Process Maps

A process map should help the consultant and client understand how the work actually flows, not create a decorative diagram.

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What to look for

When reviewing a map, examine:

• major stages and activities;
• handoffs between people or teams;
• branches and genuine parallel work;
• rework loops;
• queues and bottlenecks;
• repeated manual steps;
• system switching;
• inconsistent variants;
• points where ownership becomes unclear.

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Keep the map useful

The map should represent meaningful activities rather than every trivial click or vague action. Merge minor steps where that makes the process easier to reason about. Use parallelisation only where the evidence clearly supports genuinely concurrent work.

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Validate with stakeholders

Ask:

• Does this sequence reflect what normally happens?
• Which variants are missing?
• Where does the map describe policy rather than reality?
• Which loops or exceptions occur often enough to matter?
• Where is ownership unclear?

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From map to finding

A map is not the conclusion. Use it to support findings such as:

Commercial review repeatedly sends proposals back for missing information, creating a rework loop before approval.

The recommendation should then address the cause of the loop, not merely label it as a bottleneck.