What is process mapping?
Standardizing repetitive processes can help businesses deliver higher-quality products faster. Process mapping allows teams to visualize workflows, coordinate inputs and decision points, and improve productivity. It communicates the interactions, dependencies, and steps in a process from start to finish.
Continuous improvement projects use business process mapping to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. It’s a practical approach to clarifying and refining any business process. This guide discusses process maps in more detail, including common types and their benefits. It also provides a best-practice approach to using the process mapping process in your business.
Definition and purpose of process mapping
Process mapping visually represents the flow of work within a process. It occurs during project planning and involves creating diagrams depicting a specific process's sequence of steps, decision points, inputs, and outputs. The method provides the following:
- Visualization: Visualizing work chronologically helps teams quickly understand the flow from start to finish.
- Improvement: Teams can identify roadblocks and inefficiencies visually, allowing them to refine the process for a better outcome.
- Standardization: Including process mapping in the product development life cycle helps teams work more efficiently, improves quality, and identifies gaps.
- Training: Process maps are effective training tools for new employees, providing an end-to-end understanding of the work and their specific role in accomplishing it.
- Communication: Process maps communicate essential activities to team members, partners, and stakeholders about the work, its sequence, and potential bottlenecks.
Types of process maps
Process maps vary by type. Some are more aligned with specific work, such as Agile project management or manufacturing, while others may show simultaneous work activity across multiple areas. Depending on the complexity of the process and the number of inputs, outputs, and resources involved, selecting the type of process map is essential. The following are the most commonly used types.
Flowchart
Flowcharts show the steps within a process sequentially. They use mapping symbols to identify inputs, outputs, and decision points. Your team can use flowcharts for any process, including continuous improvement, information transfer, and integration projects.
You can use a flowchart to illustrate how product information originates with requirements before moving through design, development, testing, and deployment. The flowchart can also incorporate technical communications and its output of end-user documentation.
Swimlane diagram
Swimlane diagrams show the necessary steps in a process that spans multiple functional areas. Each lane focuses on a specific area, such as development or QA. Each step aligns with its predecessor but appears within the area—or lane—of responsibility.
In sprint planning, for example, developers can move on to the next step in the development lane when QA receives code. At the same time, the team executes regression testing in the QA lane.
Value stream map
Value stream mapping, a frequently employed Lean practice, directly connects the work to the value it delivers to the customer. It started in the manufacturing sector to eliminate waste and promote continuous improvement, but it’s a useful tool for businesses in any sector. Value stream maps illustrate the steps of moving a product or service from raw material or idea to the customer.
Value stream mapping asks: What value does this bring to the customer? This approach eliminates extraneous and marginally important work, which is a valuable approach in Scrum environments with frequent, rapid product releases.
SIPOC diagram
A SIPOC diagram illustrates the suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers for key process elements. Divided into five columns, it features steps allocated within each distinct SIPOC area. This type of diagram can be complex, but it’s beneficial when defining the scope of a project or process with multiple stakeholders, inputs, and outputs.
Benefits of mapping your workflows
The benefits of process mapping are numerous:
- Improved efficiency: By visualizing the workflow, teams can quickly identify bottlenecks, scheduling and resource conflicts, and unnecessary steps. As a continuous improvement tool, process mapping allows teams to create current-state and future-state diagrams to measure efficiency gains.
- Enhanced communication: Regardless of role, visualized workflows provide all team members, including non-technical people, with an easy-to-follow view of the work and its sequence. They provide a clear snapshot of where the work is in the process and what lies ahead.
- Better quality control: Identifying the process steps decreases waste, improves time to market, and highlights potential roadblocks. When teams understand input is necessary at each stage, they can better plan and deliver within the timeline.
- Informed decision-making: Using standardized process maps helps stakeholders understand the scope of work early, anticipate roadblocks, and make informed decisions. The impact of decisions is also easier to identify from visually represented work, reducing the risk of miscalculations.
- Easier training and onboarding: Process maps are exceptional for training new team members and helping them understand where they provide value. They also help new members integrate more quickly when they can clearly see who their main internal points of contact are.
How to create a process map
Creating a process map involves identifying the process you want to map, setting the start and end points, collecting information, determining the sequence of steps and decisions, and then drawing and refining the map.
Determine the start and end points
The process you map can be large, such as the end-to-end customer-request-to-launch cycle, or small, such as the steps to collect and confirm user requirements. Defining the start and end points helps determine where your specific map fits into the larger business process.
The starting point may be a client request, a feature on the product roadmap, or a piece of equipment due for maintenance. Understanding the starting point helps eliminate roadblocks, such as incomplete requirements, later in the process.
The ending point might be launching a new product or handing the product off for testing. Ensure there is a clear endpoint, as it will help you measure success.
Interview stakeholders
Include all team members, stakeholders, partners, suppliers, and decision-makers who will provide input in the process or complete the steps. Interview each person thoroughly to gather all necessary details. If the process relies on meeting compliance standards, involve those responsible for regulatory certification.
Inviting everyone to collaborate allows each member to understand the entire process and fosters a sense of ownership. Often, people's experiences can generate new ideas and creative solutions.
List the steps in sequence
Work together to arrange the steps in a logical sequence from the starting point to the ending point. This is a simple, linear view of the steps from beginning to end.
Include decision points
After defining the sequence, add decision points that affect the flow of the process. For example, a medical equipment manufacturer may include decision points for whether raw materials have arrived, whether specific components meet regulatory standards, and so on. Software developers may include code review, QA testing, or user acceptance.
Draw the process map
Choose the type of process map that best suits your needs. Lay out a visual representation of the process. Use standard process mapping symbols to ensure your creation is universally understandable. Many product development software tools include standard mapping symbols and features to speed the process. Use arrows to connect the steps in the process and illustrate the flow.
Confluence whiteboards provide a collaborative space for teams to create freely on an infinite canvas. Its flexibility lets teams move steps around visually while maintaining connected decision points.
Review and validate
Share the process map with stakeholders and make changes if necessary. This ensures nothing is out of sequence, unnecessary, or missing. Gaining validation is critical to early adoption, change management, and continuous improvement. All members should feel a sense of ownership of the final process map.
Implement your process map
Once you have implemented the process map, monitor its performance. Expect your process map to evolve as your business grows, you identify new requirements, or customer demands change.
Task management software, Gantt charts, and roadmap software should incorporate the process map for easy reference. Workflow automation builds from and should mirror your process map.
As a core component of continuous improvement activities, begin with your implemented process maps when making changes in the future.
Process mapping best practices
Using standard symbols, identifying clear beginning and ending points, and defining decision points are essential to successful process mapping.
It’s crucial to gather people from all work areas and collaborate as a team. Focus on simplicity and allow the team to brainstorm, strategize, and adjust the process until it meets your company’s needs.
Use Confluence whiteboards for process mapping
Confluence whiteboards bring the flexibility of a digital whiteboard into your team workspace, allowing you to brainstorm, plan, and complete work like never before. Whiteboards integrate seamlessly with Atlassian tools to link product roadmaps, task management, project management, and other product development tools.
Unleash your team's creativity as they diagram new flows, build long-term visions, and run project retrospectives in real-time.