HR workflow software can help you
• The best HR workflow software solution
• You’re only as good as the tools you use 

Let’s dive right in! 

No process is perfect; there’s always room to improve. Unfortunately, many teams have no way to identify, test, and deploy the changes they make, meaning each tweak is a roll of the dice.

The savings can be massive, but you need a continuous improvement program to make sure that the changes you make won’t make your operations a whole lot harder.

“1 in 10 improvements save money… [each saving, on average,] $31,043 in its first year of implementation.
1 in 4 improvements save time… [each saving, on average,] 270 hours in its first year of implementation.”
– KaiNexus, The ROI of Continuous Improvement

Most successful changes will also make your employees’ jobs easier (and more enjoyable) to perform. You’ll be saving time and money, but you’ll also be getting far better value out of your current efforts and operations.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the top.

• What is continuous improvement?
• Incremental vs. breakthrough improvements
• The benefits of continuous improvement
• How to deploy continuous improvement
• Improvement resources to dive deeper

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Having an operations manual may not be glamorous, but preventing the disasters caused by human error and bad processes can save your business and even (in extreme circumstances) millions of lives.

If you’ve ever seen Dr. Strangelove, you’ll know it’s ridiculous. You’ve got a mad scientist, a cowboy pilot riding a bomb as it falls, and a nuclear holocaust brought about by a series of overblown human (and mechanical) errors.

Yet, despite being criticized as unrealistic, at the time it was entirely possible for human error to cause a Third World War. Hell, human error has already caused the worst nuclear accident to date.

“A perfect storm of 6 human errors — culminating with staff thinking it was ok to turn off the emergency cooling system — caused the Chernobyl disaster, costing an inflation-adjusted $720 billion, 30 deaths and an extreme amount of unsafe radiation.” – Ben Brandall, How Processes Protect Your Business From Crashing and Burning

The truth is, the only way to prevent such errors is to document workflows and processes, and the only way to make sure your employees know what they have to do, how to do it, and have the resources to do it is to create your own operations manual.

In this Process Street article, we’ll be covering:

• What is an operations manual?
• Why is having an operations manual important?
• What to include in your operations manual
• How to create an operations manual

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