Workflow Mapping I: The Current State

What you will learn

Explain why an unmapped process cannot be safely automated.
Produce a SIPOC summary (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers) for a task.
Draw a swimlane diagram that shows every actor, step, decision, hand-off and wait.
Tag pain points with a consistent vocabulary and estimate the time each step takes.
Run a short mapping interview with a colleague without leading them.

Prerequisites: Module 2: Prompting for Operators and your task inventory from Module 1. You will need a free draw.io account or the desktop app.

1. Why map before you automate

The most common automation failure is not technical. It is automating the process as one person thinks it works, then discovering the exceptions that three other people quietly handle every week. Automation makes a process rigid. If you freeze a process you have not looked at, you freeze the workarounds too.

Mapping is cheap. Two hours with a whiteboard or draw.io usually reveals duplicated data entry, approvals nobody reads, and a wait of days for a step that takes minutes. Often the map alone fixes a third of the problem before any tool is involved.

The rule

You may only automate a step you can describe precisely enough that a stranger could do it from your description. Mapping is how you find out which steps those are.

2. Start wide: the SIPOC

Before drawing steps, fix the boundaries. SIPOC is a one-line summary that stops you mapping the wrong thing.

Letter	Question	Example: leave requests
Suppliers	Who provides the inputs?	Employees, line managers, HR system
Inputs	What arrives to start or feed the process?	Leave form, remaining balance, team calendar
Process	The five to seven biggest steps, no detail yet	Submit, check balance, manager decides, update calendar, confirm
Outputs	What leaves the process?	Approved or declined request, updated calendar, balance
Customers	Who receives the outputs?	Employee, payroll, the team

Write the trigger (what starts it) and the end state (how you know it is finished) above the table. A process without a clear trigger cannot be automated, because automation tools need something to listen for.

3. The swimlane diagram

A swimlane diagram is a flowchart with one horizontal lane per actor: each person, team or system that touches the work. Steps sit in the lane of whoever does them. Every time the flow crosses a lane, that is a hand-off, and hand-offs are where time is lost and information is dropped.

Trigger

A rounded shape at the far left. "Email arrives", "Form submitted", "First of the month".

Step

A rectangle with a verb and an object: "Check leave balance". One action per box.

Decision

A diamond with a yes/no question and labelled exits. If a decision has more than two exits, it is usually two decisions.

Wait

Annotate the arrow with how long the work sits before the next step starts. Waits are usually longer than the work.

Two numbers on every step

Write touch time (minutes of actual work) and wait time (how long it sits before that work starts). A process with 25 minutes of touch time and 4 days of elapsed time is not slow because people are slow. It is slow because it queues six times. That distinction decides what you automate: notifications and routing fix waits; AI steps fix touch time.

Map what happens, not what should

Include the workaround where the coordinator emails the manager privately because the system notification is ignored. That workaround is real; the official step is fiction. Automate reality.

4. Tagging pain points

Once the map is drawn, walk through it with a fixed set of tags. Using the same vocabulary across every map lets you compare processes later.

Tag	Meaning	Typical fix
`REKEY`	Same data typed into a second system	Automation copies it
`WAIT`	Work sits for hours or days for no reason but attention	Notifications, reminders, routing
`READ`	A person reads free text to decide or extract something	AI classification or extraction step
`DRAFT`	A person writes near-identical text repeatedly	AI drafting step, human sends
`CHASE`	Someone reminds someone else to act	Scheduled reminders with escalation
`RUBBER`	An approval that is always given without reading	Remove it, or turn it into an exception check
`JUDGE`	A real decision needing judgement or accountability	Keep human; give them a better summary

Notice that JUDGE is a pain-point tag too. It is not a problem to solve; it is a step to protect. Marking it now is how the human stays in the loop by design rather than by accident, which is the subject of Module 10.

5. Mapping with colleagues

You rarely know the whole process. Twenty minutes with each person who touches it will change your map. Some rules that keep the interview honest:

Ask "walk me through the last one you did", not "how does this work?". The last real case contains the exceptions.
Ask "what happens if...?" at every decision: if the manager is on leave, if the balance is negative, if the form is incomplete.
Ask for the artefacts: the actual email, the spreadsheet, the form. Take screenshots with permission.
Do not propose fixes during the interview. People stop describing and start defending.
Confirm the map with them afterwards. A map nobody has checked is a guess with boxes.

Drawing in draw.io

draw.io (also called diagrams.net) is free, needs no account for the desktop version, and saves to Google Drive or OneDrive. Use Arrange > Insert > Layout > Horizontal Flow for a quick start, or search the shape panel for "swimlane" to insert a pool with lanes. Keep one process per page and export as PNG for sharing.

Practical lab

You will map the course task you selected in Module 1 as it runs today. Work in draw.io; if you prefer Miro or Lucidchart the steps are identical. Budget an hour, including a short conversation with at least one colleague who touches the process.

1

Write the SIPOC and trigger

At the top of a new document, fill in Suppliers, Inputs, Process (five to seven steps), Outputs and Customers. Above it write the trigger and the end state in one sentence each.

2

Interview one colleague

Spend fifteen minutes with someone who does part of the process. Use these openers and write down every exception they mention:

1. Walk me through the last one you handled, from the moment it arrived. 2. What did you have to look up, and where? 3. Who did you wait for, and how long? 4. When does this go wrong, and what do you do then? 5. Is there a step you do that isn't in the official process?

3

Create the swimlanes

In draw.io insert a pool with one lane per actor, including systems (email, HR system, spreadsheet) as their own lanes. Place the trigger at the far left.

4

Add steps, decisions and hand-offs

Add one rectangle per action and a diamond per decision, connected in order. Every arrow that crosses a lane is a hand-off; count them and write the number in the title.

5

Add the two numbers

On each step write touch time in minutes. On each arrow write the typical wait. Total both at the bottom: total touch time versus total elapsed time.

6

Tag the pain points

Add a small coloured label to each step using the tags from Section 4 (REKEY, WAIT, READ, DRAFT, CHASE, RUBBER, JUDGE). A step may carry more than one.

7

Ask your assistant to review the map

Export the diagram as PNG and, if your assistant accepts images, upload it with this prompt. Otherwise paste a text list of the steps.

This is a current-state swimlane map of a business process. List (1) any step that seems to be missing between two connected steps, (2) decisions that have no "no" path, and (3) the three hand-offs most likely to lose information. Do not suggest automation yet.

8

Confirm with your colleague

Show them the map for five minutes and correct anything they push back on. Save as M3-current-state.

Deliverable

The current-state swimlane (PNG and source file) with SIPOC, touch and wait times, pain-point tags, hand-off count, and a five-line note on what the colleague interview changed.

Knowledge check

Pick one answer per question, then check your score. These mirror the style of the final exam.

1. Why should a process be mapped before it is automated?

Because automation tools require a diagram file Because automation freezes the process, including any workarounds and exceptions you have not seen To make the project look professional Because mapping replaces the need for testing

Why: Automation makes a process rigid. Mapping first reveals the exceptions and workarounds that would otherwise be locked in or broken.

2. In a swimlane diagram, what does an arrow crossing from one lane to another represent?

A decision A loop A hand-off between actors The end of the process

Why: Lanes are actors; crossing lanes is a hand-off, and hand-offs are where waits and lost information accumulate.

3. A process has 25 minutes of touch time and four days of elapsed time. What does this tell you?

The people are slow Most of the time is waiting, so notifications and routing will help more than AI steps It needs a full autonomous agent It cannot be automated

Why: Elapsed time far above touch time means the work queues. Waits are fixed with reminders, routing and escalation, not with faster work.

4. Which pain-point tag marks a step you should protect rather than automate?

REKEY CHASE JUDGE RUBBER

Why: JUDGE marks a real decision needing accountability. It stays with a person; the automation's job is to prepare a better summary for them.

5. Which interview question is most likely to reveal the real process?

How does this process work? What would you improve? Walk me through the last one you handled Do you follow the official procedure?

Why: A specific recent case contains the exceptions and workarounds that a general description leaves out.

Self-check

Answer in your own words first, then open the model answer.

1. What is the difference between touch time and wait time, and why does it change what you automate?

Touch time is minutes of actual work; wait time is how long the item sits before that work starts. Large waits are fixed by notifications, routing and reminders; large touch time on reading or writing is fixed by AI steps.

2. Why do systems get their own swimlane?

Because entering data into a system, or waiting for a system to send something, is a hand-off like any other. Showing it exposes REKEY and WAIT steps that people forget because they feel like part of the job.

3. Name two things a map must contain before you move to Module 4.

A clear trigger and end state, actors in lanes with every step and decision, touch and wait times, pain-point tags, and confirmation from at least one colleague who does the work.

Summary

Key takeaways

Automation freezes a process. Map what really happens, including workarounds, before freezing anything.
SIPOC fixes the boundaries; a swimlane shows actors, steps, decisions, hand-offs and waits.
Two numbers on every step: touch time and wait time. They decide whether routing or AI is the fix.
Tag pain points with a fixed vocabulary, and mark JUDGE steps to protect the human decision.
Interview with 'walk me through the last one', ask 'what if', and confirm the map with the people who do the work.

Further reading: Roles and accountabilities (Scrum course) · Draw the loop (DevOps Lab, Module 1) · draw.io