Make Better Decisions with Process Mapping: Tools of the Trade

When I came up with the idea for Tools of the Trade, the very first thought that came into my head was Process Mapping. It's pretty much the first thing any business analyst or project manager whips out of their bag of tricks whenever they start a new project. It's ubiquitous in the industry, because it's so powerful and diverse. Despite this, it's not something that has really made its way outside of the project management toolbox. I think that's a real shame, because it's so useful. With a bit of work, it can easily be adapted to almost any industry or small business, and help them to identify problems, make better decisions, and track their progress. So for my first Tools of the Trade article, we're taking an in-depth look at Process Mapping.


What is process mapping?

On the surface, process mapping is exactly what it sounds like. It is a visual representation of all the steps in a process from start to finish. To create one, you map out all the steps required to complete a process, including the inputs or prerequisites, any actions taken, decisions required, and final outputs of the finished process.

These can be very simple, like this chart showing the process to cook eggs:

Or they can be almost overwhelmingly complex, like this process map showing a help desk support ticket moving across multiple departments in a company:

As you can see, mapping out such a complex process can be vital in understanding how a process works, and finding possible problem areas that might need improvement.

It's important that you don't make assumptions here - if you have multiple people in your company, each one of them should help you map out their piece of the process that you're investigating, in as much detail as possible. Include each decision they have to make (and what happens in both scenarios), and specifically show any delays or holdups where they have to wait for input from other people or companies. This helps to ensure that you capture the full picture of how the process currently works and have an accurate picture of what's going on.


Why do we use process mapping?

• People are visual by nature. A well-made process map will help them to understand the nature of the work flow much more naturally than a long paragraph of text.

• A visualization of the process will often make problem areas or clunky handling readily apparent. This helps to quickly identify delays, bottlenecks, and poor planning.

• Process improvements are easy to measure, as updated process mapping after a fix is implemented will show the improved flow.

• Useful for training material and documentation, to quickly illustrate how a process is supposed to work, and why things are done a certain way.

• Avoids making decisions based on assumptions or misinformation, which helps to prevent  wasted effort and costly rework.

Adapting process mapping for you

So, now that we have a basic understanding of what process mapping is, and the ways in which it's useful, how do we actually adapt it to help a small business, outside of project management? Really, we can use a process map any time we want to investigate part of our business process, to help us decide if we're doing things in the best, most efficient way possible. It's a first step, an investigation, a way to focus your attention and organize a lot of information into a visual format that's easy to review at a glance. When I worked at Sobeys, we used to tape a long sheet of butcher paper to the wall, and write individual steps of a process on sticky notes so we could easily move them around on the map as we received more info from the individual people who worked the process.

The best advice I can give you is to try it out, and see what works for you. As you map a process out with your employees, you can talk about the pain points they're experiencing with their work flow. A lot of times, you and your employees will discover overlaps, unnecessary delays and bottlenecks, misunderstandings they've had over how or why things are done, all from talking about their own piece, and seeing everyone else's all together in one place. Once you have that information in front of you, you can start to make informed decisions about changing your process, reducing delays and roadblocks, etc. It's also a really good idea to document what you've found once you're done, so when a new employee inevitably joins your company, you have a guide available to train them, and help them understand their tasks better.

Conclusion

Project Management is a huge industry, but the tools we use to help big corporations run smoothly don't have to be shrouded in mystery. Today we talked about one of the more straightforward tools that a Project Manager uses at the start of a new project. Process mapping helps you to visualize a process, identify problem areas, and make smart decisions about improving your business. As a tool, it can provide you with a great deal of benefit for the effort, as long as you put in the work and do it right.

Have you ever used process mapping for your business? Let us know in the comments how it works for you. And if you haven't, I hope that you'll try it out, and see for yourself how useful it can be. Be sure to come back next week, as our Tools of the Trade series continues. Thanks for reading!