The Implications of Case
Description:
The CASE management approach to processes is very different from the traditional view of process improvement and documentation. In CASE management the input is known and the desired outcome is known but the path to get between the two is not known until the process is executed. This is because there are a variety of sub processes that may be invoked in an order that is not known. Most of the sub processes are defined but a few may be developed on the way.
The classic example is the health care situation where a patient enters the emergency room and the condition is known and the desired outcome is to fix the patient. The path between will depend on the results of action during the evaluation of the situation. So a CASE is a process ‘built on the fly’ that is as you go though the analysis of the patient. Some paths will be incorrect and some will be correct. Another good example is customer service in certain industries where the path is again variable. Such is the case for a travel agent who presents options to someone and waits for an evaluative response to choose the next set of steps.
CASE management requires some different techniques, domain knowledge management concepts and tools to successfully analyze and improve the CASE process. A good example of the types of tools used are process mining tools that determine the typical or most common sequence of paths through a case.
