{{refimprove, date=November 2011 Operational responsiveness is a quality of a business process or supporting IT solution, which indicates its ability to respond to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur. An operationally responsive business process or IT solution is one that reacts quickly and effectively to a wide range of business events as they occur, and is also one that is managed in such a way as to be rapidly and effectively evolved in response to changes in the business environment itself so as to drive both consistency and value of business outcomes. The key difference between operational responsiveness and related concepts like

process optimization Process optimization is the discipline of adjusting a process so as to optimize (make the best or most effective use of) some specified set of parameters without violating some constraint. The most common goals are minimizing cost and maximizing ...

and agility is the implied continuous improvement of business results, as opposed to merely continuous improvement of process metrics or the cost of implementing changes. Improving operational responsiveness requires significant changes in either the elements linked together in a functional system, the linkages between subsystems, or both. This is true whether the system is organizational, technology-based, and so on. To meet these objectives, the business owner of the process or solution must regularly assess its activities and business performance and then execute well-informed decisions regarding adjustments to its operation. An operationally responsive process or solution must directly support these assessment activities by providing relevant information to feed the decision-making process. Operational responsiveness can also be applied to organizations. An operationally responsive organization is one that is consistently effective in making appropriate and timely decisions - about individual customer requests, about short term fluctuations in operating conditions, about changes in the overall business environment - and then executing on those decisions. This means not only reacting quickly, but routinely applying all of the relevant available information to make the best possible decisions.
Steven C. Prenovitz's article on translating strategy into operational results.

Qualitative attributes of operationally responsive business solutions

* Operates reliably and security. Each request is protected against loss or delay. Unauthorized access and control is prevented. * Uses

situation awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. An alternative definition is tha ...

. Information about each business action and the relevant business environment is used to help the system respond to complex business situations correctly. * Includes monitoring and support. Sufficient

instrumentation Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

and monitoring is included so problems can be identified and corrected quickly. * Provides information used to inform business decisions. Solutions must capture enough relevant information to provide the business with a complete picture for ongoing monitoring and analysis, and to support business decisions about individual activities and future evolution of the business process.

Related contexts

The term has been used in several other areas. Operational responsiveness has been used in a military context to describe both the ability of a military unit or operation to respond quickly and effectively to changes in the local situation as they occur, and the ability for the central leadership to quickly provide information, resources, or new capabilities to the field, typically in response to expressed needs of local commanders.

Operationally Responsive Space Office The Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS Office) is a joint initiative of several agencies within the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The "stand up" of the office took place 21 May 2007 at Kirtland Air Force Base. The first directo ...

, the US Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space Office.

Joint multichannel trunking and switching system The Joint multichannel trunking and switching system is that composite multichannel trunking and switching system formed from assets of the Services, the Defense Communications System, other available systems, and/or assets controlled by the Join ...

, an example of using operational responsiveness to talk about adapting to changing (and possibly degrading) conditions. The key concepts of operational responsiveness have emerged as critical to supply chain management as the practice has evolved. The operational dimension of supply chain management (the other dimensions are ''strategic'' and ''tactical'') is focused on daily production and distribution planning, and being responsive to fluctuations in production and demand is a fundamental objective. The other aspects of operational responsiveness are apparent in the strategic and tactical activities as well, where longer-term plans are adjusted according to an evaluation of current and anticipated changes in the overall business environment. Supply Chain Management

Operational responsiveness articles

"The Operational Responsiveness of Business"

"Operational Responsiveness: Ideas from Progress Software"

"Independent Research Firm Names Progress Apama as Standout in CEP Report"

References

Strategic management