A Closer Look At The Different Business Process Mapping Methods

Business process mapping methods help companies follow a systematic approach in managing their business. It helps in increasing the efficiency of the business by mapping out its work processes, the standards to be reached and the methods by which goals can be achieved.

Process mapping, is a basic part of business process management and is defined as the practice of creating visual aids for processes/workflows that can include process inputs and outputs and how they are related to each other.

One of the most common methods of process mapping is flowcharting. This is considered the most basic form of process mapping. A flowchart is a visual representation of the series of activities that make up a business process. Here are some very important terms that are commonly used in business process mapping that you will encounter as you study this field:

* SIPOC is the acronym for Supplier, Inputs, Process, Output and Customer. This process mapping technique is followed by Six Sigma and BPR professionals. The technique captures control and information flow together with the customers and suppliers, which are also mapped by this technique.

* IDEF or Integrated DEFinition. The methodology proposes 16 methods ranging from IDEF0 to IDEF14 and was developed by the United States Air Force in the 1970s. The 16 standards or methods are each designed and aimed to capture specific types of information through various modeling processes. These methods are utilized to make graphical representations of a range of systems (processes in current use within the organization), and then create a model of a desire version of the system. Finally you would analyze the model and aid in the transition from one model to the other.

New methodologies include business process modeling notation. This is one of the newest business processing mapping methodologies, the aim of which is to enable organizations that are using these methodologies to define, document and display business processes through diagrams that use standard graphical symbols.