This brings me to addressing how to develop a process, in this case in the context of project management. The single most important rule in developing a process is to focus on "value". Value is the centre of the process .... quite literally.

Step one in any process definition is to identify what the end result has to be. You then determine all the relevant steps or tasks to get from where you are now, or the beginning, to the end .... focussing ONLY on those steps that add value .... that get you closer to your goal.

You now have the complete process to get from start to finish .... no checks and balances ....just the steps that add value.

The next part is to look at all those points where support processes might need to intersect with the value adding process. The Support Process responds to the Value Adding Process to ensure the Value Adding Process continues, as far as possible, uninterrupted. There may be a number of processes that you design and develop such as information or knowledge insertions, that are done next.

The very very last process that is developed is the Governance Process. This process shouldn't impose outputs or extra work on the other processes .... where and when at all possible. The Governance Process should reach down and pull data and information from the Value Adding Process and others as necessary. The key is to understand that the Value Adding Process doesn't push a "story" up to the Governance Process. This leads to those "vague claims" I spoke of earlier (see Evidence and Project Management (01) and Evidence and Project Management (02)).  The Governance Process is reaching in and pulling up "evidence" at the relevant points in the process and giving the Value Adding Process the nod to redo, change direction, stop or continue.

The point I am trying to make is that the issue of forcing the governance tasks and outputs onto a system rather than observing what it takes to add value and then extracting evidence from that process to monitor progress is one of the keys to efficiency.

When you build a process, build around the value required to get to the end ....then add the support processes and then lastly overlay the governance process over that without adding new outputs. This simply monitors existing facts and evidence and draws conclusions and make decisions from that.

Let the engineers engineer, the programmers program, the scientists research, the builder build!! Let the project manager manage .......NOT report!!

Just quietly.....I think this is one of the big problems with the PRINCE2 and PMBOK processes ... they don't really know where value fits.