Process mapping is a fundamental technique in business analysis that involves creating a visual representation of a business process. This helps in understanding, analyzing, and improving the process. It provides a clear picture of how tasks and activities flow within an organization, identifying bottlenecks, redundancies, and opportunities for improvement.

1. Process: A series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end.
2. Mapping: Creating a visual representation of a process.
3. Flowchart: A type of diagram that represents a process, showing the steps as boxes and their order by connecting them with arrows.

• Improved Understanding: Helps stakeholders understand the process clearly.
• Identifying Inefficiencies: Highlights bottlenecks and redundancies.
• Standardization: Ensures processes are performed consistently.
• Training Tool: Useful for training new employees.
• Basis for Improvement: Provides a foundation for process improvement initiatives.

1. Define the Process Boundaries: Determine where the process starts and ends.
2. Identify the Steps: List all the steps involved in the process.
3. Sequence the Steps: Arrange the steps in the order they occur.
4. Draw the Process Map: Use symbols to represent different types of actions and connect them with arrows.
5. Validate the Process Map: Review the map with stakeholders to ensure accuracy.
6. Analyze the Process Map: Identify areas for improvement.

Let's create a simple process map for a customer order process.

1. Start: Customer places an order.
2. Process: Order is received by the sales department.
3. Decision: Check if the item is in stock.
   • If yes, proceed to the next step.
   • If no, notify the customer and end the process.
4. Process: Prepare the order for shipment.
5. Process: Ship the order to the customer.
6. End: Order is delivered to the customer.

Objective: Create a process map for a simple process of booking a meeting room.

Steps:

1. Define the process boundaries.
2. Identify the steps involved.
3. Sequence the steps.
4. Draw the process map using the symbols provided.

Solution:

1. Start: Employee requests to book a meeting room.
2. Process: Check room availability.
3. Decision: Is the room available?
   • If yes, proceed to the next step.
   • If no, notify the employee and end the process.
4. Process: Book the room.
5. End: Confirmation sent to the employee.

• Overcomplicating the Map: Keep the process map simple and easy to understand.
• Skipping Validation: Always validate the process map with stakeholders to ensure accuracy.
• Ignoring Feedback: Incorporate feedback from stakeholders to improve the process map.

Process mapping is a powerful tool in business analysis that helps visualize and understand business processes. By following the steps outlined and using the appropriate symbols, you can create effective process maps that highlight areas for improvement and drive efficiency in your organization.

In the next topic, we will explore Value-Added Analysis, which builds on process mapping to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities.