Handoff modeling as a catalyst for process continuity improvement and productivity enhancement

Abstract

Every day, humans interact with other humans and with systems, while systems could also interact with other systems. Information, material, knowledge, and authority are some of the artifacts that are exchanged during such interactions. These exchange points, also referred to as the handoff points, are particularly vulnerable to information loss or distortion. Ineffective or inefficient information management during handoffs, especially in critical human-centric processes, can have serious consequences. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the significant artifacts which should be handed off to avoid sub-optimal outcomes. Current modeling techniques fail to delineate the handoff points and have limited capability to capture the critical artifacts required to ensure process continuity. The central theme of this paper is to introduce a technique, the handoff chain, which can overcome these modeling deficiencies. This handoff chain represents multiple business perspectives (informational, functional, organizational, and behavioral perspectives), and can also be used to analyze the impact of flawed or poor quality handoff points. An improvement methodology is also introduced in this paper, which optimizes the handoff chain by reducing the number of states (processes) and the number of handoff points. The application of this improvement methodology, the reduction algorithm, is not limited to the handoff chain and can be used to improve any process. The development of this handoff chain and the usability of the reduction algorithm as a process improvement tool are explained in this paper along with an example. Copyright© (2009) by the American Society for Engineering Management.