How do you measure success with a product like Integrify?

How do you continuously improve on your process?

How do you make your superiors happy (look good ;-) and show your return on investment?

If you thought “reporting”, you are correct.

What is often not accounted or budgeted (time or money) for on most implementation plans? 

If you thought “reporting” again, you are correct again!

In this and in other positions I have held, reporting and measurement of success always seems to be the after thought of most project/software implementations but in reality the definition of success and how to measure that success should be one of the first line items defined in the project plan.  

Before you start building your process and implementing it in Integrify, reporting goals should be well defined.  Certain questions need to be asked:

1. Do you need to measure the overall length time a process takes to complete? (Process Duration & frequency)
2. Do you need to measure the overall time specific tasks take to complete within the process? (Process Duration & frequency)
3. Do you need to know who has been assigned to tasks and how often? (Task Assignment, Task Frequency, Task Duration)
4. Do you need to extract user input data?  If so, does is it need to be in a specific format, arrange in a specific fashion? (task detail, task input)
5. Do you need to extract data at specific points/statuses in the process and not others? (task detail, task input)

Each of the above can, and probably will, represent a distinct report type within Integrify so this must be accounted for while budgeting time and money for your implementation.

The following diagram helps illustrates the different levels of reporting that can be achieved in Integrify:

To aid in reporting, Integrify categorizes reports into three basic areas:

1. Administrative:  basic system reports about users in the systems, users in groups or roles, etc.
   
   
2. Process Analysis:  high-level summarization reports about the number of requests executed over time, duration of requests for a given process, duration of tasks for a given process.  (Process Duration & frequency, task duration)
   
   
3. Request Detail:  who is assigned to a task, how often certain tasks occur, how often is someone assigned to a task, retrieve information from tasks, etc.  (task detail, task input, task status)

When one builds a new report in Integrify all that one needs to do is select the Report Type (Administrative, Process Analysis, Request Detail) and then the appropriate Report Sub-Type (Task Status, Process Duration, Task Duration, Task Detail, etc).  Based on those two selections, the report layout, types of columns, filters, summary totals, and graphing will be predefined for you.  You will just need to optionally add some report filters or possibly some additionally grouping to finish off your report.

Unfortunately, reporting, like building a process for a first time, can be daunting at first.   Like building a process for the first time, the tendency is often to do too much with a single report.  The reality of reporting is that the best report is one that is concise and targeted to a specific goal.

For instance, in our Integrify Services engagements we often hear requests like “I need a report that displays the total number of requests over a given timeframe, all of the tasks assigned to Bob over that timeframe, and the data from Form C only if a certain status has been reached in the process.”   The reality of it is that this is most likely three reports.  Let’s break that request down into a few parts:

1. “…display the total number of requests over a given time frame…”:  This can be accomplished it a Process Request Count report under the Process Analysis Report Type.  This report type is specifically structured to retrieve basic request information over a given time period.
   
   
2. “….all of the tasks assigned to Bob over that timeframe…”:  When analyzing who is assigned to what task, this is best served with a Task Status report under the Report Type of Request Detail.  The Task Status report is structured to group the report by who is assigned tasks within a given process.
   
   
3. “…the data from Form C only if a certain status has been reached in the process…”:    Any time a user requests form data or other task information, that will be a Task Detail report under the Report Type of Request Detail.

Once the reporting request is evaluated and broken down into distinct parts it is often easier to implement the request for your end users.  In most cases too it is often easier for your users to digest smaller quantities of targeted information than trying to create a single report with all of the information.

Like building a process, building a report will be an iterative effort too.  Be patient, be focused, and plan those reports with your users for the best success.

Good luck and happy reporting!