Process Design

Business Process Design

Process Discovery Framework

Step 1 — Define Scope

• Start point: what triggers the process?
• End point: what is the final deliverable or state?
• Owners: who is accountable for the end-to-end outcome?
• Stakeholders: who participates or is affected?
• Frequency: how often does this run? (per transaction / daily / weekly)

Step 2 — As-Is Mapping (Current State)

1. Interview process owners and frontline operators separately
2. Shadow the process live — don't rely on documentation alone
3. Capture every handoff: where work moves between people or systems
4. Note informal fixes, workarounds, and shadow tools
5. Record timing for each step (optimistic / typical / worst case)

Step 3 — Bottleneck Analysis

Step 4 — To-Be Design

• Remove: steps that add no value from the customer perspective
• Automate: repetitive, rule-based steps with structured inputs
• Simplify: steps that require judgment but could be standardized
• Parallel: steps currently sequential that have no true dependency
• Delegate: decisions pushed too high that could be made at execution level

BPMN Notation Quick Reference

Core Symbols

Gateway Types

• Exclusive (X) — one path taken, based on condition
• Parallel (+) — all paths taken simultaneously
• Inclusive (O) — one or more paths based on condition

Swimlane Structure

Pool: [Company]
  Lane: [Sales]        → owns deal qualification, proposal
  Lane: [Legal]        → owns contract review, redlines
  Lane: [Finance]      → owns deal desk approval, invoicing
  Lane: [Customer]     → external participant (dashed pool)

SLA Design

SLA Template

Process: [Name]
SLA Owner: [Role]
Measurement period: [daily / weekly / monthly]

Tier 1 — Standard:
  Target: respond within 4 business hours
  Resolution: within 2 business days
  Applies to: [low-priority tickets / routine requests]

Tier 2 — Priority:
  Target: respond within 1 business hour
  Resolution: within 4 business hours
  Applies to: [high-value accounts / escalations]

Tier 3 — Critical:
  Target: respond within 15 minutes
  Resolution: within 2 hours
  Applies to: [production outages / revenue-blocking issues]

SLA Metrics

Automation Opportunity Assessment

Automation Readiness Checklist

• Input is structured or can be made structured
• Rules for processing are explicit and documented
• Exceptions are predictable and < 15% of volume
• Process runs frequently enough to justify build cost
• Regulatory requirements allow automation
• Rollback plan exists if automation fails

Automation ROI Formula

Annual manual cost = (avg minutes per case / 60) × hourly rate × annual volume
Automation cost = build cost + annual maintenance
Break-even = automation cost / (annual manual cost - automation run cost)

Priority Matrix

Process Documentation Standard

SOP Structure

Title: [Process Name]
Version: 1.x
Owner: [Role]
Last reviewed: [YYYY-MM-DD]
Next review: [YYYY-MM-DD]

1. Purpose
   One sentence: what does this process accomplish?

2. Scope
   Who does this apply to? What is included / excluded?

3. Inputs
   List required inputs, formats, and source systems.

4. Steps
   Step 1: [Action] → [Actor] → [Output/Artifact]
   Step 2: ...

5. Decision points
   If [condition] → go to step X
   If [condition] → escalate to [Role]

6. Outputs
   List deliverables, where they are stored, who receives them.

7. Exceptions
   Document known edge cases and handling procedures.

8. Related documents
   Link to: upstream processes, downstream processes, policy docs.

Document Control

• Store in single authoritative location (wiki, Notion, Confluence)
• Assign a process owner responsible for quarterly review
• Version with date + author in header
• Archive superseded versions — don't delete

Process Improvement Methodologies

Lean — Waste Categories (TIMWOOD)

• Transportation — moving information unnecessarily
• Inventory — work items waiting in queues
• Motion — people navigating between systems
• Waiting — idle time between steps
• Over-production — producing more than needed
• Over-processing — more steps than required
• Defects — errors requiring rework

Six Sigma DMAIC

1. Define — charter, SIPOC, voice of customer
2. Measure — baseline current performance, collect data
3. Analyze — root cause analysis (fishbone, 5-why)
4. Improve — pilot improvements, validate with data
5. Control — standardize, hand off with monitoring plan

Kaizen Event Structure (5-day)

Governance

Process Review Cadence

Change Control

1. Submit process change request with: what, why, impact assessment
2. Review by process owner + key stakeholders
3. Pilot on limited scope before full rollout
4. Update documentation before go-live
5. Communicate to all affected parties
6. Monitor for 30 days post-change