Process documentation is a valuable way of ensuring that your process modeling is properly captured, helping to ensure business efficiency and compliance.
If you want to know more about what exactly process documentation is, take a look at our blog What is Process Documentation? before progressing with this article.
Most organizations begin with modeling a small selection of processes, but once you’ve seen success and begin to model processes across your organization, it’s vital that all processes are documented so that best practice is followed.
It is beneficial to document all your business processes, as it provides clarity to others who are following the process. Proces documentation provides a central repository of information, so if the person who created, or usually executes, the process leaves the business, the exact details of how to carry out the process are there for whoever takes over.
A central process repository is also a great way to share knowledge internally in your company; new employees can use process documentation as an onboarding resource and train new resources in a much more efficient way.
Some examples of business processes that can be documented include, but are not limited to: - Access management - Accounts payable - Change management - Contract management - Customer claims and complaints - Help desk - Purchasing and procurement - Onboarding and offboarding (for both employees and customers) - Purchases - Recruitment - Travel requests - Vacation leave requests
Model and document your business processes using Bizagi Modeler
Any customer-facing process requires an efficient and rapid response. Let’s take Claims and Complaints, for example. If you can respond quickly to any customer suggestion or complaint, you can be sure this will lead to customer loyalty. Process documentation ensures that your efforts are aligned with your objectives, and your results are always consistent.
It’s extremely valuable to have well-defined process documentation that makes the process definition easy for everyone in the organization to understand. Within your documentation, you must be sure to define responsibilities for each activity, consider exceptions, happy paths, and all validations required on each step.
Documenting your claims and complaints process will enable you to identify any issues or inefficiencies that should be improved. It can also reduce communication problems, increase your retention rates, improve your management indicators and ensure no requests go unresolved.
Leading Argentinian oil and gas company Tecpetrol needed a way to document business processes to replicate successful projects and ensure compliance and efficiency of their process models.
Process documentation allowed them to capture knowledge that was previously only known to project managers, and enable all workers to access process information, providing clarity and helping ensure compliance for onsite workers.
The Tecpetrol BPM team used Bizagi’s web repository to store all the documented processes and models. They were able to make use of the revision history feature and publish different versions of the same diagram based on revision comments when establishing new processes.
The BPM team documented over 300 different processes across 10 different departments. Some were very technical, whereas some were more management-focused. All processes are now standardized with all information officially documented in a web repository, so there is no guesswork onsite or relying on information that was previously only in supervisors’ heads.
“It’s easy to see the quantitative impact process documentation has had on operations,” said Manuel Caride, Process Management Project Engineer at Tecpetrol. “It can be difficult for engineers and supervisors in the field to know what information they were missing. But having processes documented and properly communicated makes everyday operations a lot it easier. It guarantees that nobody misses any important checkpoints and standardizes the decisions of frontline employees.”
The process documentation now acts as a baseline for continuous process improvement. The BPM team works on a daily basis with the performance monitoring team to work on process innovations and monitor performance with a focus on KPIs and consumption needs.
There are many benefits that can come from process documentation, some of which are detailed in our blog on the benefits of process documentation. Additionally, you will see the following results:
Operational consistency – processes don’t have to be re-engineered if they are repeated, you can scale process modeling and automation with ease while ensuring efficiency and consistency.
Shared knowledge – all information linked to a process is centrally stored, available for anyone to access, so the process can still be executed properly if it is handed over to a new person.
Opportunities for process improvement – documenting all points in the process allows you to identify bottlenecks or areas where you can increase efficiency or reduce costs.
Reduced risk and improved compliance – Specifying precisely how to execute tasks helps to reduce risk and meet regulations.
Process documentation software provides an effective way to digitally capture all the additional details needed to properly execute business process. Using software means you can take advantage of intuitive features and ensure that every step has the appropriate documentation.
Bizagi allows you to document your processes directly within the process models. When you’re finished, you can publish the documentation to the secure Bizagi process library alongside all your business processes for a single point of operational truth, or in a range of formats.
Try using Bizagi Modeler for free now to get started.
