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One of the things I noticed going through the training is the stark  
nature of the graphical elements used to represent the business  
process.  (There is a standard for creating BPM diagrams called, not  
surprisingly, BPM Notation.)  If there is anything that can get to the  
heart of messed up practices, it is having it shown to you in black- 
and-white.  Then you can start deleting and rearranging the tasks so  
they make sense.

It is also a good way to document what /is/ good practice and show  
that to other libraries in a consistent and meaningful way.  I guess  
I'm taking an optimistic view of the process -- what will come out is  
better than the sum of the parts that will make it up.


Peter

On Nov 13, 2008, at 8:14 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:

> I have to admit that I worry that too many of our libraries business  
> processes as currently practiced are completely irrational and  
> nonsensical, and that to model new requirements or systems off of  
> them all aggregated and averaged out... may not be optimal.
>
> Certainly, you have to collect evidence about business process needs  
> somehow.
>
> But how many of us have experienced library workflow that actually  
> makes sense, instead of being habits built over years of having to  
> do weird workarounds to work with systems that unreasonably  
> constrained us, built on top of each other layer upon layer,  
> combined in organizations siloed off so the right hand doesn't know  
> what the left is doing, sprinkle on top the natural inclination of  
> most people to be creatures of habit who don't like changing their  
> workflow unless forced---with the result that I'm not even sure we  
> know what makes sense anymore.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>>>> Tim McGeary <[log in to unmask]> 11/13/08 3:43 PM >>>
> John Fereira wrote:
>> Tim McGeary wrote:
>>> The Open Library Environment (OLE, pronounced oh-lay) Project  
>>> invites
>>> you to apply to participate in a two day Regional Design Workshop.  
>>> The
>>> purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum for representatives  
>>> of
>>> local research libraries and related institutions to discuss our  
>>> work
>>> surrounding the current Integrated Library System and ideas on what
>>> this type of core system should incorporate.  Workshops are being  
>>> held
>>> in a variety of locations in the US over the next 2 months. For more
>>> information and to find a location near you, go to:
>>> http://oleproject.org/workshops.
>>
>> That's quite a collection of workshops schedule.  I've been  
>> interested
>> in the project since John Little first mentioned it here.  On  
>> behalf of
>> the Spring 2008 JA-SIG conference committee I invited him (and he
>> accepted) to do a birds of a feather session at the conference.   
>> There
>> are some things that I am working on that I think may fit well with  
>> the
>> project (I was also a developer for a piece of Kuali Rice, so I know
>> some of the Indiana folks) but I can't really tell from the number of
>> workshops how the will inter-relate.  Since there were a few dates  
>> where
>> there are simultaneous workshops in different cities it would seem  
>> to me
>> that some sort of video conference and a real time collaborative  
>> system
>> (we used Macromedia Breeze for the Kuali project with developers at
>> Cornell and Indiana) would be useful.
>>
>> With the current economy I know that travel budgets are undergoing  
>> a lot
>> of scrutiny (I've even heard of a very large university system out  
>> west
>> that may be halting all business travel for awhile) attending even  
>> one
>> of the workshops may be problematic.
>
> John,
>
> I hear you about the travel elements of this.  That is why this  
> process
> will not just be closed off to these workshops.  We are hoping to have
> enough workshops to gather a wide range of business processes that we
> can sift through to find commonalities to model the core business
> practices.  On top of that, we will model the differences so that
> flexibility can be built into the OLE architecture.
>
> There will be plenty of time and opportunities for public comment on  
> the
> data gathered at the workshops and the models as they are completed
> before the architecture stage is complete.  So if you, or anyone,  
> cannot
> attend a workshop, there will still be opportunity for comment, and we
> want and need it!
>
> Thank you for your interest - and please encourage others who show
> interest to participate in any way that they can.
>
> Cheers,
> Tim
>
- - --
Peter Murray                            http://www.pandc.org/peter/work/
Assistant Director, New Service Development  tel:+1-614-728-3600;ext=338
OhioLINK: the Ohio Library and Information Network        Columbus, Ohio
The Disruptive Library Technology Jester                http://dltj.org/
Attrib-Noncomm-Share   http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

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