How do you map a business process before changing it?

Watch it happen rather than asking how it works. Sit with the people who do it, write down every step in order including the workarounds and the exceptions, then ask why for each one. The gap between how a business believes a process works and how it actually works is usually the most valuable thing you will find.

That gap is remarkably consistent. Managers describe the process as designed, which is genuine and incomplete. The person doing it daily knows that step four only works because they keep a separate list, that the system field labelled one thing is used for another, and that Thursdays are different for a reason nobody remembers. Automate the described version and you build something that fails on contact with the real one.

Keep the method simple, because elaborate mapping is where this exercise goes to die. A numbered list of steps with who does each and roughly how long it takes is enough for most small business processes. Pay particular attention to handoffs between people, since that is where waiting happens and where things get dropped, and note every point where information is re-entered, because those are your automation candidates announcing themselves.

Then ask why about each step, and be prepared for three answers. Some steps have a good reason. Some had a reason that no longer applies, usually a system or a person that has since changed. And some exist because of an obstacle someone worked around years ago. The second and third categories are where the improvement lives, and occasionally the best outcome is deleting a step rather than automating it. Say at the start that you are looking for problems with the process rather than with people, or you will get the polite version. If you want help mapping one properly, call 1800 456 567.