A process map is the backbone of your business. It shows the tasks that win work, deliver it and get it paid for. It should shape your org chart, your costs and how you measure productivity.
Most process maps don't do this. They show how work should run rather than how it does, and they have no numbers on them, so they miss where the time goes.
If you don't know your process map, you don't have a business yet.
What is business process mapping?
It's drawing how work moves through your business, step by step. Who does each task, in what order, in which system, and what happens when something goes wrong. A useful map also shows how often each step happens, how long it takes and what it costs.
Why most process maps are wrong
- They show the ideal process. In practice there's missing information, rework and approvals sitting in someone's inbox, and that's where the time goes.
- They have no numbers, so you can't tell which steps matter.
- They're drawn in a meeting room. People describe what they think they do. Watching them work tells a different story.
Start with how things work today
Map the current process (the "as-is") before designing a better one (the "to-be"). You need to understand today's constraints first, or the new design won't hold up.
The levels of process mapping
Start with the whole business, then zoom in. We use four levels:
- Level 0: the whole business on one page, from winning work to getting paid.
- Level 1: the main processes in each part.
- Level 2: the tasks, in swimlanes showing who does what.
- Level 3: the numbers for individual steps.
You don't need Level 3 everywhere. A few processes take most of the time and money, so go into detail there and keep the rest high level.
How to map a process
- Draw the whole business on one page.
- Pick the processes that take the most time or matter most to revenue.
- Ask the people who do the work to talk you through it, then sit with them while they do it. Look for side spreadsheets, copying between systems and "I just message Sarah".
- Draw it in swimlanes, one lane per role, including what happens when things go wrong.
- Add numbers to each step: how often it happens, how long it takes, how long it waits and how often it's redone.
- Check the maths. Add up the time in each role and compare it with the hours people work. If the map only explains part of the week, keep looking. The rest is usually chasing and rework.
The full guide goes through each step in detail, with the questions we ask and the worksheets we use.
Process mapping symbols
We use BPMN 2.0, the standard notation, with swimlanes. You only need five shapes to start:
| Shape | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | Event | What starts or ends the process. A thick circle is the end. |
| Rounded box | Task | A piece of work. |
| Diamond | Gateway | A decision. The path depends on the answer. |
| Arrow | Sequence flow | The order of the work. |
| Lane | Swimlane | Who is responsible for the steps in it. |
BPMN on its own doesn't capture enough for analysis, so our maps also record time, cost, systems, decision rules and what goes wrong at each step.
An example
Here's an order-to-invoice process for a small business. It's illustrative, but every problem in it is common.
The order is typed in twice, quotes over £5,000 wait three days for the founder, and one order in five arrives incomplete. None of that shows up in a procedures document, but on the map you can see it straight away. Our process map examples go through what we'd fix here, and two more processes.
Putting a cost on a process
Start with time multiplied by the hourly cost of the person doing it. Then look at what the step holds up. A quote that waits three days and loses the job costs far more than the time spent on it.
When the time cost and the opportunity cost disagree, assume the larger. That's what the business is paying.
What to do with your map
Fix the process before you automate it. Automating a bad process just makes the mess faster.
Then weigh each automation by how complex it is, how much work goes through it, and what it saves against the effort of building it and training people. If a process is likely to change soon, don't automate it yet.
It's also worth looking at how well-run businesses handle the same job. Lean and Six Sigma improve the process you have. Sometimes a different process altogether works much better.
When not to map in detail
If a process is changing fast, after a restructure or with a new product, a detailed map will be out of date before it's finished. Map it at a high level and come back to it later.
What to draw it in
A whiteboard is fine to start. For software, we've compared ten process mapping tools on price and features.
We also do this for clients. Here's how our process mapping works.
