91制片厂 Better Workflows

Do you experience any of the following challenges:

You lack process documentation.
Your documentation lacks flowchart examples.
Your workflows have points of friction and need improvement.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Don鈥檛 just document 鈥� target your future state as you document your workflows.
Find opportunities for automation, pinpoint key handoff points, and turn cold handoffs into warm handoffs

Impact and Result

Understand the basics of documenting a workflow in flowchart format.
Run activities to revise and stress-test your workflows to improve their accuracy and effectiveness.
Ensure your workflows are part of a continuous improvement cycle 鈥� keep them up to date as a living document.

91制片厂 Better Workflows 91制片厂 & Tools

1. 91制片厂 Better Workflows 鈥� A step by step document that walks you through the process of convening a working group to design and update a process flowchart.

Ask the right questions and pressure test the workflow so the documentation is as helpful as possible to all who consult it.

2. Workflow Activity: An onboarding example for a completed flowchart review.

Use this workflow as an example of the output of an onboarding workflow-improvement activity.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

10.0/10

Overall Impact

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Experience

Impact

$ Saved

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Testimonial

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

The best part was the collaboration. Collaborative in every sense of the word!!

91制片厂 Better Workflows

Go beyond draft one to refine and pressure test your process.

Analyst Perspective

Remove friction as you document workflows

Emily Sugerman
91制片厂 Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations

91制片厂

You can鈥檛 mature processes without also documenting them. Process documentation is most effective when workflows are both written out and also visualized in the form of flow charts.

Your workflows may appear in standard operating procedures, in business continuity and disaster recovery plans, or anywhere else a process鈥� steps need to be made explicit. Often, just getting something down on paper is a win. However, the best workflows usually do not emerge fully-formed out of a first draft. Your workflow documentation must achieve two things:

Be an accurate representation of how you currently operate or how you will operate in the near future as a target state.
Be the output of a series of refinements and improvements as the workflow is reviewed and iterated.

This research will use the example of improving an onboarding workflow. Ask the right questions and pressure test the workflow so the documentation is as helpful as possible to all who consult it.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge	Common Obstacles	Info-Tech鈥檚 Approach
Your documentation lacks workflows entirely, or ... Your workflows are documented in flowchart form but are not accurate, and/or ... Your workflows are documented in flowchart form but contain points of friction and need process improvement.	Getting the relevant stakeholders together to contribute to workflow design and validate them. Selecting the right detail level to include in the workflow 鈥� not too much and not too little. Knowing the right questions to ask to review and improve your workflow flowcharts.	Use this material to help Understand the basics of documenting a workflow in flowchart format. Run activities to revise and stress-test your workflows to improve their accuracy and effectiveness. Ensure your workflows are part of a continuous improvement cycle 鈥� keep them up-to-date as a living document.

Your Challenge

Common Obstacles

Info-Tech鈥檚 Approach

Your documentation lacks workflows entirely, or ...
Your workflows are documented in flowchart form but are not accurate, and/or ...
Your workflows are documented in flowchart form but contain points of friction and need process improvement.

Getting the relevant stakeholders together to contribute to workflow design and validate them.
Selecting the right detail level to include in the workflow 鈥� not too much and not too little.
Knowing the right questions to ask to review and improve your workflow flowcharts.

Use this material to help

Understand the basics of documenting a workflow in flowchart format.
Run activities to revise and stress-test your workflows to improve their accuracy and effectiveness.
Ensure your workflows are part of a continuous improvement cycle 鈥� keep them up-to-date as a living document.

Info-Tech Insight

Don鈥檛 just document 鈥� target your future state as you document your workflows. Find opportunities for automation, pinpoint key handoff points, and turn cold handoffs into warm handoffs.

Follow these steps to build, analyze, and improve the workflow

The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates the steps needed to build better workflows.

Insight Summary

Keep future state in mind.
Don鈥檛 just document 鈥� target your future state as you document your workflows. Find opportunities for automation, pinpoint key handoff points, and turn cold handoffs into warm handoffs.

Promote the benefits of documenting workflows as flowcharts.
Foreground to the IT team how this will improve customer experience. End-users will benefit from more efficient workflows.

Remember the principle of constructive criticism.
Don鈥檛 be afraid to critique the workflow but remember this can be a team-building experience. Focus on how these changes will be mutually beneficial, not assigning blame for workflow friction.

Don鈥檛 waste time building shelfware.
Establish a review cadence to ensure the flowchart is a living document that people actually use.

Benefits of building better workflows

Risks of inadequate workflows	Benefits of documented workflows
Lack of clear communication: If you don鈥檛 have workflows, you are losing out on an effective way to document and communicate processes. Outdated documentation: If you do have workflows documented in standard operating procedures, they probably need to be updated unless you already consistently update documentation.	Facilitate knowledge transfer. Standardize processes for service delivery consistency. Optimize processes by discovering and improving points of friction within the workflow. Improve transparency of processes to set expectations for other stakeholders. Reduce risk.

Why are visualized workflows useful?

Use these talking points to build commitment toward documenting/updating processes.

Risk reduction
鈥淥ur outdated documentation is a risk, as people will assume the documented process is accurate.鈥�

Transparency
鈥淭he activity of mapping our processes will bring transparency to everyone involved.鈥�

Accountability
鈥淔low charts will help us clarify task ownership at a glance.鈥�

Accessibility
鈥淪ome team members prefer diagrams over written steps, so we should provide both.鈥�

Knowledge centralization
鈥淥ur flow charts will include links to other supporting documentation (checklists, vendor documentation, other flowcharts).鈥�

Role clarification
鈥淪eparating steps into swim lanes can clarify different tiers, process stages, and ownership, while breaking down silos.鈥�

Communication
To leadership/upper management: 鈥淭his process flow chart quickly depicts the big picture.鈥�

Knowledge transfer
鈥淔low charts will help bring new staff up to speed more quickly.鈥�

Consistency
鈥淒ocumenting a process standardizes it and enables everyone to do it in the same way.鈥�

Review what process mapping is

A pictorial representation of a process that is used to achieve transparency.

This research will use one specific example of an onboarding process workflow. Before drilling down into onboarding workflows specifically, review Info-Tech鈥檚 Process Mapping Guide for general guidance on what to do before you begin:

Know the purpose of process mapping.
Articulate the benefits of process mapping.
Recognize the risks of not process mapping.
Understand the different levels of processes.
Adopt BPMN 2.0 as a standard.
Consider tools for process mapping.
Select a process to map.
Learn methods to gather information.

The image contains screenshots of the Process Mapping Guide.

Download the Process Mapping Guide

Select the workflow your team will focus upon

Good candidates include:

Processes you don鈥檛 have documented and need to build from scratch.
An existing process that results in an output your users are currently dissatisfied with (if you run an annual IT satisfaction survey, use this data to find this information).
An existing process that is overly manual, lacks automation, and causes work slowdown for your staff.

Info-Tech workflow examples

Active Directory Processes

Application Development Process

Application Maintenance Process

Backup Process

Benefits Legitimacy Workflow

Business Continuity Plan Business Process

Business Continuity Plan Recovery Process

Commitment Purchasing Workflow

Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Process

Crisis Management Process

Data Protection Recovery Workflow

Disaster Recovery Process

Disaster Recovery Plan/Business Continuity Plan Review Workflow

End-User Device Management Workflow Library

Expense Process

Event Management Process

Incident Management and Service Desk Workflows

MACD Workflow Mapping

Problem Management Process

Project Management Process

Ransomware Response Process

Sales Process for New Clients

Security Policy Exception Process

Self-Service Resolution Process

Service Definition Process

Service Desk Ticket Intake by Channel

Software Asset Management Processes

Target State Maintenance Workflow

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