Process map maker
Put the process on the canvas. The bottleneck usually becomes obvious — and so does the step nobody owns.
No account. Saved in this browser until you export it.
The pieces
What goes on the canvas
- Process
- A step in the flow
- Input / Output
- What goes in or comes out
- Decision
- A branch in the process
- Stage
- A phase containing several steps
- Responsibility
- Who owns this step
- Record
- A document the step produces
Building one
From blank canvas to finished diagram
- 1Lay the happy path out left to right first. Ignore exceptions on the first pass.
- 2Add the decisions where the process actually forks, and label what each answer means.
- 3Mark who owns each step. Steps with no owner are the ones that stall.
- 4Add the records each step produces, then walk the map with someone who does the work.
Where it helps
Good uses
Before automating anything
Automating a process you have not drawn tends to encode its problems.
Quality and compliance
Auditors want the process, not a description of the process.
Handover documentation
What someone leaving knows that nobody wrote down.
Finding rework loops
Steps that feed backwards are usually where the time goes.
Questions
Asked often
- What is the difference between a process map and a workflow?
- A process map describes what happens and who does it. A workflow is the mechanism that carries it out, often in software.
- Should I add lanes?
- If the interesting problems are handoffs between teams, use the swimlane maker instead.
- How detailed should it be?
- Stop when the next level of detail would not change a decision.
- Can I export it?
- Project files work now. Image and PDF export arrive with the export phase.
Draw the process as it is
Nothing to sign up for. The diagram stays on this device.