Three types (or families of processes) can usually be distinguished in companies:
- Management processes: i.e. governance processes, all those by which management guides and directs the activities and structure of the organisation, at both strategic and operational levels
- Key (or business) processes: which are those by which the organisation generates added value (that for which the end customer is willing to pay)
- Resource management (or support) processes: these are those that make available to the rest of the organisation the structures and resources (human, financial, material, technological, etc.) necessary for its functioning. Think of the processes of business functions such as HR, AFC, IT, etc.
The interesting thing about the organisation-wide resource management (or support) processes is their output-input relationship with the key processes of the company: the output of their processes becomes the input for the key processes. Think of IT services: without them, the very functioning of the company is at risk.
In the field of Process Management, however, companies tend to focus on their management and business processes, leaving out the supporting processes, and thus have only a partial x-ray to see behind the scenes of their great organisational theatre.
As consultants, we are primarily concerned with x-raying the supporting processes in order to get to know them, structure and optimise them, and the first step is definitely Process Mapping. Through interviews, we gather information to organise it into a flow chart or diagram (with the support of visualisation tools such as Microsoft Visio).
In particular, we use inter-functional diagrams: we see the workflow through the functional units involved. In fact, a support process is often not only related to the relevant department, but requires the collaboration of other business functions or tools. Management, for example, may be in charge of AFC but represents the input for other support processes.
Thus, by drawing (below a map of the symbols that can be used), we immediately see where (and how often) process actors are involved in the flow of activities and so are the patterns of interaction between the different actors. Where they bifurcate, for example, may be according to the OR mode (either one or the other) or according to the AND mode (activities run in parallel).