Part 1: Building a Business Process Map

1. Title

Mapping Business Processes: Creating a Detailed Workflow Diagram

2. Objective

The objective of this assignment is to develop students’ ability to analyze and visually represent a business process through detailed workflow mapping. Students will gain hands-on experience with process documentation and diagramming tools, laying the foundation for future analysis of inefficiencies and improvements. The long-term goal is to prepare students to identify AI-driven enhancements in a subsequent assignment.

3. Tools/Resources Needed

4. Description of Assignment

Students will select one business process—such as customer onboarding, order fulfillment, or employee expense reporting—and sit and observe the process for a while. After observing the process carefully, create an initial draft of the process on paper. Subsequently, you will create a detailed map of its existing workflow using Mermaid diagrams or Lucidchart. The final map should visually represent each step, decision point, and stakeholder involved in the process, providing a clear and comprehensive overview. The focus is on accuracy and clarity of the workflow, ensuring all key elements are captured. This assignment serves as a standalone exercise in process mapping, with the understanding that a future assignment will build on this work to explore AI-based improvements.

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How to Map a Process, Step by Step

Mapping a process is a powerful tool for understanding workflows, uncovering inefficiencies, and setting the foundation for improvements. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you map a business process:

  1. Select Your Process and observe it: Begin by choosing one business process to map. It could be something like customer onboarding, order fulfillment, or employee expense reporting. Choose a process you’re familiar with, or one that’s important for your organization. If possible, plan to physically observe the parts of the process that you can.
  2. Define the Start and End: Clearly mark where your process begins and ends. For instance, in an order fulfillment process, the start might be when a customer places an order, and the end might be when the order is shipped. Defining these boundaries will give your map focus and direction.
  3. List the Steps: Break the process down into its individual actions or steps. For example, in customer onboarding, this might include sending a welcome email, setting up an account, and confirming account details. Write down every task in the process, no matter how small, to ensure you capture the full picture. Ask questions and research the specifics of these steps for an accurate process map.
  4. Identify Decision Points: Some steps in the process will involve decisions, such as verifying customer information or checking inventory levels. These decision points should be clearly marked. In your diagram, use a diamond shape to indicate a decision point, with arrows pointing to different outcomes based on the decision made. Note that we will address formal business process model notation in the future. For now, just focus on getting out the information into a process map.
  5. Include Stakeholders: Identify who is responsible for each step. This could be an individual, team, or department. For each task or decision point, make a note of who is responsible for executing that part of the process.
  6. Peel the Layers: Process mapping is a bit like peeling an onion. At first, you’ll identify the high-level steps in the process, the obvious tasks that everyone can agree on. But as you dig deeper, you’ll encounter levels of abstraction—the point at which you uncover more detailed steps, assumptions, and sometimes even knowledge that isn’t explicitly stated. This is often where the real complexity of a process emerges, as you start to realize that what seemed straightforward on the surface involves a lot more nuance. These layers might include informal practices, hidden bottlenecks, or even tacit knowledge that people rely on without thinking. As you peel back these layers, you get closer to fully understanding the process and can begin to see where improvements can be made. For example, when mapping an expense reporting process, you may realize that "approving expenses" isn’t as straightforward as it seems. You might uncover that there are specific policies, unspoken norms, or manual checks that influence this decision. Don’t be surprised if, as you peel back the layers, you find that processes are more complicated than initially assumed.
  7. Create a Visual Map: Now it’s time to create your process map. Use a diagramming tool like Lucidchart or Mermaid diagrams to visually represent the workflow. Use rectangles for tasks, diamonds for decision points, and arrows to show the flow of the process from one step to the next. Ensure that the flow is logical and easy to follow.
  8. Review for Clarity: After creating your map, step back and review it. Ask yourself: Does this process flow make sense? Are all steps and decision points included? If the map is too cluttered, simplify it. The goal is to create a clear, understandable representation of the process. </aside>

5. Deliverables

  1. Initial Process Map: Save your initial basic flow chart from the observation exercise for submission. It is expected that this serves as a first step before you go through further refinement of the process using research and stakeholder engagement.
  2. Workflow Map: A detailed diagram of the existing business process, created using Mermaid syntax (e.g., submitted as code or a screenshot from the Mermaid Live Editor) or Lucidchart (e.g., exported as a PDF or image). Note that If you are required to create a BPMN chart, you cannot do it using Mermaid syntax.
  3. Brief Description: A short written explanation (1 paragraph, ~150 words) of the chosen process, its purpose, and the stakeholders involved, submitted alongside the diagram.
  4. Mermaid Diagram Code: The raw Mermaid syntax for the process map (e.g., in a .txt file or embedded in the submission).