Is there a trick for process mapping?

[Processingprocesses]

My manager is obsessed with processes. I'm 3 weeks in and he'd rather me go and "find out the process, write up on it and present to me with your findings" rather than me actually doing any work.

There's so much to do. It's a huge company and my new colleagues are drowning and yet I'm expected to process map their entire jobs 😂 (this wasn't the job I applied for!)

It's doing my head in. And it's making me hate my job. Please tell me if there's am easy way to process mapping?

Brand new industry, brand new job with a billion processes and a billion acronyms.

My manager also loves a spreadsheet about a spreadsheet. And a meeting about meetings.

You know the type. Help me survive 🙏

What is your job title? I'm a process manager so this is pretty much my job, but I was aware of this and enjoy it.

What were you employed to do? Were you told you'd be process mapping?

Hey! I was employed to be a Project Coordinator so basically administrative support to large projects.

Do you have any tips for being good at process mapping? 😊

I am not sure you can be taught process mapping on MN and I mean it in the nicest possible way. I’ve done some process mapping and plenty of customer journey mapping but these were always integral to my role, not something casually done on the side.
I think you need to have a conversation with your manager and the sooner you iron this out, the better.

Can you find some previous stuff and copy the style? Maybe have a look on slideshare?

My job title isn't 'process mapper' but I do a load of it as a software developer.
It takes practice but basically.,.. what is the purpose of the process mapping? What level of detail do you need to drill down into?

Say for example I'm mapping the process of baking a cake.
A high level process diagram would be something like:
Get ingredients => Put into Tin => Put into oven for x minutes => cut and serve
A lower level, more detailed view would be :
Go to fridge => Look at X shelf => take X ingredient so on and so forth.

There are some quite good courses on Coursera - for free.

Honestly I've been doing this for a few years and am only now starting to get to grips. I will say though the most IMPORTANT thing is know your stakeholders. Are you trying to document every single detail? Trying to show key parts of the process?

Going back to the kitchen example an experienced baker might only want to know general steps..say for a chocolate cake with mermaid decorations the process might be bake two sponges => stick together with cream => mermaid specific instructions. A novice might need detailed instructions on baking the cake, how to stick it together, exact measurements, how to tell when it's done, etc etc.

Thank you so much @JaneIntheBox that's so helpful. I'm an architect by trade and I found it so stressful I wanted a role more family / life / wellbeing friendly and ended up with this.

I expect what's happened is that I feel like I'm drowning in the new lingo. And things are being lost in translation! (And sounding more complex than they actually are. 🤣)

It does help to ask in plain English.

I still struggle with this as I'm a bit of a people pleaser and also scared of sounding stupid but once I did it the first few times I realised that a lot of other people also misunderstood... and that my questions were not really stupid!
For example at work people were talking about this word, let's call it 'abstraction'... and they all meant completely different things!

Of course if you say 'I have no idea what this means' you won't sound very credible, but if you just hold on to keywords. For example:
'Cathy, you said that the widget is linked to the platform? How is it linked - does it provide information to the platform or does the platform read from it'?

And so on. Use the 4W's and H (How, What, When, Where, Why).

Also you can try to map it to something you DO know about, so you're not sounding like you start from ground 0. 'Cathy, this reads the file when the application X starts up - is it like the startup process of Y application'? Then they will explain the similarities and differences or if not, you can talk about what you DO know to compare.

It gets easier I promise! I won't deny that it's bloody tiring though. My recent job keeps throwing me in at the deep end once I've learned something I move on to something else.... there's only so much more I can take. I'm more of a dreamer
and do a 'big bang' of ideas before working out what each of it means but in my current role I don't have the luxury of slowly doing that... I need to be in drill mode all day long.

Hopefully once you get to grips with it, it gets much much easier.

A reasonably simple approach is to get Visio, and look for the swimlane template. That gives you columns or rows which you label with either a system (if it's all the same team doing stuff in a variety of systems or manually), or a team per section if it's a process that involves hand-offs between teams, then you draw boxes to illustrate the steps, and finally (do not do this until you've finished the boxes) you add arrows indicating direction. There are often control or decision points in processes, eh. "Passed quality control" and you draw those as diamonds, from which you draw a yes and a no arrow (phrase the control pont to make this work)and often the "No" Arrow would lead Back to one of the previous steps or to the start. It's pretty easy but I imagine quite hard to start with.

I still struggle with this as I'm a bit of a people pleaser and also scared of sounding stupid but once I did it the first few times I realised that a lot of other people also misunderstood... and that my questions were not really stupid!
For example at work people were talking about this word, let's call it 'abstraction'... and they all meant completely different things sums it up completely. Thank you SO much!! I really appreciate your replies!

As an architect my focus was purely one destination (designing a house). And I think I was quite used to thinking inside the box, inside the realms of planning permission, heritage and topography. Inside the client brief.

So my new world is thinking outside the box which is entirely new. And quite daunting! Like exploring a brand new universe 😂

Thank you again 😊

@Switcher just had a look and this is fab! Cheers

@JaneIntheBox I forgot to tag you directly, but thank you again 😊

I do quite alot of process mapping and I must admit it's not my favourite thing on Visio.

If I am looking at it from a detailed 'what do people really do / rework loops' I use brown paper and post it notes (different colours for decisions / steps etc) . Then draw on the lines in marker pen.

It's then really visual and I find it quite satisfying. It's also then really easy to transfer to Visio as you know what it will look like before you start.

Doing it at that level is actually really interesting and gives you many WTF moments. My record was about a 30 ft map......

Btw I think Visio isn't free. There are quite a few free alternatives if you search 'diagramming software' my favourite is draw.io

@JaneIntheBox yes I know it's not free but depending on size of company would kind of expect them to pay..

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky 30ft. Crikey! Well done that sounds epic

I've just found draft.io which looks good. Visually pleasing 😊

Top tip go and watch the process being done and map that - that’s the only way to find the waste

That's how I ended up with 30 ft.......By keep saying 'and if it doesn't do that what happens......'

I'm really nosy so I love digging into what really goes on not what people think goes on.

We made some great process improvements after that project.

That's true, but then again they might also have their own preferred product.
Thinking about it now a lot of people at work refer to any diagram as a 'Visio' diagram but we haven't actually used it in years. We have Lucidchart (but it charges per user apparently and it's a pain to get approved for a license plus they keep asking if you still need it). So I never bothered.

Also Figma but that's more for UI designers.

I love this
Diagramming is not my fave part of the job but it's so satisfying when people look at it and understand in 10 mins what took 3 hours to explain without it.

Have you tried ChatGPT?

Does your work have any existing process maps, ie do they have a 'style'?

Can you attend an in-house training course on process mapping, or source an external one to be sent on?

Some tips in no particular order:

• always start by understanding why you're mapping the process - to make sure everyone understands their responsibilities? To identify inefficiencies? For compliance/audit purposes? If nobody can tell you why then it's probably a waste of time.
• memorise the most common symbols used in a flowchart, they're universally understood and can add a lot of depth vs.a simple box and arrow diagram
• The SIPOC framework is very useful for many processes - should be easy to Google.
• Swimlanes are one of my go to tools if several people or departments are involved
• a proper RACI can be good if the issue is unclear responsibilities/ accountability and many different groups or roles contribute to the process
• I often just work in PowerPoint but Visio is great for quite complex charts or if you need to make frequent amendments

Will think if there are any other useful tips...

Rather than trying to do something which isn't relevant your job, shouldn't you be asking your colleagues who are drowning how you can help them, given that's the job you're employed to do

What is the point of your process maps. I might suggest someone new in our team did some process mapping as a way for them to understand the business a bit more, sort of document your learning. Is so it myself in my own note s if I started a project in a new area.

If these process maps are to be used to design new systems, then something might be very wrong indeed here.

Really hope it's the former. Good luck

Yes - the trick is - years of experience.

I process map regularly, take out the noise and, map the basic, happy path for your base model.

Don't forget the 'Who' in the Who, What, where, when, Why and How question flow.

Who does each step of a process and how they handover to the next person is really important and often where the inefficiencies and error points lie.