The first step of mapping a process is getting high level understanding of what you are going to map and of any pain points in the status quo.
At this stage in the game, focus on understanding your entire workflow, irrespective of what tool you plan on using to do it. With that in mind, you’ll brainstorm:
Which process will you map?
What are all the tasks performed in the process?
Who is involved in the process?
What are current pain points?
This step is critical as process are often more complex that they initially seem. Process mapping is also an excellent opportunity to reassess and improve how your team operates. So often, a single contributors knowledge of what happens in a process is limited to tasks that they themselves are involved with. To draw the most accurate picture of how things are done, make sure to include individuals from different teams who may be aware of steps happening that few other contributors are aware of.
The importance of the user story
Process are often complex and often involve invisible tasks that are done without many people noticing. But just because they are not often thought about does not make them any less important to the overall success of the process.
A great way to sniff out all those hidden tasks is to think about the process from the perspective of each user/team. What does each person actually do? By understanding the specific tasks and actions performed by an individual, you gain a clearer understanding of the process as a whole.
In activity 4, you’ll step into the shoes of each contributor, and think about what this process looks like for each of them. You will likely find that you forgot some tasks in your original brainstorm.
Objectives
Align on a process to map.
Identify who is involved in the process.
Gain a high-level understanding of who does what during the process.