Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Document your Business Process

Every business needs to document the process of how things are done in their business. If you don’t state in writing what you what to happen within your company it just won’t happen, especially in the way that you expect.

Just like instructions to do a task, a business process states how things are to be handled at your company, in brief form. It doesn't have to be as detailed as a procedure or policy manual. Think of your business process as "the big picture" that helps to explain how your business functions. What you do in your business will determine how detailed the document is and what form it takes on.

It may take the form of a gantt chart or it could take the form of a flow chart. If that is too elaborate for you just put it in writing, it will be referred to often. It may become a jumping point for creating employee training instructions (saving you time every time you hire someone), company referral charts (where do we buy this, who do we call to refer that service, etc) and many more documents that together may be come your company policies and procedures.

Wouldn't it be nice if the next time an employee says to you "how do we do backup" you can just say "did you look first?" in the documentation!

For more information on "Documenting your Business Process" go to http://www.successif.biz/ and click on Articles and Links.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you tried SmartDraw for documenting biz processes? It works great for workflows, gantt charts, timelines, schedules, and more. You can learn more at: www.smartdraw.com/specials/project-software.htm

Sarah Keiser said...

I have not used Smart Draw but have using Viseo and MS Project.

Thank you for reading!