Chapter 1.5: The Process Cookbook Model

A cookbook contains many recipes for preparing many types of cuisine.  Each recipe is a procedure for completing the preparation of a single dish.  A recipe in a cookbook describes the ingredients to be consumed, the flow of their preparation, instructions for each step, and a picture or description of the value to be created.

The cookbook applies to information processes as well.  A process cookbook provides the detailed procedural instructions to complete a flow of activities of a single process.  A procedure in a process cookbook also defines the resources to be consumed, the flow of activities, instructions for their execution, and a picture or description of the value to be created.

Some chefs prefer not to use a cookbook.  This can be a good thing.  Just as a music jamming session can be a good alternative to playing sheet music.  An organization is left to decide which processes that creativity should be encouraged and where additional process structure is appropriate.

However, the process cookbook model breaks down when it comes to the preparation of a meal with several dishes.  Each recipe in a cookbook makes the assumption that the chef has nothing else to do other than prepare that one recipe.  If something needs to simmer for exactly 5 minutes, the recipe assumes that the chef will be available to end that activity at exactly the right time.

Nothing in a cookbook guides a chef on how to prepare several dishes at the same time.  As shown in Figure 1.8, a cookbook does not a meal make.  Why?  Because a cookbook cannot predict which recipes the chef wants for tonight’s meal.  The specific instructions covering the prioritization and scheduling of each recipe’s activities would change based on which other recipes are selected.  Therefore each recipe has no choice but to assume it has the chef’s full attention, and if that is not the case, leave it up to the chef to figure out how to successfully complete the entire meal.

Figure 1.8:  A cookbook does not a meal make

A cookbook helps to train on a standard approach to fix one recipe.  It does nothing to help optimize the flow of activities necessary to prepare a multi-course meal.

This burden is complex enough when there is just one chef cooking a multi-dish meal.  Imagine of a gourmet restaurant staffed by 10 chefs.  Each chef could be assigned to prepare a portion of one dish, with multiple dishes required to create a seven course meal. 

At any point in time, the chefs could be preparing one of the seven courses for each of the 40 patrons in the restaurant; each at a different course in their meal.  All of this with patrons coming and going throughout the night - and of course none of them wants their food late or ill-prepared. 

If you were one of the chefs in this restaurant, how could you decide, at any moment, what was the next most important thing to do?  Where is the cookbook that covers the gourmet restaurant scenario?

This burden is complex enough when there is just one chef cooking a single meal.  Imagine of a gourmet restaurant staffed by 10 chefs.  Each chef is assigned to help prepare a portion of one dish for single 7 course meal.  At any one time the chefs could be preparing one of the dishes for any of the 40 patrons in the restaurant.  The patrons could have chosen their seven courses from 50 different recipes; with each patron at a different course in their meal; and none wanting their food late or ill-prepared. 

If you were one of the chefs in this restaurant, how would you decide, at any moment, what was the next most important thing to do?  Is it possible to develop a cookbook that covers the scenario of the gourmet restaurant?

Cookbooks do provide value.  Having a cookbook for standard recipes helps to remove variation from how different chefs prepare a recipe.  It makes it easier to train new chefs.  It can even help to document where artistic variation is allowed and where a recipe should be followed every time.

However a cookbook is not enough to define all of the processes needed by a gourmet restaurant.  No matter the excellence of each individual recipe, without coordinating the preparation of multiple recipes by multiple chefs for multiple patrons, the restaurant could still fail to deliver the desired value to its customers. 

What is required is a system-wide view for managing: 

·         Process Execution – How the consumed resources and created value of each activity is tuned to maximize overall value created based on the current mix of in-work and planned activities 

·         Process Flow – How the scheduling and prioritization of in-work and planned activities are tuned to maximize overall value created based on the available resources

Each entry in a process cookbook describes the flow and execution of activities of a single process.  There are processes that benefit from this level of documentation.   What a process cookbook is unable to do is optimize the activities of multiple processes so that when executed together they maximize the value created from available resources.