12.4 Case Example — Generating Innovative Ideas for the Hiring Process
12.4.2 Generating Alternative Surface Structures
The 'Generate alternatives'step involves generating the set of surface structures that
represent potentially viable candidates for achieving a particular deep structure. This is done by identifying the dimensions along which the surface structures can be varied, identifying all the values for each dimension, and then considering some or possibly even all combinations of these values. We thereby define a multidimensional design space in which every point represents a potential surface structure.
Table 12.2: Siblings of the subactivities in the firm A's hire process Company Interesting practice
Marriot Voice response system for candidates which screens and pre- qualifies
AES Corp Let employees do the hiring
Doubletree Identifies employee success dimensions and seeks to hire candidates with same traits
BMW Use of simulations to select new hires (assembly line) Cessna Role playing and simulations for executive hires
Best Software On-line recruitment management software to post jobs and route resumes
Monsanto Active policy of seeking candidates at conferences
Recall that a process consists of sequenced activities inter-related by dependencies, and that dependencies are managed by coordination mechanisms. There are thus three main
dimensions along which alternative surfaces structures can be generated: (1) alternative specializations for a given activity, (2) alternative coordination mechanisms for managing a given dependency, and (3) alternative sequencings for the activities in a process:
Alternative Activity Specializations Specializations of an activity can be found by generating answers to key questions about the activity such as who performs the activity (i.e., the actor), how the activity is performed (i.e., the activity decomposition), where the activity is performed, and when the activity is performed. Using the Handbook, one does not have to imagine all the answers to these questions unaided. Instead, one could browse the specialization tree to the
right of the activity to uncover a potentially large number of alternative variations and examples of the activity. One could also look at the alternative specializations for all the parts (and subparts) of the activity that is of interest.
For example, table 12.2 shows a number of examples of ''interesting practices''represented in the Handbook as specializations of the 'Select human resources'part of hiring. The employees of Firm A found several of these examples to be quite intriguing stimuli for innovations they might try.
Alternative Coordination Mechanisms The space of alternative coordination mechanisms for a dependency can be found, as with activity specializations, by generating potential answers to a set of key questions. In this case, however, the key questions include:
What type of dependency is involved (i.e., flow vs. sharing vs. fit) (Malone et al. 1999).
When are the activities performed? Options here include the source activity for the dependency must end before the target activity starts, or the source and target activities can overlap in time. These timing options can be formalized using a temporal logic such as that proposed in (Allen 1981; Lee et al. 1998).
Where do the activities occur?
What type of resource gives rise to the dependency? The alternatives can be selected from a resource type taxonomy (Fadel et al. 1994; Lenat 1995) and can include such options as divisible or nondivisible, consumable or nonconsumable, and so on.
How much of the resource is involved?
As with activity specializations, a preexisting knowledge base of coordination mechanisms can greatly simplify the identification of alternatives by providing a set of possibilities. In the Firm A hiring process, for example, there is a dependency between identifying the staffng need (typically done by a manager) and finding candidates that can satisfy that need (done by recruiters). The coordination mechanism typically used is a requisition form sent by the manager to the recruiters on an ad hoc basis, and thus is a kind of 'Make-to-order'process.
An alternative coordination mechanism, accessible as a sibling of 'Make to order'in the Handbook database, is 'Make to forecast'. This process suggests that we create staffng requisitions in response to an overall business plan instead of based on individual manager's requests. Another possibility is suggested by looking at ''options markets,''which is a
specialization of 'Make to forecast'. The notion here is that we can requisition items (in this case employees) when the item is inexpensive, in anticipation of needing the item later when it may be more expensive due to greater general demand.
Alternative Orderings Another dimension for generating new processes is to reorder the sequence in which the activities occur. The ordering of the activities must, of course, satisfy the ''core''prerequisite dependencies inherited from the process deep structure, but aside from this we have complete latitude to change the surface structure dependencies and, therefore, the activity ordering. In the hiring process, for example, the only core dependency is that selection occurs after sourcing. We can re-order the other activities to suggest novel alternatives; we can, for example, place the 'Install employee'step before the 'Enroll'step, which implies that we install the employee (i.e., for a trial period) before deciding to hire him or her.
Keeping Track of the Alternatives Generated These methods for generating process alternatives can be applied recursively, in the sense that the new activities and dependencies generated can in turn have further subalternatives defined in the same way. We wind up, in any case, with several dimensions of variation (one for each dependency and activity, plus one representing alternative re-orderings of the activities) plus one or more values for each
dimension.
Table 12.3: Multicolumn table for hire process alternatives Identify
staffing needs
Identify potential sources
Select human resources
Make offer Install employee
Pay employee
Manager Internet Aptitude or other success dimensions
Packaging— Standards Salary
Computer- agent
Search firm RPQ Customize Stock
options People-in-
need
Advertising Electronic Benefits
Standards Self-
identification
Interview requisition
Committee On-line
group screen individual Trial
Internship Probation Qualification
Certification Education Reference check
Electronic catalog Blanket order
We have found that a multicolumn menu represents a convenient metaphor for deriving all the surface structures that can be defined given the alternatives defined by the steps above.
An example is given in table 12.3. Each column represents a dimension of variability, and the items in the columns represent choices along that dimension. Process alternatives are then generated by selecting one (or sometimes more) choices from each column. If one does this exhaustively, one can typically generate very many alternatives from all the possible
combinations involved.
While these tables can always be constructed manually using knowledge from the Handbook, we have also developed a specialized software tool, called the Process Recombinator that automatically generates such tables and then automatically creates specific combinations based on the user's selections (Bernstein, Klein, and Malone 1999). Figure 12.6 shows a screen shot from this tool showing the selection made for each of the dimensions.
Figure 12.6: Subactivity recombinator user interface