A process map can become cluttered extremely quickly. An inexperienced mapper starts with “receive an order” and soon piles on every email, computer screen, exception, approval, wait, and failure mode. The sheet becomes covered with flowlines, yet the true path is less obvious than before. The right map is not an exhaustive record of all potential events. It is a view of one clearly stated input flowing through main steps and decision nodes to an output.
Pick a process that you know and write out your start and end limits before you draw any box. An order processing map may start when a full customer order is received and end when the validated order is passed on for fulfillment. This stops the chart from growing to cover activities that belong to promotion, delivery, billing, and service. Write the main path in 5 to 8 steps using short phrases like: check order, check information, approve request, load in system, release order.
Make your boxes roughly the same level of information. A map that has one box that says “handle the request” and another that says “click here, open the file, then enter the data here” is uneven. Decide if the map will be a high-level flow map or a step-by-step work map. A flow map needs you to group small steps as one significant step. When a step must be seen up close, draw a smaller map for that section of the flow rather than trying to squeeze all the substeps into the main map.
Decision boxes must be precise because they separate the flow. Frame them as clear questions like “is every field filled out?” or “does the result satisfy the acceptance criteria?” Each decision must state what occurs after a yes and after a no. Do not add a decision diamond for every small check. Only add one where an answer changes the flow, sends work back for correction, requires a higher-level check, or stops the output from moving on.
Sometimes, process ownership and handoffs provide more information than more process detail. Identify the process owner or responsible role for each significant activity, including when work is exchanged between people and systems. For example, a defect may not show up until the last inspection, though the missing input actually entered the process at the first handoff. Identifying responsible ownership, inputs, verification points, and outputs allows these issues to be discussed without assigning blame to whoever uncovered the gap.
Once you draw your initial flow, test one example through it. Trace it from start to finish on each line in the process flow. Then compare what you see in each box to what actually happens when the process is performed. Delete extra steps that do not help answer a quality question. Add a missing verification point only if it affects control or traceability, if it affects whether or not the process should proceed, or if it shifts responsibility for the decision. Any place where you feel the need to describe something verbally requires a better name or an edited connection.
You are finished when a new reader can see where the process starts, what goes in, who does the main activities, what are the decision points, and what represents the output. When you step back from your map you should be able to identify your starting point, your main flow, the handoffs, where the work is done, and the results. Do not keep drawing lines and boxes as long as you can see the main path without searching for it amidst a forest of lines. Your map should be detailed enough to be used for analysis and simple enough to be useful.