Articles

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are the low-cost tools for process improvement and standardisation in organisations. The following paragraphs will describe the 5D Methodology of developing SOPs. 1. Define   : In the first stage of this methodology, enterprise analysis will be carried out to establish the purpose of the SOPs and the goals and objectives that should be met by those SOPs. 2. Discover: Identify the primary, secondary and management processes and prepare the current state process maps and RACI charts. During this stage, the business analysts extensively interact with the stakeholders to capture the micro details of the processes. 3....

In 2018, Fhyzics conducted the National Conference on Business Analysis (NCBA-2018) jointly with Jeppiaar Engineering College at Chennai. As part of the event, we had discussions with business analysts from different sectors on how to define business analyst role. I found one unique commonality and one stark difference. All business analysts have elaborate discussions with the stakeholders, gather requirements, document requirements, analyze the requirements and then recommend solution to their clients or organizations, which is the most common thing all business analysts would do. This I would call it as the fundamental feature of business analysis role. On the other hand, these...

On Sunday 06-Oct-2019 morning, I woke up like any other holiday without much agenda on my calendar. While having coffee, just noticed my book shelf in the living room and it was in a chaotic state. These are all my most frequently referred books. The book shelf came to this condition, where it was next to impossible to retrieve any books. So, I got a thing to do on this Sunday. I was carefully taking out the books one-by-one, because these are all my priced possessions. Normally I don’t give my books to anyone, as it is hard to keep...

Over past decade or so, I have been conducting Executive Development Programs for corporate, titled as Inventory Management or Principles of Inventory Management, depends on how the organisation would like it to be titled. I would simply call it as All About Inventory Management. There are two fundamental ways to learn any body of knowledge. One, is Learning the Material itself and the other is Asking the Right Questions. The former is the most widely used method during our school and college days. We go through the classroom teachings and refer the recommended books. Do you think this is the...

APICS, USA [Part of ASCM Network] launched the Certified Supply Chain Professional credential, popularly known as CSCP in the year 2006 and today it is the world’s leading end-to-end supply chain management program sought-after both by SCM Professionals and by Organisations that view their supply chain as a competitive advantage. This article is the summary of the questions and answers traded between me and my SCM students over the past seven years either in the Certification Training or in the Executive Development Programs that we conduct for corporate. The following paragraphs will address the three important questions.       ...