Why process documentation is crucial to your business

In my 30-year career helping organizations around the world to innovate, I’ve asked hundreds of top managers the same question: What is the biggest challenge you’re facing right now? 

I often hear the same answer: Fear of the unknown.

I see it across company ranks. Top executives and managers alike fret about not knowing how the whole organization is performing, who’s doing what, and how processes are managed.

You may know that sinking feeling in your stomach when you suspect that a flaw in your business processes is taking up valuable resources and pulling people away from more important tasks, but you can’t figure out what it is. A CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation once told me, “I can look at numbers, but I cannot look at my entire organization.”

The problem gets even bigger when your company is onboarding new hires. Without a high-level understanding of business processes, you could lose both time and money as new employees focus solely on fulfilling their daily tasks.

Fear is also at the root of why some organizations don’t embrace innovation, such as cloud IT. While executives may worry about the loss of control over function and data, employees fear being displaced due to technological advancements. 

“I fear losing control over my data and my IT.”

I hear that a lot.

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So how can your organization determine where it’s losing valuable resources? How do you empower your staff and help them prepare for the future?

A popular German saying reminds us that “It’s better to be wrong in a planned way than to be accidentally right.” That’s exactly what I tell my clients. Instead of guessing, get organized and ready. That way, if things ever go wrong, you’ll know exactly why it happened and how to fix it.

To get rid of fears and anxieties, develop a plan to document your processes. Documentation will empower your employees to make more informed decisions and foster a growth mindset. It will also boost your organization’s ability to react to new and unexpected events quickly.

Process documentation can be applied to IT and throughout your entire organization, helping ensure:

You have a full overview of IT systems, their components, and data location.
You understand how IT currently works and how it should work in the future.
You support all employees by providing helpful instructions.
Everyone knows what to do in difficult situations, such as an IT outage or disruption.
Employees know where they can get the information they need.

Using a process portal can help your organization:

Document important process information.
Highlight repetitive operations.
Accelerate decision-making.
Detect potential solutions.
Store essential insights in a central location.
Streamline your processes.

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What is involved in process documentation?

Good process documentation captures the current situation in your organization and generates insights about potential project outcomes. While you can’t foresee everything that might happen, you’ll have control over all the key components. A documented overview also helps you identify the necessary changes quickly in case of unexpected disruptions.

Follow these steps to get started:

Identify the stakeholders responsible for the processes you want to learn more about. Appoint a project owner for each team who will focus on recording, organizing information, and ensuring all the processes are covered.
Educate your teams about controlled planning and documentation processes. Employees will need to understand their responsibilities and boundaries, as well as prerequisites to start and proceed with the project.
Find a suitable system and implement it. Having the right business tools will foster collaboration and help your team work faster.

Essential components of process documentation

Simplicity: Your process documentation system must be intuitive and easy to use, so employees don’t have to spend weeks learning it. To reduce uncertainty about corporate guidelines, operations, or process steps, make sure everyone, including new hires, understands where that information is stored and how to access it.

Central repository: Create a central repository to store and manage all your data, save space, and protect your important files. A well-organized document repository designed with users’ needs in mind requires coordination among records managers, compliance officers, and IT professionals.

Process mapping: A process map helps you analyze your IT systems, components, and data location. Also called a process flow chart, it can help boost efficiency and productivity by highlighting deadlines and task owners. Most importantly, a process map helps you recognize opportunities for improvement right away.

Document processing: Take advantage of document process mapping, which defines the inputs and outputs of a project and helps you understand all the factors that may affect your work. To visualize what the final result should look like, outline all the moving parts, including tangible items or services you’ll need at each stage. 

Distribution: To foster collaboration in your company, make sure your system can be easily accessed and shared. While many software tools support process documentation, it’s also helpful to have a system that incorporates various IT components.

Operational resilience

Regardless of the type of business you manage, process documentation is one of the keys to success in surviving unforeseen circumstances. When you replace fear of the unknown with the confidence that comes from full insight into how your organization is performing, you bolster business resilience and future performance.

Senaj Lelic is the Managing Director of oneAssist GmbH Information in Berlin, Germany. He helps companies visualize and successfully communicate corporate information and data through BPM portals, dashboards, and visual solutions for product configuration and data handling.

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Why process documentation is crucial to your business

Develop a plan

Get Microsoft Teams for free

What is involved in process documentation?

Essential components of process documentation

Operational resilience

Get started with Microsoft 365

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