In order to effectively plan and execute a new and improved process, your team should leverage all of your talents and abilities prior to initiating operations. The team’s collective efforts enable the organization to meticulously outline the necessary steps required to successfully complete and deliver a project. A key tool in achieving this goal is a Process Map Template, which serves as the primary document to guide the fulfillment of these objectives.

Creating a document of this nature is the initial phase for describing any specific process and the interactions between different parts of your organization. Keep reading this article for better decision-making and a visual presentation of the project development process. Here you’ll learn all the key details of this crucial document.

Business process mapping corresponds to a strategy used to easily visualize the main process steps of a project. The result of the process mapping technique is a diagram that showcases the correlation between different parts, tasks, or activities of the project.

A document of this nature uses process map symbols to differentiate activities, so managers or team members can easily identify them to understand the current process better. In other words, with a business process map, all the incumbents can quickly identify and know how these areas are related.

There are five main symbols that you must incorporate when creating a process map, like a deployment flowchart. Knowing these marks will let your team identify signals and correctly read the document.

Symbol	Name	Usage
	Activity / Process	This symbol represents a process or action of a process
	Decision	It represents a decision that must be made
	Start / End	It corresponds to a start or end of a process
	Arrow	It symbolizes the connection between the two steps and the direction of the flow
	Document	It corresponds to files, data, or information that people can read

A high-level process map brings multiple benefits to the management department and teams involved in the project. These benefits gain particular relevance when your business deals with more complex processes in which your team members need to be sure about stages, resources, interactions, and other aspects. Other benefits are the following:

• It helps you to identify bottlenecks and areas of improvement. With a process map, you can easily identify what sections of the business operations slow down the entire project.

• You gain insight into workflows and process boundaries. A detailed map lets you know how the project is progressing and how tasks flow in the current stage. A workflow map like this is also great for identifying where activities start and finish. 

• It allows process improvement, including quality and consistency. With more insights into workflows, you will identify gray areas to improve, enhancing efficiency and delegating responsibilities to the right members. 

• Communication and collaboration inside and among departments improves. Commonly, multiple departments interact with each other during the development of a specific project. So, communication among them is vital to improve processes and accelerate workflows.

• It helps you to identify opportunities for process automation. Creating a process map will facilitate the identification of areas and activities where the human factor is irrelevant. This way, you can use AI or bots to automate simple functions. This also will allow you to reorganize core activities and allocate resources in key steps.

• Enhance employee training and onboarding. When hiring new employees, sometimes you must teach them general aspects of how your business works and how departments collaborate. That sometimes can be a complete waste of time. These diagrams perfectly show new employees how projects progress within your organization and how departments are linked. 

• It facilitates compliance with laws and regulations. Processes within your organization must comply with regulations and laws since its operations work within a legal framework. During the creation of stream maps, you must set “areas” that consider legal aspects, documentation, accountability, ledgers, and more.

Creating a process map is easy if you know the steps to complete the project. Now we mention all the steps you can take advantage of.

The project scope integrates project goals, key objectives, reasons behind the project, key stakeholders, resources, and involved tasks. The first step when creating high-level process maps is to determine all these elements to further organize activities according to relations, interactions, and the critical path. 

The best way to start creating this workflow diagram is to gather key stakeholders, project managers, and team members to determine crucial features that cannot be missing. 

After defining the overall scope, you probably have all the critical tasks and activities your team has to complete. But the basic flowchart you’ll create requires you to define smaller tasks to better control, manage, and track workflows. Besides, dividing tasks into smaller steps will allow you to ensure all the details have been addressed.

Smaller steps ought to be achievable within a single day, serving as foundational blocks that collectively shape a larger task, crucial for the development of a complex process. The supervision of these steps' completion falls under the responsibility of a single employee.

A fundamental characteristic of a well-designed process map template is its incorporation of interconnected steps that clearly outline the actions required for team members to progress throughout the project.

During the team meetings, you should collectively analyze and determine the interdependencies among tasks and steps. This practice will allow team members to understand how their performances feed and nurture each other. Besides, if members notice that completing their steps is vital for other members to begin with their own steps, they’ll complete their duties in a timely manner.

At this point, you have two choices: hand-draw an analog process map or create a process map using a proper tool for those purposes.

The first option allows you to control factors in real-time by adding tasks and steps you and your team consider crucial for the project. You can even hand-draw symbols on a board, add necessary activities for departments, incumbents, and needed resources. This diagram can be a good base for subsequent virtual versions.

The second alternative can be faster than the previous one and more valuable since you can easily edit and change the diagram. You can share the chart quickly so members know their tasks.

The best tool for implementing this second alternative is the Microsoft Office suite. With this tool, you can easily edit and even create your own template for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and have your process mapping in a matter of minutes.

If you do not have a reliable version of this suite yet, here, on RoyalCDKeys, you can purchase a copy of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global at €5,76.

This edition of Microsoft Office integrates all the classic applications of Windows’s data processor bundle. It means Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and OneNote. 

Below you’ll find four business process mapping templates that will be a precious tool to describe an entire process quickly. All of these documents address the process flowchart from a different point of view, allowing you to tailor your plan according to the style or nature of the project. 

Download it from SmartSheet.

This spreadsheet document is divided into two sections: one to quickly enter project-specific information and another to arrange flowcharts symbols and define the path. These process mapping symbols include shapes, arrows, decisions, and other elements to define the mapping. This Excel document facilitates the construction of business processes maps regardless of length or complexity. 

Download it from Templatelab.

This is a simple swim lane process map template you can use to build a business process mapping. This document brings multiple process mapping symbols by default and sections for departments or stakeholders within your startup. This business process mapping template allows you to replace data and change the positions of symbols and arrows to reorganize mapping. If your organization needs a brief document to sketch the process flow of a project or functionalities within your company, this is the right document for you. 

Download it from Bestcollections.

This template is crucial when planning process documentation and highlighting related tasks and steps. This is a straightforward spreadsheet containing two separate sections: a left section for the planning itself and the right section for remarking tools, documents, process ownership, and support. With this document, you will have all the data you need to analyze the process on the same page.

Download it from Tools4dev.

This swimlane process map is excellent for mapping any process step, decisions, loops, and the relationship between parts. This template places events and tasks, informs about how these elements work together, and delineates responsibilities or subprocesses. This is a PowerPoint template with multiple slides for organizing the stream map your company needs. Besides, it will facilitate building a visual representation and teach employees the process maps for specific processes.

Creating a process map is a critical step before planning any project. It works like a previous sketch where you organize all the tasks, activities, steps, and dates necessary to complete the employee process successfully. Process maps will help you avoid the waste of time that commonly appears when you do not plan in advance and understand how the project progresses.

If you’re looking for other solutions and improvements for your company, remember to browse the blog of RoyalCDKeys. We’re committed to giving you the best tools to enhance your organization.