Business Process Mapping and Documentation Project

Representative case study: This case study describes a representative business process mapping and documentation project for educational and informational purposes. It does not identify a real client, disclose confidential information, or claim that the example represents the results of a specific real-world engagement.

Project Overview

An organisation was experiencing increasing operational complexity.

Several activities that had once been relatively simple had grown into multi-step workflows involving:

• different employees;
• multiple departments;
• email communication;
• spreadsheets;
• software systems;
• approval points;
• external suppliers;
• customers;
• and management decisions.

The organisation had procedures for some activities, but there was no reliable end-to-end picture of how several important processes actually worked.

This created questions such as:

• Who starts the process?
• What happens next?
• Who is responsible for each stage?
• What information is required?
• Which system contains the information?
• Where are approvals required?
• Where do delays occur?
• Which activities are duplicated?
• Where do errors enter the process?
• What happens when something goes wrong?
• Which steps depend on one person?
• Which tasks could potentially be automated?
• Which procedures need to be documented more clearly?

A business process mapping and documentation project was therefore undertaken.

The goal was not simply to draw attractive flowcharts.

The goal was to create an accurate representation of how work moved through the organisation and use that understanding to support operational improvement.

The Business Problem

Processes often evolve gradually.

A task may begin with one employee.

Later:

• another person becomes involved;
• a spreadsheet is added;
• an approval step is introduced;
• a software system is implemented;
• another department takes responsibility;
• an exception process develops;
• and informal workarounds become normal practice.

Eventually, nobody may have a complete understanding of the entire workflow.

This can create operational problems.

For example:

Customer Request
      ↓
Employee A
      ↓
Email to Employee B
      ↓
Spreadsheet Update
      ↓
Manager Approval
      ↓
Employee C
      ↓
External Supplier
      ↓
Customer