The Hindu Business Line : A guide to redesign govt departments

THE Centre for Good Governance (CGG) has prepared a guide for `Process Redesign' for any Government department to change the way it functions in order to get better results with minimal cost.

The blueprint for redesign includes a 10-step strategy.

The methodology for strategy development includes a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. For this, the 90-page CGG guide recommends a Departmental Diagnosis.

"Demands on Government departments have been growing, while there is hardly any change in the way the departments work," a CGG official told Business Line.

"Many departments are finding it difficult to meet the growing and changing demands," he said. The main reason for this is, many departments are stuck with structures and processes that are rooted in the past. "Those structures were built to meet the demands of yesteryears and they cannot match the growing demands and expectations of the stakeholders," he said.

The only solution is to redesign the structures and processes that come in the way. "The departments need to redesign their processes, employing latest technologies," he said. For one, the official cited the example of e-seva, introduced by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

He explained how a service offering could be enhanced using the fruits of information technology. "This is made possible thanks to the creative redesigning of processes," he said.

The 10-step redesign blueprint begins with what the department really wants to do. Preparing a vision, defining the department objective, and identifying key processes and sub-processes.

It comprises interesting proposals, hitherto not heard (for a Government department), like MoP (Measure of Performance), AS-IS Map (the way things are being done) and TO-BE Map (how things are to be done).

MoP calls for measure of processes, taking into factors like cost, quality, cycle time and satisfaction.

The CGG suggests a list of persons who can draft the redesign plan for that particular department.

Senior officials of the department (and from the Government), people with good knowledge of the departments and those who could anticipate the issues involved from the perspective of the end users.

The number, however, should not be higher than 25.

The methodology would enable the department to take a close and clinical look at the various activities it performs.

"Since the processes are identified based on the strategy and the corresponding MoPs are then development, there is a tangible way in which the strategy can be monitored," the guide observes.

While streamlining the activities, the method would also help the departments in redrawing and redefining the roles and responsibilities of the people involved.

This, in turn, would improve efficiency and reduce cycle times.

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A guide to redesign govt departments