---
name: "business_process_mapping"
description: "Map end-to-end business processes (procurement, onboarding, approvals, incident handoff) with SIPOC scoping, swimlane maps, and value-stream metrics. Use when documenting, analyzing, or redesigning any recurring operational workflow."
---

# Purpose

Turn a messy real-world process into a clean, shared map that shows who does what, in what order, where it stalls, and what to fix. Works for any recurring workflow: procurement, employee onboarding, approval chains, incident handoff, content publishing, customer support.

# Workflow

## 1. Scope with SIPOC first
Before drawing anything, fill the SIPOC table: Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers. Keep the process column to 4-7 high-level steps. If you cannot name the customer or the output, the process is not defined yet. Build it backwards (customers first) when designing something new.

## 2. Pick the map type
- **Swimlane map** (default): the process crosses roles or systems. One pool, one lane per role/system. Good for onboarding, approvals, procurement.
- **Value stream map**: you need to expose wait time and waste. Add the timeline: processing time vs lead time per step, inventory between steps. Good for anything where "it takes too long."
- **Flat flowchart**: single actor, under 12 steps. Use only when lanes would add nothing.

## 3. Interview, don't guess
Ask the people who do the work: what triggers this, what do you need before you start, who hands what to you, what breaks. Map the work as actually done, not as the handbook claims. Walk the process if you can (the gemba rule): observe one real run end to end.

## 4. Draft the map
Write the map as a structured spec (see assets/templates.md), one step per row: lane, action (verb + object), decision points as named gateways with every branch labeled, owners, systems used, typical duration. Mark handoffs explicitly: every place work crosses a lane is where the process breaks in practice.

## 5. Validate with mapcheck
Run `bin/mapcheck.py` on the spec. It checks: exactly one start, every branch of every decision named and wired to a real step, every step owned, no orphaned or unreachable steps, all handoffs crossing into a declared lane. Fix what it flags before shipping.

## 6. Annotate waste and metrics
On the value stream version, add per-step: processing time, wait time, defect or rework rate. Compute flow efficiency = value-added time / total lead time. Name the bottleneck (the longest wait, not the longest work) and list 2-3 kaizen actions with an owner and a deadline each. The action list is the deliverable, not the drawing.

## 7. Review and hand over
Walk the map with the stakeholders. Ask: "what is missing, what never happens this way?" Update it, then publish where the team lives (wiki, shared drive). A map nobody can find is a map nobody follows.

# Output Contract

Every finished map ships with:
1. **SIPOC table** (scope, 4-7 steps, customer and output named).
2. **The map itself** (swimlane or value stream, in the template format or rendered).
3. **Validation result** (mapcheck run, clean).
4. **Waste notes** (bottleneck, top 3 delays, 2-3 improvement actions with owners and deadlines).
5. **RACI or owner list** (one accountable owner per process, named per step).

# Operating Rules

1. One process per map. If a step spawns its own full workflow, link to a separate map instead of cramming it in.
2. Every decision gateway gets a default branch. No unhandled paths.
3. Steps are verb-first and observable: "Finance approves invoice" beats "Approval happens." If you cannot observe it, you cannot measure it.
4. Name the system and the artifact at each step (the tool, the form, the record). "In the spreadsheet" is how work vanishes.
5. Map current state before proposing future state. Proposing fixes before mapping is fiction.
6. Keep diagrams under ~50 elements. Split before bloating.
7. Re-verify every factual claim (cycle times, system names, policy thresholds) with the team or a primary source. Unverifiable = cut or mark as assumption.
8. See references/notation-guide.md for the symbol set and references/worked-maps.md for four worked examples (procurement, onboarding, approvals, incident handoff).