Every Process & System Deserves an Owner

An area where organizations experience pain when starting and continuing their digital transformation programs is not establishing clear ownership of business processes and systems.

It sounds obvious, yet so many organizations cannot definitively point to an owner, instead responding with the name of an executive, department or team, multiple people, or even a vendor.

The problem with this approach is that it directly inhibits progress and creates confusion, especially when attempting to move fast or handling exceptions that occur.

An owner, meaning one person, should exists for each process and system in your organization, and you should rely on them to:

• Be responsible for overseeing how their processes or systems operate
• Identify and deliver improvements and updates
• Transparently collaborate with other owners

It's important to distinguish that an owner does not need to be a leader, manager, or executive.

They should, however:

•  Have domain expertise
• Be a reliable communicator
• Be empowered with decision making authority

The last point is often sticky, but is critical.

If you're concerned about downside risks associated with decisions, establish clear boundaries or define a framework for what falls within the owner's authority versus requires escalation.

In terms of finding owners for orphaned processes and systems, there might already be a de facto owner within your stakeholders, and whether they're the right person to be the owner is up to you to decide.

TLDR: Every process and system needs an owner. Take the next 2 to 5 minutes to map out any process or system that you touch and see if you can assign one person's name to each.