Without a clearly defined and repeatable process, it’s impossible for a company to measure, manage, and improve their processes.

What’s the first step to effective business process management? It begins with drawing out a picture of the current state of your process, also called “process mapping”.

What is process mapping?

“Process mapping is the act of creating a workflow diagram with the goal of gaining a clearer understanding of how a process and its parallel processes work.”

The starting point for process improvement is gaining an understanding of your current process state. Here’s an example of a process

Ability to adjust and refine

Once your process is built and understood, you may see steps that can be taken out or redirected. Or you may realize that some of your resources need to be reallocated to heavier, more time-consuming tasks.

The Benefits of Process Mapping

• Visualizing your process | Create a map of each step, so you can visualize how your process is currently being done, and strategist ways to improve it.
  
  
• Adjusting to business needs | If you need to add steps or reassign team members, use your process map to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
  
  
• Increasing compliance | Set up tasks that check for the presence and completion of required documents, and notify you if anything is missing.
  
  
• Automating repetitive tasks | Is your process bogged down with manual data entry and other tasks that can be automated? Eliminate those tasks from your team’s workload.
  
  
• Full visibility | Identify process bottlenecks.