Process map
Processes & experienceField guide · Processes & experience · 1 of 6
What steps does the work go through, with its decisions, exceptions and rework?
On a process map, each step of a piece of work is a box, each decision a diamond and the start and end ovals, joined in order by lines with arrowheads.
| Mark | Drawn as | Stands for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| start or end | an oval with words | where the process starts, and each way it ends | NHS, p. 34; ANSI §3.4.2 |
| step | a box with the step’s name | a task done in the process | NHS, p. 34; ANSI §3.2.2 |
| decision | a diamond with a question | a question with one path out for each answer | NHS, p. 34; ANSI §3.3.2.1 |
| the next step | a line with an arrowhead | the order of the work | NHS, p. 34; ANSI §4.4 |
| five kinds of step | a large circle, a short line with an arrowhead, a square, a D and a triangle | the ASME’s operation, transport, inspection, delay (a wait, not an effect’s delay) and storage, of 1947; not in the figure | Mackieh, p. 2; Barnes, ch. 5 |
| work outside the department charted | a broken line | not in the figure, since a dash means hypothesis in this book | Gilbreth, Fig. 3 |
| a remark on a step | words joined to it by a broken line | not in the figure, for the same reason | ANSI §3.2.4 |
| parallel processes; problems and ideas | a color of note or line for each | not in the figure, which is drawn in one color | NHS, pp. 17, 34 |
A line with an arrowhead
Section titled “A line with an arrowhead”A line with an arrowhead means then: the step at its head comes next. Whereas an effect produces a change in the variable at its head, this line only orders two steps, so a path back to an earlier step is rework, the step done again, not a loop.
Renewing a passport by post
Section titled “Renewing a passport by post”Someone renewing a UK passport by post first rules out a lost, stolen or damaged one, which is replaced instead, then fills in a paper form, pays £115.50 and posts the form with two photos and the old passport. The line back to the check is rework, which can take the application past the usual three weeks. The new passport, with a new number, comes by courier or Royal Mail.
When to draw one
Section titled “When to draw one”Draw one before changing a piece of work, to see each step it goes through and each decision where it can go different ways. The Gilbreths charted the present method beside the proposed one in 1921, for production, selling, accounting and finance alike; NHS improvement teams map what happens to a patient 80% of the time, with each step’s time and the wait between steps.
When not to draw one
Section titled “When not to draw one”Where the question is who does each step, the answer is a swimlane diagram, with a lane for each party. Why a backlog keeps growing is a question of causes, not of order, and a causal loop diagram shows the loops that grow it. A short sequence one person does with no decision is a numbered list.
Reasoning and polish
Section titled “Reasoning and polish”- Start, tasks, one decision, and end
- Waits, moves, checks, return paths, and the time of each step and each wait
- Distances and times at every step, and the proposed method beside the present one
Related types
Section titled “Related types”- A swimlane diagram is a process map with a lane for each party that does part of the work.
- In BPMN, steps, decisions and their order are drawn as on a process map, in a notation defined formally enough that some diagrams can be run by software.
- A value stream map is a process map with data added: each step’s time, the waiting between steps, and the information that tells each step what to make next.
- A service blueprint is a flowchart, as a process map is, with the customer’s actions laid out first, along the top, and the work that supports them beneath.
- A process map orders the steps of the work with no mark for how they could change; on a Wardley map each component is placed by how evolved it is, and its expected movement is drawn.
Sources
Section titled “Sources”- Frank B. Gilbreth and L. M. Gilbreth, “Process Charts: First Steps in Finding the One Best Way to Do Work”, a paper to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, December 1921, on the process chart’s purpose, the present and proposed methods, and the broken line for work outside the department charted.
- Ralph M. Barnes, Motion and Time Study, 3rd ed. (Wiley, 1949), chapter 5, on process charts and the ASME’s five symbols.
- Adham Mackieh, Process Analysis, lecture notes, Eastern Mediterranean University, pp. 1–4, on the ASME’s five symbols as they differ from the Gilbreths’, and the present and proposed methods charted side by side.
- American National Standards Institute, Flowchart Symbols and Their Usage in Information Processing, X3.5-1970, adopted as FIPS PUB 24 (National Bureau of Standards, 1973), on the terminal, process and decision symbols, the flowline and its direction, and the broken line of a remark.
- NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, Improvement Leaders’ Guide: Process Mapping, Analysis and Redesign (2005), on the oval, box, diamond and lines with arrowheads, mapping what happens 80% of the time, and the time of each step and each wait.
- GOV.UK, Renew or replace your adult passport, and HM Passport Office, About our services, for the figure’s steps, its fee and its three weeks, as read on 10 October 2026.