All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams - Lucidchart PDF

13/12/2018 All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams | Lucidchart
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Flow Charts and Diagrams
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What is business process mapping?

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Business Process Mapping details the steps that a business takes to complete a
process, such as hiring an employee or ordering and shipping a product. They
show the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where” and “how” for these steps, and help to
analyze the “why.” These maps are also called Business Process Diagrams and
Business Flow Charts. Like other types of diagrams, these maps use defined
symbols such as circles, rectangles, diamonds and arrows to depict the business
activities.
Business Process Mapping can be used to document a current process and to

model a new one. Its purpose is to gain a detailed understanding of the process,
people, inputs, controls and outputs, and then potentially to simplify it all, make
it more efficient and/or improve the process results. It requires time and
discipline to conduct this mapping, but the payoff can be significant over time.
Mapping has become common in the business world to standardize procedures,
become more efficient, meet audit requirements and gain competitive
advantage.
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History
Business Process Mapping has its roots in the 1920s and ‘30s. In 1921, industrial
engineer and efficiency expert Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. introduced the “flow
process chart” to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In the
early 1930s, industrial engineer Allan H. Morgensen used Gilbreth’s tools to
teach business people at his work simplification conferences how to make their
work more efficient. In the 1940s, two Morgensen students, Art Spinanger and
Ben S. Graham, spread the methods more widely. Spinanger introduced the work
simplification methods to Procter and Gamble. Graham, a director at Standard
Register Industrial, adapted flow process charts to information processing. In
1947, ASME adopted a symbol system for flow process charts, derived from
Gilbreth’s original work.
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Contents
What is business process mapping?
History
Current-day purpose and benefits
Business process mapping symbols
How to do business process mapping
Caveats
Key tips for business process mapping
Drawing your map
How to do mapping with Lucidchart
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Current-day purpose and benefits

Business Process Mapping can be used to prepare for business audits or a sale,
to reduce expenses, to plan for automation, to understand impacts of pending
changes, to realign related processes, and to measure and realign the efforts of
people involved in the processes. Often, a business may think it understands its
processes, but then discovers twists and turns during a mapping initiative. When
modeling a new business process, the mapping is sometimes called Business
Process Modeling, or BPM. (That same acronym means Business Process
Management, a related area.) For a more detailed look at Business Process
Modeling, see this article.
Here are more specific examples of the uses of Business Process Mapping:
Compliance with International Organization for Standardization, called

ISO 9001. It’s used to conduct third-party audits of an organization’s quality
management, and Business Process Diagrams are often a key part. ISO 9001
tries to ensure that a company’s product is complying with government

regulations and meeting customer needs.
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Internal All
audits. Businesses canProcess
ensure that diagram
they are meeting their company
About Business M…
standards, and that their processes are aligned with their mission and goals.
Compliance with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX. It’s also known as
the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, and it
protects the public and shareholders from accounting errors and fraudulent
practices. It requires public companies to disclose compliance issues. As with
ISO, Business Process Mapping plays a key role in SOX compliance.
Standardizing a process. By documenting a process, a business can

standardize it so that it’s always performed in the same, most optimal way,
reducing confusion and inefficiency.
Training employees. The mapping also provides a standard training

document for anyone to learn the process.
Improving a process. Once an existing process is mapped, it can be

analyzed for bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Business Process Modeling can be
used to model a better process.
Communication. Mapping provides visualization that may be much easier to

understand than narrative text would be. This can help for interpretation and
collaboration, either with an internal team or external team or consultants.
Business process mapping symbols
Task/Activity
Flow
Event
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Gateway
Check out the complete list of BPMN symbols.
Here’s one more important entrant in the acronym arena: BPMN. That’s Business
Process Modeling Notation, the set of symbols and notations in common use
today for modeling. It was developed by the Business Process Management
Initiative. It depicts these main components of Business Process Diagrams:
Process: A set of activities, performed by people or systems, in a sequence,

monitored and modified by controls.
Task or Activity: A particular activity performed by a person or system. It’s

shown by a rectangle with rounded corners. They can become more detailed
with subprocesses, loops, compensations and multiple instances.
Participant: Person or system that performs a task or provides an input.
Flow: The sequence, shown by lines and arrows on the map.
Event: A trigger that starts, modifies or completes a process. Event types

include message, timer, error, compensation, signal, cancel, escalation, link
and others. They are shown by circles containing other symbols based on
event type.
Gateway: Decision point that can adjust the path based on conditions or
events. They are shown as diamonds. They can be exclusive or inclusive,
parallel, complex, or based on data or events.
Another important mapping concept is called swimlanes, which show who is

responsible for specific work. Just like swimlanes in a pool, tasks Build
are shown for a
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particular participant in a lane, or row, on the map. diagram
Need more detail? See this article on BPMN.
Diagramming is quick and easy with Lucidchart. Start a free trial today to start creating and
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How to do business process mapping

This requires a commitment of time and energy, but the payoff in understanding
and analysis can be large. There are four major steps to a mapping initiative:
Identify the process. Clearly define what is being mapped and what you
hope to gain from it. Make sure the scope is appropriate for your goals.
Gather information. Observe and study the steps involved, capturing who,
what, when, where and how it’s all occurring. Get down to the necessary level
of detail. Keep digging and breaking down the process into more detail.
Interview participants and stakeholders. Talk with the participants in the

process as part of your mapping to understand what they are doing. This also
often helps to uncover inefficiency, miscommunication and potentially better
ways to do things.
Draw the maps and analyze. Document it all in your Business Process
Mapping software, and now you will have the basis for in-depth analysis and
interpretation.
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To conduct aAll About Business
significant Process
mapping project, youM…
will need to have a support
structure in place first. As with any project, you would follow these steps:
Create a project charter or purpose statement explaining what you plan to

do and hope to achieve.
Have an executive sponsor for the project.
Select the team to do the work.
Plan and conduct the mapping, as outlined in the four steps above.
In Business Process Management, the idea is to create a life cycle of continuous

improvement. The steps are model, implement, execute, monitor and optimize.
Caveats
Business Process Mapping is better for some types of processes than others. For
example, it usually doesn’t lend itself to diagramming decision-making
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processes. High level, open-ended decision making often has too many diagram
intangibles and wild cards to effectively map. Business Process Mapping is better
for the other two types of processes: transformational and transactional, both of
which have more clearly defined activities. Transformational refers to processes
such as manufacturing or systems development, which take inputs and change
their forms, either physical or virtual. Transactional refers to an exchange such as
a sales process or any other transaction.
As with any type of diagram, there are situations when another diagram method
might be more fitting. For example, a Data Flow Diagram (DFD), popularized by
computing pioneers Ed Yourdon and Larry Constantine in the 1970s, is best at
illustrating how information flows through a system or process. Value Stream
Mapping (VMS) details the steps required to deliver a product or service. Items
are mapped as adding value or not adding value from the customer’s standpoint,
with the purpose of rooting out items that don’t add value. And Unified
Modeling Language (UML) is used in software engineering to visualize the
design of a system.
Key tips for business process mapping
A skilled practitioner, such as someone trained in Six Sigma, can make a

mapping project go much, much smoother. If you don’t have one in house,
consider a consultant to work with your internal team.
Identify metrics of importance. This will enable your mapping to speak

effectively with data.
Interview one or two people at time. If you interview in groups, some people
might not speak up or might not want to contradict another person.
As you interview, keep asking how, where and why. Such as: How do you
spend most of your time, and why? Where in the process do you repeat work,
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and why? Do you ever skip steps? Why? Where are your pain points, and
diagram
why? All About Business Process M…
Be on the lookout for assumptions that may not be true. Keep asking

questions until you reach the definitive answer.
Validate your maps after you initially draw them by reviewing them with
participants and your other data sources.
Drawing your map

For a simple process, you might start with Post-It Notes, a white board or a
hand-drawn map. However, you might find yourself limited rather quickly as the
complexity increases. With chart software, you can draw professional-looking
maps that allow for more detail. You also will be able to do subsequent
breakdowns with multi-level Business Process Maps, typically ranging from Level
0 (overall view) to Levels 1 through 4 for breakout detail of subprocesses, tasks
and flows. Sometimes, a sequence table can be the best way to supplement a
map by showing a series of steps. Map software will provide you with the shapes
you’ll need to map out the process.
How to do mapping with Lucidchart

Lucidchart makes it easy to do business process mapping with its intuitive drag-
and-drop design. Whether you’re trying to standardize a process, train new
employees or streamline a business process, Lucidchart can help you visually
communicate. Try it now for free.
Helpful Resources Build a BPMN

diagram
Business Process Mapping Tools & Software
What is BPMN?
BPMN 2.0 Tutorial
BPMN Symbols
BPMN Templates and Examples
Lucidchart makes it quick and easy to build business process maps that can help improve
efficiency within your organization.
Want to make a BPMN diagram of your own? Try Lucidchart. It's quick, easy, and
completely free.
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13/12/2018 All About Business Process Mapping, Flow Charts and Diagrams | Lucidchart

All About Business Process Mapping,

What are your BPMN diagram needs?

I'm new to I want to make I want to make a

Learn all about business process mapping and discover how you

Enter your email address

Make a BPMN diagram

What is business process mapping?

Business Process Mapping can be used to document a current process and to

What is business process mapping?

Current-day purpose and benefits

Business process mapping symbols

How to do business process mapping

Key tips for business process mapping

Drawing your map

How to do mapping with Lucidchart

Current-day purpose and benefits

Compliance with International Organization for Standardization, called

tries to ensure that a company’s product is complying with government

Standardizing a process. By documenting a process, a business can

Training employees. The mapping also provides a standard training

Improving a process. Once an existing process is mapped, it can be

Communication. Mapping provides visualization that may be much easier to

Business process mapping symbols

Check out the complete list of BPMN symbols.

Process: A set of activities, performed by people or systems, in a sequence,

Task or Activity: A particular activity performed by a person or system. It’s

Participant: Person or system that performs a task or provides an input.

Flow: The sequence, shown by lines and arrows on the map.

Event: A trigger that starts, modifies or completes a process. Event types

Another important mapping concept is called swimlanes, which show who is

Enter your email address

Make a BPMN diagram

How to do business process mapping

Interview participants and stakeholders. Talk with the participants in the

Create a project charter or purpose statement explaining what you plan to

Have an executive sponsor for the project.

Select the team to do the work.

In Business Process Management, the idea is to create a life cycle of continuous

Key tips for business process mapping

A skilled practitioner, such as someone trained in Six Sigma, can make a

Identify metrics of importance. This will enable your mapping to speak

Be on the lookout for assumptions that may not be true. Keep asking

Drawing your map

How to do mapping with Lucidchart

Helpful Resources Build a BPMN

BPMN 2.0 Tutorial

BPMN Templates and Examples

Enter your email address

Make a BPMN diagram

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