How and when should processes be described?

Business processes are a sequence of steps that need to be performed to achieve a specific goal within an organization.

But how to describe them?

In this article, we will look at what payment systems are and how to integrate them into your product.

Why describe business processes?

• Clear view

Helps employees understand the workings of the organization, steps to achieve goals. Which makes the process more transparent and helps employees to be better oriented in their tasks.

• Improved efficiency

A company can identify and eliminate unnecessary operations, unnecessary waste of resources and time, and optimize the sequence of activities. This helps improve overall company productivity, reduce costs and achieve more efficient results.

• Establishing control

Helps the company monitor and measure results to track its progress and take action to improve processes if they are not aligned with values. Ultimately, it helps the company to be more adaptive to changes in the external environment and to achieve its long-term goals by meeting customer needs.

• Rapid optimization

Gives you the opportunity to identify errors and correct them before they can affect the quality of your work.

• Training and knowledge transfer

Structured and detailed business process descriptions facilitate the onboarding of new employees, allowing them to learn their roles more quickly and understand how their responsibilities relate to the work of other employees. It also helps to replace or delegate responsibilities between employees when necessary.

Types
business processes

Before you start describing business processes, you need to know their types and classifications to do it more intelligently.

There are several classifications, but the most common business processes can be categorized into 3 groups:

1. basic

Are the key processes in a company that generate profits. Includes production, marketing, sales and customer service.

2. Auxiliary

Help your business function smoothly and efficiently. They are not directly related to creating a product or providing a service, but are necessary to support basic processes. For example, people management, finance (accounting), information technology (computers, software), procurement (buying the necessary materials and equipment) and supply management (supply control and logistics).

3. Managerial

These processes involve higher level decision making and planning.
They help lead the business and achieve strategic goals. Includes things like developing a strategy for business development, budget planning, task control, change management, and measuring results.

It is important to remember that all of these processes are interrelated and influence each other.

When do you need to describe processes?

Usually, a company needs to describe its processes for 3 reasons:

• Optimization of existing processes

When there is already an established business, the description will help identify weaknesses with room for improvement.
Analyses of all processes identify unnecessary steps, bottlenecks, insignificant tasks, and other areas that can be optimized for efficiency.

• Implementation of new systems

When integrating systems or technologies, business processes may need to be changed. This will help you understand how the implementation of new systems will affect current operations and what changes need to be made for a successful implementation.

• Employee training

It is also important to mention that it is useful when training new employees or introducing new procedures into the organization. When there is a clear description, it is much easier for new employees to understand exactly how to perform their duties, which in turn promotes uniformity and consistency in the performance of tasks.

How do you describe the processes?

Step 1: Defining objectives

The first thing to do is to write down all the functions that are performed in the business. It is important to consider all the key tasks that are necessary to achieve the business objectives. These functions are then grouped into three categories: core, support and management processes. In this way, it will be clear which processes are important and require special attention.

Step 2: Writing out tasks

For each process, create an action plan that describes the specific steps (tasks) that will help in the successful realization of the objectives. Take into account the sequence of activities and the interrelationship between the different tasks. This approach helps to provide clarity and identify opportunities for optimization.
This is where dividing tasks into checklists in such services as Notion, Trello and Bitrix24 can help you.

Step 3: Creating a structure

Structuring is necessary to better understand and manage processes. Create a hierarchy with the main processes at the top and sub-processes and tasks at the bottom. Then make links between the different processes and sub-processes to show the flow of data, information and resources between them. Develop a structure that clearly shows the hierarchy and the logic for executing business processes.
These services can help you with this: Enterprise Architect, ArchiMate and BizzDesign.

Step 4: Process visualization

Once we have gathered the structure of the process, we can visualize it in the form of a flowchart.
You can describe this in any mind-mapping service such as Miro, Mindmeister and Xmind. Also use diagrams and graphs to visualize the structure and sequence of processes.

Conclusion

It is important to consider that describing and improving business processes requires a systematic approach and a clear view of the company's current operations.
But as a result of this approach, you can free up time to focus on other important things and still achieve 100% task reliability.