1. It clarifies roles and responsibilities – especially if deployment flowcharting is used with the RACI methodology (Responsible, Assists, Consulted, Informed).
2. It helps teamwork – people can see where they belong in the overall process.
3. It highlights duplication and waste – individual paragraphs in narrative procedures can sound convincing, but they do not show a concise presentation of the end-to-end process.
4. It helps you to focus on business objectives – and on policies that affect individual tasks.
5. It is not difficult to define and communicate key processes – especially if suitable software is used.
6. It is relevant to SMEs, large corporates and departments within global operators alike – the same principles apply.
7. It will save time, money (and possibly lives) – by providing a clear appreciation of the operational, financial and other risks associated with running an organisation.
8. It saves paper – (if you must print anything), and a process map is far more concise than narrative.
9. It enables role involvements to be extracted automatically from the basic process descriptions – (if suitable software is used) as well as risks, skills and knowledge requirements, standards compliance etc.
10. Induction and training is enhanced - new staff can see exactly where they “fit in”.

TEN COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BUSINESS PROCESSES

ANOTHER TEN MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BUSINESS PROCESSES

TEN REASONS WHY PROCESS MAPPING / MANAGEMENT IS OF VALUE

TEN POINTS TO REMEMBER WHEN DEFINING A PROCESS

TEN MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN DEFINING A PROCESS

TEN OBJECTIVES WHEN CREATING A PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Ian Leaver of independent analyst Forward Look explains "user-centric process management"software.

TEN FEATURES TO CONSIDER FOR PROCESS MAPPING / MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SOFTWARE

PROCESS MANAGEMENT GLOSSARY