Case Study #15: Process Swim Lanes (Program Review)

ISSUE:

Academic processes can be complex. With the input required from many different areas of the college in order to complete common tasks (such as course scheduling), it becomes difficult to manage such activities to ensure that all input is gathered within the appropriate timeframe to meet required deadlines (such as “going live” schedules). Of course, the process itself must be clearly documented before any attempt to streamline it can be attempted. In industry, this is called Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and the overall principles of this approach can be applied to higher education as well. Described below is one tool (process swim lanes) that was used to document the process of accomplishing Program Review, a comprehensive review of a program generally completed every five years. Ideally, the process could be visualized to show not only the timeframe involved, but the participation of each group in the process.

SOLUTION:

As with many academic and student affairs processes, the involvement of many different departments at key points in the process is critical to successful and timely completion of a task. Such is the case for common practices such as course scheduling, curriculum development, and program review. The spreadsheet below is not an automated tool, but again presents process information in a cohesive manner to clarify and visualize the process interactions between multiple groups. This chart, drawn here in PowerPoint for an annual Program Review activity, is called a “Swim Lane”, as it shows each group or individual involved in the process, what their contribution to the process is, and where in the timeline they need to be involved. The construction of a swim lane must be based on a well-thought-out and detailed process description. If a swim lane appears difficult to create, then there are likely flaws or ambiguous steps in the process itself that must be clarified; this is one way that complex processes can be vetted. The image below shows only the last four months of the process; as should be remembered, program review is truly a year-long activity and there are two additional swim lane charts that precede this chart to document the complete process.