Process Mapping
Process mapping, and what a finished map contains
Process mapping is a method that promotes a better understanding of processes and helps organizations identify areas for improvement, in IBM's definition. A process map, IBM continues, outlines the individual steps within a process, identifying task owners and detailing expected timelines; maps help communicate processes among stakeholders and reveal areas of improvement. IBM adds that most process maps start at a macro level and add detail as necessary, and that these visual diagrams are typically a component of a company's business process management.
Four jobs, read off IBM's two sentences
IBM's two sentences on what a map does can be read as four jobs. Each one is a thing the map fixes in writing rather than leaving it to memory.
The individual steps within the process.
Who is responsible for each step.
The expected timelines for the process.
Share the process; surface areas of improvement.
Six mapping techniques, and the question each one answers
IBM lists several types of process map and names six mapping techniques among them. The type follows the question you need the map to answer.
Basic flowcharts
Basic flowcharts are visual maps which provide the basic details of a process such as inputs and outputs, in IBM's description. IBM lists this first among its mapping techniques.
Deployment maps
Deployment maps, also known as cross-functional flowcharts, display the relationships between different teams. IBM notes these often use swimlane diagrams to illustrate how a process flows across the company, facilitating the identification of bottlenecks or redundancies.
Detailed process maps
Detailed process maps show a drill-down version of a process, containing details around any subprocesses, per IBM. Reach for this once the macro view has located the part of the process that needs work.
High-level process maps
High-level process maps, also called value-chain or top-down maps, show a macro view including key elements such as a supplier, input, process, output or customer, which IBM abbreviates to SIPOC.
Rendered process maps
Rendered process maps represent current state or future state processes to show areas for potential process improvement, in IBM's description, which makes it the form that can hold either today's process or a proposed one.
Value stream maps
A value stream map is a lean Six Sigma technique that documents the steps required to develop a product or service for a user, per IBM. IBM lists it among the same six techniques.
IBM's own methodology for building one
IBM publishes a methodology for building one. These are its six steps, in IBM's order.
Prioritize one that struggles or impacts customer satisfaction.
Bring in subject matter experts who know it.
Fix the start, the end, the sequence between.
Refine the map with standard symbols.
Validate with team members, then invite optimizations.
Run a proof of concept before scaling.
What a map brings into view
- Compliance exposure grows, on altaFlow's own account, where approval decisions happen in Slack threads or verbal conversations with no retrievable record.
- The same account names tool sprawl: approval requests in email, approvals in Slack, signatures in DocuSign, records in the ERP, each requiring manual reconciliation.
- Approval cycles stretch from hours to days, altaFlow states, because documents sit in inboxes with no visibility and no service-level enforcement behind them.
- IT becomes a bottleneck of its own, since altaFlow notes that every time a routing rule changes, someone has to file a ticket and wait.
Four practices drawn from IBM's page
Four practices, three of them from IBM's six steps and one from its list of map types, each addressing a way maps go unused.
Bring in the people who run the process
IBM's second step is getting the right people involved, and it explains why: subject matter experts help you determine the critical information within the entire process, including stakeholders, sequence of steps, timelines and resources, and can highlight some of the problem areas such as bottlenecks and redundancies.
Use swimlanes when the process crosses teams
IBM's deployment maps, also called cross-functional flowcharts, display the relationships between different teams and often use swimlane diagrams to illustrate how a process flows across the company, which is what facilitates identifying bottlenecks or redundancies.
Validate the map with the team before optimizing it
IBM sequences the two: validate the enhanced map with team members to confirm accurate documentation, helping to ensure steps are not repeated or missing, and when stakeholders have agreed on the current state, start to solicit feedback on optimizations.
Pilot the change before scaling it
IBM's final step is a proof of concept with a subset of the team before scaling changes broadly, which it says minimizes risk to the business and creates room to incorporate feedback. Regular monitoring of processes enables continuous improvement over time.
Who has to be in the room
Mapping needs the people who run the process, since IBM's methodology calls for them. These are the roles altaFlow's own use-case pages name.
- Operations leaders streamline vendor onboarding and internal change requests, and gain control over cross-departmental processes.
- IT and platform owners reduce custom development requests and provide a governed, secure platform.
- Finance automates purchase order approvals, expense reimbursements and invoice processing; procurement handles vendor onboarding, purchase agreements and renewals.
Those pages describe what each group does with altaFlow rather than who draws process maps.
The practitioners named in two of altaFlow's stories
James Craig Director of Information Technology
Craig is the named speaker for the NewSchool of Architecture & Design story, where the lack of integration between document management and student information systems had created data silos. His summary: 'We've reduced manual work by 95% and cut our document turnaround time by 90%.'
Jeffrey Rader Information Technology Director
Rader is the named speaker for the Prosegur Security USA story, and his account is about how quickly a workflow can be built: 'I could show you how to build a workflow in about five minutes. I very rarely even have to go to the help documents.'
Two processes that got redrawn
Both accounts come from altaFlow's published customer stories and stay inside what those stories record.
Student document handling at NewSchool
NewSchool of Architecture & Design processed applications, financial aid forms and enrollment documents on paper, with staff keying form data into internal systems by hand
- altaFlow digitized the student-facing forms and routed documents automatically
- altaFlow also integrated with the student information system
Resulting in the institution reporting manual work down 95 percent and turnaround down 90 percent, while the 100 percent document-accuracy figure and the 40 reclaimed staff-hours per week are both altaFlow's own written results bullets rather than the university's statements
Billing operations at Prosegur Security USA
Prosegur Security USA automated billing document workflows across a United States workforce the story puts at roughly 7,000 people
- Non-technical staff built and deployed the workflows themselves after minimal training
- Roughly 20,000 workflow transactions now run per year
Resulting in a billing team of three handling the volume the story says would otherwise have required nine, with the company quadrupling in size and no headcount added to billing operations, and fewer than two support contacts needed across three years of use
Governance the mapped process still has to satisfy
- Audit trails: IBM notes automation can provide an audit trail
- Retention limits: GDPR sets a storage limitation principle
- HIPAA Security Rule: Administrative, physical and technical safeguards for ePHI
- SOC 2: An AICPA examination of a service organization's controls
- Processing scope: GDPR covers automated and manual processing alike
- Card-data handling: altaFlow routes transactions through third-party PCI DSS processors
From the map to a running document workflow
For a document-heavy process, altaFlow describes its own loop in four moves. These are altaFlow's platform claims, not part of IBM's mapping method.
altaFlow pulls from Salesforce or captures a web form.
Conditional logic and dynamic tables assemble the correct version.
Approval and signature, every step tracked.
Into the system of record, with no re-typing.
FAQs about process mapping
Six questions that come up between the first workshop and a map the team is willing to sign.
What does a process map actually contain?
Per IBM, a process map outlines the individual steps within a process, identifying task owners and detailing expected timelines. IBM adds that maps help communicate processes among stakeholders and reveal areas of improvement, and that most start macro and add detail as needed.
Which type of map should we use?
It follows the question. IBM offers basic flowcharts for inputs and outputs, deployment maps for relationships between teams, detailed maps for subprocesses, high-level maps for a macro SIPOC view, rendered maps for current or future state, and value stream maps.
Are BPMN and UML types of map?
No. IBM places them under process mapping symbols, describing Business Process Model and Notation and Unified Modeling Language as graphical methods of notation for process maps. They supply the symbols a map is drawn with, not the map's type.
How do we actually build one?
IBM publishes six steps: choose a process to focus on, get the right people involved, outline the map, use basic flowchart symbols to enhance it, get feedback, then implement and observe the impact of the changes.
Why bother mapping at all?
IBM's stated primary purpose is to help organizations become more efficient and effective at achieving a specific task or goal, and it credits greater transparency around decision-making and process flow with helping identify redundancies and bottlenecks.
Is process mapping the same as business process management?
No. IBM says these visual diagrams are typically a component of a company's business process management, which is the broader discipline. Mapping produces the representation; the discipline is the loop of measuring and improving that surrounds it.
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