Thoughtful Process Mapping
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Mapping for Different Audiences
A process map review can engage stakeholders or drive them to sneak a peek at their phones under the table. What makes a process map engaging?
The map should organize process diagrams in a hierarchy, showing additional details going down in the hierarchy.
Each diagram shows no more than ten steps. Too many steps can overwhelm those reviewing the diagram.
All process diagram labels use the business’ terminology. Every word should be familiar to the diagram’s intended audience.
A business analyst or architect should customize each process diagram in a map to engage the stakeholders who will review it. Executives don't need to get bogged down in the myriad details in the lower levels of the diagram hierarchy. The subject matter in the diagrams should match the interests of the audience. For example, customer service stakeholders are far more interested in their part of the map than the sales or marketing diagrams.
Where’s the Customer?
Let’s say a new architect has drawn a system landscape diagram for a B2C solution, including this path for payment:
The business stakeholders want to see a diagram showing how the payment process works. The architect, eager to show his technical knowledge of payments, creates this process map:
The architect reviews the diagram with the business analyst. She asks who the diagram is for, and he replies that business stakeholders requested it. She acknowledges that the diagram shows the payment process from a high-level system perspective. Then she asks the architect, “Where’s the customer?” pointing out that business stakeholders likely want to understand the customer experience.
Remapping to the Business Perspective
The young architect goes back to the virtual drawing board and changes the diagram. He removes the middle two steps and adds a final step, “Complete Payment Transaction.” The business analyst has him reword the labels to use business terms, with the customer driving the process. She approves the final diagram:
Horses for Courses
British and Australian people have an expression, “Horses for courses.” It means some activities appeal to certain groups of people, while others have different followers. The same idea applies to a process map.
The high levels of a process map hierarchy should focus on a management audience, with executives in mind on the top levels. Managers and users have more interest in the middle levels of the map that pertain to them. The lowest levels provide details useful to developers and architects.
A process map for a major initiative may span several departments in the organization. Typically, each department has its own hierarchy on the map, as shown below:
The marketing process diagrams use marketing terms in their steps and arrow labels. The sales diagrams use sales terms, and service diagrams use service terms. A department’s audience should not need to learn any new terms to review their portion of the map.
Tailoring each diagram in a process map for a specific audience using their terms engages stakeholders, streamlines process map review, and deepens understanding of the process model.