The Ultimate Guide to Process Mapping Techniques and Methods

By implementing the right business process mapping techniques that align with the organization's goals and digital transformation initiatives, it's possible to improve process flow and increase transparency in decision-making. 

Let’s look at the different process mapping techniques that can significantly improve process efficiency.

What Is Business Process Mapping?

Business process mapping, as a subset of BPM, is a powerful way to visually depict processes. It allows you to see how a process functions from start to finish, one step after another.

Business process mapping answers the following questions using charts, flowcharts, and symbols:

• What tasks constitute the processes?
• Who performs each task?
• At what stage does each task occur?

Why Do You Need Business Process Mapping?

Business process mapping is critical to boost efficiency in the organization. In the absence of clarity in processes, you find chaos, redundancies, delays, and a complete lack of accountability in operations. Nothing can drive a business to the ground faster than messy and vague processes.

Utilizing business process mapping can help your company in the following ways:

• Absolute clarity and control over processes
• Established operational norms
• Minimal errors
• Reduced bottlenecks
• Elimination of redundancies
• Improved compliance with industry standards

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What Are the Different Kinds of Process Mapping Techniques?

There are many types of process mapping techniques and methods. A long list might include: Gantt charts, UML diagrams, business process modeling notation, flowcharts, data flow diagrams, role activity diagrams, integrated definition for function modeling, Petri nets, object oriented methods, workflow technique, and simulation models, all with their own unique strength.

Some of the popular process mapping techniques include:

1. Workflow Techniques

Workflows comprise of sequences of tasks between people in an organization or between computer applications. They involve more than just modeling processes. They also help analyze and improve the processes. The various stages in a workflow include gathering information, business process modeling, workflow modeling, implementation, verification, and execution.

2. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)

BPMN is a technique that is preferred by process experts. It is a standardized language that is ideal for situations when you need to drill down into processes to fix errors and exceptions. While it is very popular, if you’re not a business analyst, trying to utilize this technique could be counterproductive.

3. Data Flow Diagrams

Also known as Yourdon’s technique, data flow diagrams show you how information flows from one place to another. They represent how the process links through data stores and how it relates to the external environment.

4. Unified Model Language (UML) Diagrams

UML diagrams are best suited for mapping out software building. There are two categories within UML – behavioral and structural diagrams. UML is seen as a specialized mapping tool for specific industries, so it isn’t suited for creating process workflows.

5. SIPOC Diagrams

SIPOC diagrams are also called high-level process maps. They visually represent a process without going into too much detail. A SIPOC diagram breaks the process down into the following sections – suppliers, input, process, output, and customers.

What Should an Ideal Process Mapping Software Look Like?

Assuming that improved business efficiency is your goal, the right process mapping software should be

• easily understood by all employees
• industry compliant
• easy to implement
• capable of facilitating analysis and improvement
• capable of simulating workflow before implementation

Business process mapping doesn’t need to be complex or require experts to be effective. After all, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, as Leonardo da Vinci said.

Mapping Your Way To Growth

Kissflow is a powerful low-code platform that allows you to streamline business processes across the organization. With its intuitive visual approach and drag-and-drop editor, you can visually map processes and build them from scratch. 

Kissflow also offers a wide range of reporting and analytics features that give an accurate snapshot of the performance of different business processes, allowing you to identify and fix inefficiencies quickly.