What is a process map?

A map of the work, including the handoffs

A process map shows how work moves, including who touches it. A plain flowchart can hide the handoff inside an arrow. A process map puts people or roles in lanes (swimlanes) so a box in the student lane and the next box in the office lane make the handoff obvious. Business mapping tools and process mapping software are products for drawing this. The drawing itself can be done on paper.

Map the process as it happens this week, sometimes called the current state, before you draw the process you wish you had. Teams that start with the wish produce a poster nobody follows. A standard operating procedure is the written form after the map is stable.

Example in three lanes

Lanes: student, teacher, office. Student completes the field-trip form. Teacher checks the date rule and signs, or returns it. Office requests a bus only if the teacher marked bus required, then files the form. The wait between teacher and office is a gap you can see because the lanes are separate. If forms sit for four days, the gap is the finding. The stakeholder map tells you who cares about that wait. The process map tells you where the wait sits.

Steps

1. Name the start and end states. What exists at the beginning, and what exists when you are done.
2. List roles, then steps. One lane per role that touches the work. Observers do not get a lane.
3. Draw the current path. Include the return loops. A map with no returns is often the wished-for process.
4. Mark one delay. Circle the slowest handoff. Improve that before you redraw the whole map.