Improved My Business Process, But Is It Working?

Mar 18

I wanted to share my thoughts on Business Processes and whether they work when implemented without considering the UX (aka User Experience). I will also provide a pro tip on how to ensure that all Business Processes for your Prophet 21 work.

The experience I discuss below shows how an organization implemented a Security Business Process change, how it may actually be hurting them, and how to fix it.

I recently went on a ride-along with the local PD. I was impressed to learn that the force is now issuing iPhones (this was not the case in previous years). However, during the time spent, I noticed the officer would not copy digits on his laptop from one app to another. I thought it was odd. I was helping him with other IT-related tasks, so I offered help.

"If you copy the digits from one app, you can paste it into the other."

He stared at me with the most "I'm not stupid" look and immediately said:

"I know how to copy-paste."

LOL

The local IT team should ask themselves, "Is it working?" But wait, IT is only IT. Who should define Business Processes? Leadership?

The officer talked about cybersecurity, how officers are now required to have a complex password for all their apps and how their passwords are changing so frequently that they (the police) cannot keep up with the changes.

Unfortunately, this is the norm nowadays from a security standpoint.

The officer does the best workaround to get the job done because, at the end of the day, he has a job to do. He copies his password to his clipboard and never uses "copy" again for the rest of the day.

The business process implemented by the organization was to improve security. This helps secure the company and the individual (the police department). However, when we have to copy the password from one app to another and purposely leave it on the clipboard, that is not safe.

According to the officer, the change resulted from a hack that originated in the IT department. It sounds like another department made the business process change without proper UX analysis.

Let's recall what Steve Jobs said in lectures, books, and speeches:

"Focus on user experience first."

When we focus on UX first, we can produce a more secure and efficient way to implement business application changes.

As we sit in with the end user and understand what, when, where, how, and why, then and only then can we truly make sure the improved business process is working.

If we focus on the UX in the example above, we would have noticed the difficulty the IT team has imposed on employees (officers).

In the five minutes of our quick conversation, the officer and I immediately recognized ways to fix this for the user experience.

How about:

Fingerprint on Windows
Windows Hello
SSO (Single Sign-On) between apps
And other ways to secure, depending on budget.

Ultimately, my concern is that the organization is unaware of the delays and possible further security risks being caused by users, which could put you at further risk or create delays for customers.

My call to action is: Let's focus on the UX and work backward from there. Steve Jobs was definitely on to something. Look at iPhones today: they are number 1 in the smartphone photography market. They also pay hackers to find exploits in their software so they can fix them…

Focusing on UX will allow our users the best experience without needing workarounds.