Sticky Notes for Process Mapping

Believe it or not, this photo shows the outline of two chapters in the process guide I'm writing!

Using sticky notes is a common technique for mapping business processes. Having people write their tasks on sticky notes and arrange them in sequences is a simple idea but so effective.

I can't remember where I first read about the technique but it really appealed to me. I planned to try the technique on a project last year but the processes were straight forward, making it easy for me to diagram them before reviewing them with the business analyst.

My current project is much more complex. I'm writing a process guide using a project plan and a recording from a workshop, which describes the tasks in the project plan. The overall project is divided into phases such as requirements gathering, data collection and development. However, the tasks in the project plan are grouped by functional area so tasks from different phases (in particular the data collection and development phases) can be grouped within a functional area as shown.

I tried drawing the process flow from the project plan but found I was continually deleting or adding tasks or moving them around.

So, I transcribed the data collection and development tasks to sticky notes (one task per sticky note and one colour for each role), sorted the tasks into the phases, and then ordered the tasks within each phase.

The photo at the top might look like unordered groups of sticky notes on a piece of paper but the end result was the following diagram.

I still had to move tasks around before I finalised the process flow but those sticky notes helped me to organise my thoughts and produce an initial diagram.

Maybe, using sticky notes the way I have was not how people originally envisioned notes would be used for process mapping. However, for me, this technique ended up being the most efficient and effective way to organise the information from the project plan and diagram the process flow.

Now all I have to do is document it!