Why map processes?

Objectives and benefits of process mapping

The most successful companies have proven that having a clear, shared vision of the results they want to achieve can only be beneficial. Aligning the various stakeholders around this vision is another factor in their success in creating value.

Adopting a mapping approach gives the company the opportunity to :

• Optimize the use of resources,
• Avoid waste,
• Motivate teams
• Eliminate bottlenecks in key business processes (operational, tactical or strategic level).

All this, to generate more value for internal and external customers.
Like everything else that supports the achievement of corporate objectives, processes need to evolve constantly to increase efficiency and reduce waste.

Today, knowing how to map your company's business and support processes is essential to achieving the results you're looking for, and to achieving real organizational efficiency and effectiveness. It is therefore one of the keys to ensuring high performance in terms of your company's competitiveness in the marketplace.

Even for organizations that do not operate in a competitive context, process mapping is necessary to understand information flows, ensure organizational resilience and is also very useful in identifying controls to support compliance exercises.

One of the main benefits of process mapping is that it enables you to become aware of your company's critical processes, which can translate into competitive advantage.

Process mapping also enables you to :

• Visually share details that can be understood at a glance by management.
• Highlight unknowns such as complex elements and redundancies.
• Identify real problems and their origins.
• Target wasteful areas in order to improve efficiency, teamwork and mobilization.
• Establish a climate of trust and transparency between the various stakeholders.
• Ensure process compliance.
• Continuously improve established processes.

What is process mapping?

Process mapping is a visual representation of a workflow, enabling teams to gain a clearer understanding of the process, its components and its contributors and stakeholders.

It is a graphical model that depicts a company's various activities (workflows) and their interrelationships, using a standard and uniform norm (e.g. BPMN 2.0) that the various stakeholders within an organization would be able to understand, whether in a design/modeling or improvement/optimization effort. The mapping of a company's key processes therefore makes it possible to establish logical links between the various stages of a process, and to visually represent the link between each of them in a simple and explicit way. A process map sets out the various activities of a process, identifying those responsible for the tasks and indicating the expected deadlines...

This type of diagram is particularly useful for sharing processes between stakeholders and revealing areas for improvement. Most often, process maps start from a macro level and then provide more detail at the operational level.

The level of complexity of a process map varies, depending on the need and the nature of the process. There are two main levels:

• Summary: this is a high-level map of the organization's main processes.
• Detailed: processes and sub-processes are represented in detail, from start to finish.

This is a very useful tool for representing the organization's various businesses and providing a global view, when designed in compliance with norms and standards.

Example of process mapping

Order management "Ordering a meal in a restaurant".

What is the BPMN standard?

BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) is a widely recognized modeling notation used to model business or support processes, mainly because it makes them easier to manage.

Although it's possible to map a process with a whiteboard and erasable markers, as soon as you need to be more precise and share information, tools and standards will be needed.

BPMN is a standardized graphical representation of a company's business processes, in the form of diagrams. BPMN makes it easy to read a process diagram, without having to understand the exact symbols, because it's a simple, intuitive approach. Its advantage and popularity lie in its ability to handle both simple and complex processes with equal ease.

It comprises six categories of elements:

• Activities
• Events
• Gateways / Connections
• Data / Artifacts
• Connectors
• Connections / Corridors

Advantages of process mapping with BPMN 2.0 notation

The advantages of implementing BPMN2.0 include

• The presentation of an established standard and notation that is intuitive and easy to exploit by users, even those with no knowledge of BPMN.
• A solution to support business process management.
• A clear, comprehensible representation of the semantics of more complex processes.
• Reduced communication nuisance (noise) between the various stages of process design, implementation and maintenance.
• Facilitate process automation.
• Support the creation of XML code, using mapping tools such as MS Visio, LucidChart, etc.).

One of the main benefits of process mapping is that it enables you to become aware of your company's critical processes, which can translate into a competitive advantage.

Among the possible motivations in favor of process mapping, and that it enables :

• Visually share details that can be understood at a glance by management.
• Highlight unknowns such as complex elements and redundancies.
• Identify the real problem and its origin.
• Target wasteful areas in order to improve efficiency, teamwork and mobilization.
• Establish a climate of trust and transparency between the various stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance and processes.
• Continuous improvement of established processes.

What are the main components of BPMN?

BPMN notation is based on a list of symbols arranged in six categories.

• Activities: an activity illustrates the work performed and the types of tasks to be completed in the process.
• Event: an event is a phenomenon that occurs during a process. It can occur at the beginning, end or middle of the process. Several types of symbols exist in BPMN notation to represent different types of event,
• Gateway: gateways control the sequential flow of the process, and have the ability to merge or split the flow according to connection conditions.
• Artifacts/data : Artifacts are used to visually represent objects outside the actual process, such as data, notes, etc. Text annotations and groups can be used in choreographies and all BPMN diagrams.
• Connections/Flows, BPMN 2.0 defines four main connection objects:
  - sequence flows,
  - message flow
  - association
  - data association.
• Pools/Corridors: there are two ways of grouping the main modeling elements in "Swimlanes" format:
  - Pools. Depending on the perspective from which the process is represented, a pool may represent an overview of all contributors to a process, or the composition of a team or department.
  - Lanes. Depending on the representation of the overlying pool, lanes represent a breakdown of the roles involved in carrying out the process. Lanes are the underlying components of a pool.

Typical top-down process mapping approach

(according to the BPMN standard, using the most common symbols)

1. Determine the process to be modeled, and its ownership
2. Define process objectives and scope
3. Identify the trigger(s) (beginning of the process) and the expected result(s) (end of the process).
4. Define major activities and who does what (identify internal or external stakeholders), using pools and corridors, and position major process activities.
5. If necessary, develop detailed representation by defining sub-processes
6. Determine dependencies and schedule the various activities, adding the necessary branches and flows.
7. Identify and represent constraints, controls and operational rules, using the necessary events and branches.
8. Accompany the BPMN with a guide including explanations and additional details as required.
9. Establish a mindset and climate of continuous improvement.

Once you've established your process maps, you need to make sure you not only keep them up to date, but also progressively improve them to maximize the gains they can bring you.

In conclusion

All organizations are based on processes. Having a comprehensive, clear and comprehensible vision of them is the best way to ensure that your teams work together to improve overall quality. This can be achieved by using process mapping based on the BPMN standard, which enables intuitive visualization based on a common language.

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