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There are fundamental differences between transactional business processes, such as order processing, and engineering processes, such as product or software development, which are widely characterized as knowledge-centric work.
The idea-to-offering value stream of a product or service is characterized by many iterations, feedback loops, cross-discipline synchronizations and even increased tool automation, but the process is still driven by humans. Furthermore, development of software-intensive products continues beyond Start of Production (SOP) and extends into actual end-of-life (EOL) many years later.
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A Model-based approach for engineering processes
While some organizations describe their engineering processes in documents, other leading engineering companies have transitioned to a model-based process landscape optimized for knowledge-centric work.
This approach has been realized using Stages in automotive, aerospace, medical device, transportation and other engineering-driven industries.
Explore the unique Stages features optimized for engineering processes along the whole process lifecycle.
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Govern
Effective governance is essential for successful process rollouts:
- Identify stakeholders and key business objectives.
- Elicit value streams.
- Define process architecture and process owners.
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Model
Create process models instead of static pictures:
- Model human-friendly processes structured by a WHO-WHAT-WHEN-HOW-WHY process-metamodel.
- Safely build large process landscapes, variants and tailored instances through modular process architecture with clearly defined interfaces.
- Improve process consistency by automatically validating modeling guidelines.
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Approve
Ensure stakeholders align on process changes:
- Define customized review and approval workflows.
- Capture stakeholder feedback through decision methods such as ballots or full consensus.
- Minimize effort by automating process updates, version and status management.
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Adopt & Apply
Adopt new practices, methods and tools quickly:
- User-centric display of process flows, SIPOC tables, RASIC and other human-friendly visualizations
- Full transparency from top-level value streams to detailed process activities.
- Annotated changes in case of process updates.
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Tailor
Only do what matters with rules-based process tailoring:
- Calculate the optimal process for each program, project or team.
- Adjust processes without changing the past.
- Signal potential compliance violations.
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Automate
Maximize process efficiency through integrations with Atlassian Jira, IBM Engineering Lifecyle Management, PTC Codebeamer and Integrity, MS SharePoint, MS Project, and other engineering tools.
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Measure
Understand how processes are used in practice:
- Gain insights from live usage statistics.
- Derive KPIs via customizable reports.
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Compliance
Reduce risk of non-compliance by mapping regulatory and industry standard requirements onto your processes:
- Detect compliance gaps by maintaining traceability to standards.
- Receive compliance warnings when tailoring processes.
- Generate compliance evidence including project work products.
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Feedback
Evolve into a learning organization by listening to you users:
- Capture user feedback directly in process descriptions.
- Create feedback tickets in Jira, ServiceNow, Codebeamer, PTC Integrity, IBM ELM or Redmine.
- Plan change requests for future process versions.
White Paper: Safer Deployment of Automotive Innovations
Ready to put Stages to work for you?
Join a demo today to learn how you can leverage Stages to support your whole process journey from initial modeling to integrated process execution at a large scale.
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