Process Mapping in 7 Steps

As companies continue to grow, the complexity of their operations increases. This heightened complexity can lead to inefficiencies, communication issues, and compliance risks. As a process manager, navigating these challenges — from silo thinking to unclear workflows — is a constant struggle. This is where process mapping proves invaluable: by mapping important processes from start to finish, you achieve clarity, identify inefficiencies, standardize operations, improve communication, ensure compliance, and foster continuous improvement.

What Is Business Process Mapping?

Business process mapping is the visual representation of a company's processes, illustrating steps, sequences, and interactions to improve efficiency and clarity throughout an organization. By mapping workflows, businesses can identify process bottlenecks, redundancies, or opportunities for improvement.
Process mapping uses symbols such as circles, rectangles, diamonds and arrows to depict the sequence of tasks, addressing these fundamental questions:

What tasks are part of the process?
Where does each task occur within the workflow?
Who is responsible for each task?
When does each task take place?
How are tasks interconnected and dependent on each other?

What Are the Primary Goals of Process Mapping?

Process mapping supports several important business objectives:

1. Business process improvement:
Identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and redundant steps within workflows. By visualizing the process steps, you can streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency.

Example: Through process mapping, companies often discover unnecessary approval loops or delays in task completion, enabling them to redesign workflows for streamlined operations and faster turnaround times.

2. Training:
Process diagrams serve as an effective training tool for both new and existing employees by providing step-by-step instructions on how tasks should be performed. This ensures consistency and transparency during operations and onboarding.

Example: New hires can refer to process maps to understand their roles, responsibilities, and the sequence of tasks they need to follow, speeding up their integration into the organization.

3. Standardization:
With process mapping organizations facilitate standardization by documenting processes and making them accessible to all stakeholders. This clarity ensures that everyone performs their tasks in a uniform manner.

Example: By documenting and visualizing processes, organizations establish a common understanding of workflows across departments, reducing misunderstandings and ensuring consistent execution.

4. Regulatory compliance:
Many industries require compliance with specific standards and regulations, such as ISO 9001. Process mapping helps companies to comply with regulations by documenting processes in a standardized way.

Example: For ISO 9001 certification, companies must implement and maintain documented processes. Combining process mapping with AI technology for automated process creation streamlines this documentation process and ensures continuous compliance through regular audits and updates.

5. Internal Audit:
Process mapping supports internal audits by offering a clear overview of processes and workflows. This allows auditors to trace activities, identify potential risks or non-compliance issues, and recommend improvements.

Example: During an internal audit, auditors use process charts to verify whether procedures are followed correctly, identify deviations, and propose measures to enhance efficiency and compliance.

6. Role Clarity:
Process mapping helps you to assign process-related tasks to roles using the RACI Matrix, providing a clear overview of who is responsible for each task and ensuring the areas of responsibility within a task are clearly separated.

Example: By integrating RACI charts into process diagrams, you can specify which team members are responsible for executing tasks, who needs to be consulted or informed, and who holds overall accountability. This clear division of responsibilities minimizes confusion and ensures smooth collaboration.

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Common Process Mapping Pitfalls That Should Be Avoided

Not involving process participants: Successful process mapping requires input from all relevant stakeholders. Excluding key team members or departments involved in the process can lead to incomplete or inaccurate process maps that do not reflect the reality of operations.
Not updating process maps: Processes are constantly evolving due to various factors, such as new requirements or restructuring. That is why it’s imperative to conduct regular updates and revisions to ensure that your processes remain accurate and relevant.
Not defining where processes begin and end: Clear definition of starting and ending points in process mapping ensures smooth navigation through the process flow, reducing confusion and enhancing operational clarity.
Not taking time to understand the current state: It's crucial to understand the current state of processes before mapping ideal workflows. Mapping ideal processes without this understanding can lead to inaccurate or unachievable process maps.
Not understanding the relationship between steps: Each step in a process is interconnected, and failing to consider the process flow as a whole can result in disjointed or inefficient process charts.

What Are the Methods in Process Mapping?

SIPOC Diagram

Definition: SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) diagrams provide a high-level overview of a process, focusing on inputs, outputs, and high-level steps without diving into detailed activities. The SIPOC diagram serves as a pre-stage for creating a detailed process model.
When to use: Use SIPOC diagrams at the initial stages of process analysis or redesign. They help identify process boundaries, stakeholders, and the overall context of the process before getting into finer details.

Process Mapping Symbols

Process charts consist of several symbols to visualize activity steps, decision points, inputs and outputs, people involved, and functions, for instance. However, depending on the process mapping method you choose, there are various ways to map processes. Considering that each method comes with its own specific symbols and conventions, a list of all possible symbols would go beyond the scope of this article. Here are the most common symbols, derived from the Unified Modeling Language (UML) – an international standard for depicting process diagrams – to help you get started with process mapping:

Terminator: A circle marks the starting and endpoint of a process.

Task/Activity: A rectangle is used to visualize a specific activity or task.

Flow: An arrow shows both the direction of flow and connection between process steps.

Decision: A diamond represents a decision point, where the flow deviates depending on the outcome of the decision made at that point.

Document: A rectangle with a wavy lower edge depicts a document or information that can be accessed. Stacked rectangles with a wavy lower edge symbolize several documents.

Data: A Parallelogram is used to visualize data that can be the input or output of an activity.

Sub-process: A sub-process is characterized by a rectangle with double vertical lines.

How to Create a Process Diagram

Step 1: Identify the problem/ process
The first step is to choose which process you want to depict. Do you want to improve an existing process? Is there a process that is missing? Which process causes delays or errors? Name the process and list what you want to map.

Step 2: Get the right people on board
It is vital to involve subject matter experts in the mapping process as they are the ones who are most familiar with the processes in their departments. They will help you gather the most critical information, such as stakeholders, resources, sequence of activities, timelines and any potential problem areas (e.g. bottlenecks and redundancies).

Step 3: Outline all relevant activities
Based on the information gathered in step two, determine the starting and ending points of the process and all activities in between. Include at least inputs, outputs and process participants.

Step 4: Sequence the steps
In this step, the identified activities or tasks are put in the correct order. Once the activities are in the right order, check if you have overlooked any relevant information.

Step 5: Draw basic flowchart symbols
Refine your draft by using flowchart symbols to visually represent each activity or task identified in the process. Process mapping software is usually used at this stage.

Step 6: Get feedback and finalize the flowchart
Review the process with team members and gather feedback and suggestions to ensure the process is documented accurately.

Step 7: Improve your process
Use the feedback to identify potential for optimization. Depending on the situation, this may mean eliminating steps to simplify the process or adding new ones to improve collaboration and quality assurance.

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