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For any organisation looking to scale or grow, one thing is crucial—effective process management. Regardless of size or industry, every organisation relies on a multitude of processes to operate effectively. However, as businesses expand and evolve, so do their processes—often at an exponential pace. Without proper management, these growing processes can lead to siloed departments, unclear responsibilities, and operational bottlenecks.
Recognising the critical need for streamlined operations, organisations are turning to Business Process Management (BPM) strategies. Since every BPM project centres around documenting and mapping business processes, the demand for professionals equipped with the necessary skills in Business Process Mapping is on the rise.
In this blog post, we’ll delve into the seven must-have business process mapping skills to advance your career in the booming market. Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking to enhance your skill set or a newcomer seeking to enter the field, these skills are essential to pave the way for a rewarding and prosperous career journey in the business process management industry.
The Rise in Market Demand for Process Mapping Skills
According to recent research by Grand View Research, Inc., the global BPM market is experiencing significant growth, driven by the need for businesses to gain competitive advantages through process optimisation. Another report by MarketsandMarkets estimates the global BPM market size to reach USD 23.04 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 14.2%. In this dynamic environment, individuals who possess the right blend of business process mapping skills are in high demand, offering them a plethora of opportunities for career advancement and professional growth.
7 Essential Skills You Require to Map Business Processes Efficiently
Mapping business processes efficiently requires a unique combination of technical expertise and soft skills. Here are seven essential skills you need to master for effective business process mapping:
Proficiency with BPMN 2.0: Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) is a worldwide recognised language for process mapping. Good knowledge of BPMN 2.0 is essential to create standardised process diagrams that can be easily understood by all stakeholders. Understanding BPMN symbols and notation conventions enables you to accurately document process flows, activities, decisions, and interactions, facilitating effective communication and analysis. However, as per a global survey of 4,500+ BPM professionals, nearly 60% of BPM professionals rate their BPMN skills as average or below average, highlighting a concerning skills gap.
Understanding the Mapping Rules: There are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to process mapping. These rules include limiting the number of tasks in a process (typically between 5 to 15 tasks), avoiding the use of nouns in process names, deciding the level of mapping as per the user, etc. Adhering to these rules helps streamline process documentation and ensures that process maps effectively serve their intended purpose.
Business Acumen: Mapping your business processes is not just about documenting workflows; it’s about understanding how those workflows contribute to the overall objectives and success of the organisation. Strong business acumen enables you to contextualise process maps within the broader organisational context, aligning process improvements with strategic goals and priorities. Understanding the interdependencies between processes, departments, and stakeholders is crucial for driving meaningful process improvements that deliver tangible business value.
Attention to Detail: Business processes often involve numerous steps, decisions, and dependencies. Attention to detail is essential for accurately capturing each component of a process, including inputs, outputs, decision points, and workflow logic. Thorough documentation of process details ensures that process maps are comprehensive, accurate, and actionable, minimising the risk of misinterpretation or oversight.
Collaborative Capabilities: Mapping processes often requires collaboration with various stakeholders, including subject matter experts, process owners, and end-users. Strong collaborative skills enable you to engage with diverse stakeholders, solicit input, and incorporate feedback to create process maps that reflect the collective knowledge and expertise of the organisation. Collaborative capabilities foster buy-in and ownership of process improvements, driving greater alignment and commitment to change initiatives.
Gathering the Right Information: The ability to capture the right process information is key to an accurate representation of the process. Asking the right questions in stakeholder interviews and gathering the right information leads to the development of a detailed process map, which can be used to run analytics for identifying issues and improvement opportunities.
Analytical Thinking: One of the key uses of business process mapping is to understand inefficiencies in the current state process and eliminate them to create optimised future state processes. Hence, an analytical mindset is a must to ensure you are gathering all the right details in the process map essential for interpreting process data, identifying patterns, and uncovering insights that drive process optimisation. Analytical skills enable you to make data-driven decisions and measure the impact of process changes, ensuring continuous improvement and optimisation of business processes.
Tips to Improve Your Business Process Mapping Skills
Here are some tips to follow at the process mapping stage to ensure the desired output from your project.
- Pay attention to process scoping and objectives: Define clear start and end points and project objectives to avoid losing direction and ensure project success.
- Develop comprehensive process maps: Don’t just capture process steps. To give a 360-degree view of the process, also capture essential process attributes, including tasks, roles, documents, applications, risk, etc.
- Always remember the goal of process mapping: Keep in mind the purpose of the mapping project, whether it’s time-saving, cost reduction, productivity, or efficiency, to stay focused on achieving the desired outcomes.
- Join a practical process mapping course: Enrol in a course to gain practical skills and insights into effective process mapping methodologies and techniques.
- Understand to which level you need to map your process: Your business processes need to be mapped at different levels depending on: who is your audience, what do they want to see and what is the purpose of the map? For instance, you need to map your process differently for a process doer and an executive team member.To understand more about deciding the level of process mapping, watch this video: To what level should I map my business processes
- Avoid overcrowding process maps: Break down processes into manageable chunks of 5 to 20 tasks for clarity and ease of understanding.
- Focus on stakeholder interviews: Engage with relevant stakeholders to gather insights into process pain points and ensure interview efficiency by selecting the right stakeholders and preparing in advance.Watch this quick video to learn the right procedure to gather process information at the time of the interview: How to gather Process Information
- Ask the right questions: Prepare well-defined questionnaires and engage with stakeholders to gather valuable insights into process pain points, challenges, and improvement opportunities
- Don’t take anything for granted: Avoid assumptions and delve deeper into each aspect of the process to uncover hidden inefficiencies or opportunities for optimisation.
Where to Find the Right Business Process Mapping Course
Building essential skills in business process mapping will help you advance your career in the growing BPM market. Whether it’s understanding BPMN standards, honing analytical abilities, or fostering collaborative capabilities, these skills empower professionals to drive process optimisation and organisational efficiency.
If you’re keen on levelling up your business process mapping skills, consider enrolling in PRIME BPM’s comprehensive BPM Foundation and Process Mapping Course. With 16 hours of curriculum, including concept-based learning videos and practical exercises, the online course offers a structured approach to elevate your process mapping skills. Learn at your own pace, anytime and anywhere, and gain a deep understanding of building high-quality, detailed process maps using globally accepted BPMN standards.
Curated by BPM practitioners, the course includes practical insights gathered from 200+ successful BPM deployments. Read more about the concepts covered in the courses>> https://www.primebpm.com/advanced-business-process-mapping-course/