How do you like this site? We would love to hear from you! Take a short survey or

Buffer information

Buffer external information and subscribe to updates

Instead of requesting information from an external source, buffer it and subscribe to updates

Reijers, H., & Liman Mansar, S. (2005). Best practices in business process redesign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesign heuristics. Omega, 33(4)

Description

Obtaining information from other parties is a major, time consuming part in many workflows. By having information directly available when it is required, throughput times may be substantially reduced. Note that this buffering is a weak form of the integration pattern. Instead of direct access to the original source of information in the integration alternative a copy is maintained.

Performance considerations

This pattern can be compared to the caching principle microprocessors apply. Of course, the subscription fee for information updates may be rather costly. This is especially so when we consider the situation that an information source may contain far more information than is ever used. Substantial cost may also be involved with storing all the information.

Share this pattern

Enjoy these

Foundational free Patterns

Automate activities

Consider automating activities

Apply Integral technology

Elevate physical constraints by applying new technology

Fail Early

Order knock-outs by least effort and highest termination probability first.

Apply triage

Consider the division of a general activity into two or more alternative activities

Consolidate Work

Collect similar work items and work in batches

Automate for environmental impact

Implement automation in a sustainable way

Human Process Performance

Consider whether it is eco-friendly to let humans work over machines

Role-based task assignment

Assign tasks based on resources' roles in the organisation

Teamwork-based assignment

Allocate task based on collaborative experience: handover time, interactions, diversity

Back

Share this

Connected to

Consolidate Work

Collect similar work items and work in batches

What's Happening?