It’s not a simple task to diagram a business process, but the benefits far outweigh the potential challenges involved. The key is to put together the right group of people who understand the process best and can explain it clearly. When documenting a business process, don’t have it led by a technical analyst. You don’t want to design your processes around technology; you want the technology to work with your process.

1. Think You Don’t
Need to Diagram
Your Business
Processes?
Modeling business processes can be time-consuming
and frustrating, especially if your processes are
complicated. But here’s the thing: it is also an eye-
opening, collaborative exercise that helps you improve
the efficiency and productivity of your employees and
the happiness of your customers.
A business process is a set of tasks and activities that
done together, achieve a business goal. That goal
might be processing an insurance application or a loan
application, or something else.
Business process modeling is the act of diagramming
your processes so you can easily see how each process
works from start to finish, who and what steps are
involved, what other processes may be connected and
so on.
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+33 (0)1 72 71 33 33 | 336, rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris – France
Think again.

2. Why You Need to Diagram Your
Business Processes
We could simply tell you that need to document your business processes
because it helps you understand how your business works. But sometimes a
few examples easily explain how important it is to do.
Think of it this way: You’ve decided to hire a new nighttime manager to
help run your call center. To help her learn the nighttime process, you sit
her down in a room and verbally walk her through the escalation process,
then put her to work. During her first night, she has three major issues that
couldn’t be solved quickly because they didn’t exactly follow the process
your described.
Lesson Learned: Documenting a process ensures everyone who needs to
know it, knows it and can easily refer to it when they aren’t sure.
Your Business Process Automation Cheat Sheet 2
Another Example: Your new insurance agent manager is working with two other managers. You tell him if he has any questions or problems
speak to one of these existing managers. The new manager gets his first problem, and he isn’t sure what to do, so he goes to manager Bess.
Bess gives him instructions, and he resolves the problem. Later on, the new manager is chatting with manager Paul about the problem he just
solved and how he solved it. Paul tells him he solved it wrong, that it should have been solved differently. Which manager did it right?
Lesson Learned: Often, when a number of people work the same business process they tend to adapt it slightly based on their work style,
causing the process to be done differently by different people. Which way is the right way? Why are people doing it differently? How can you
properly measure performance if there is no “one” way to do the process?
“Simple” business process

3. Your Business Process Automation Cheat Sheet 3
A few reasons to create business process diagrams:
• A picture tells a thousand words: You can easily see how a process works. You could just write it out, and we encourage you to write it
out but link the writing to a diagram that gives that high-level look.
• Everyone gets on the same page: Every person involved in performing the process can see their role and what activities or tasks they are
required to do.
• You can quickly find issues: If a process doesn’t seem to be working as expected, diagramming it lets you quickly see where problems or
bottlenecks are occurring so you can resolve them.
• Find the repetitive tasks: Diagramming lets you see where certain tasks or activities in the process are repetitive and could be improved
through automation.
Creating the Business Process Diagram
So you want to create a process diagram. A few things you need to think about
before you get started:
If your business process is implemented or is going to be implemented through software or a custom
built application, it might make sense to have a technical analyst lead the process. However you don’t
want to bend your business processes around technology, so it’s better to have a business analyst or
one of the people who performs the process lead the diagramming exercise.
Who Should Lead?
“Complex” business process

4. Consistency is critical when diagramming business processes. You need to create all your diagrams
using a standard set of elements to ensure that everyone involved understands how the process works.
Standard modeling and standard modeling notation helps business analysts and users understand
and communicate the process consistently and helps systems analysts understand the process
correctly as they design systems that support it. BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Modeling Notation) is a
formal modeling notation, but there are others such as UML and basic flowcharts.
Modeling business processes can be a complex activity. The key to quickly getting through it is to do
it in stages. First, start with the top level, which is often the most difficult level to figure out. Note the
start of the process and the end of the process and list all the activities that the group says needs to
be performed. Once you have the high level documented, get into the details. You will find that as you
outline the details of each stage of the process, it’s easier to figure out what comes next.
As you move through the details, note any exceptions or multiple ways to perform an activity or task.
Also, note where another process may connect with the process you are documenting. The important
thing is to take your time, listen to everyone involved and ensure you have documented the process
correctly.
Modeling Notation
Start at the Top
There’s no one right way to create a process diagram, and depending on the type of process you might
use a number of different process modeling tools or technologies. Some may simply document their
diagram using Visio or a similar flowchart and diagramming software while others will purchase BPM
(business process management) software. The more complex your business processes, the more
sophisticated the technology needs to be. BPM software provides many advantages over simply flow
charting software such as a central repository and task management for all your processes.
Tools and
Technologies
Typically more than one person performs a business process, each having a set of activities to perform.
You could ask a manager to walk you through the process, but they don’t always fully understand all
the tasks and activities performed or relationships between roles and other processes. To get the most
accurate business process diagram, get all the people in a room who perform the process and walk
through it step by step.
Whom to Involve
Your Business Process Automation Cheat Sheet 4

5. Your Business Process Automation Cheat Sheet 5
Process Diagrams are
Essential for Business
As was said earlier, it’s not a simple task to diagram a business
process, but the benefits far outweigh the potential challenges
involved. The key is to put together the right group of people who
understand the process best and can explain it clearly. When
documenting a business process, don’t have it led by a technical
analyst. You don’t want to design your processes around technology;
you want the technology to work with your process.
Also, remember that like most things in business, designing business
processes is an iterative process. Business needs change and as a
result, the processes need to change. Be prepared to revisit your
process diagrams on a regular basis to ensure they are up-to-date
and cover the processes as they work today.
When you choose to look at business process modeling as a
necessary activity, set aside the appropriate amount of time and
involve all the people involved in the process, you will reap the
benefits in terms of overall efficiency and productivity.

6. www.everteam.com
info@everteam.com
About
Everteam
Everteam brings over 25 years’ experience and innovation to the field of Enterprise Content
Management. In an ever-increasing legal and compliance environment, Everteam’s range
of products support the improvement of content –driven processes, and enable enterprise
customers to easily monitor and align their content strategies for overall organizational
efficiency and effectiveness.
+33 (0)1 72 71 33 3
336, rue Saint-Honoré,
75001 Paris – France
+1 (650) 596-1800 (voice) / +1 (650) 249-0439 (fax)
28 State Street Boston,
MA 02109, United States