Trigger and endpoint.
Define purpose, start condition, completion, customer, supplier, scope, and exclusions.
01 / Services / Defined Process Map
Formal procedures describe what should happen.
This establishes what actually does.
A bounded current-state map for one clearly defined workflow, validated with the people who perform it.
Capture the trigger, inputs, steps, decisions, ownership, handoffs, exceptions, controls, delays, records, and outcome that make the process what it is.
Defined Process Map / Starting at $1,50002 / The premise
A clean diagram is not enough. Make the work visible. Then decide.
The map creates a shared operating artifact before automation, SOP writing, training, or redesign begins.
03 / Operating signals
04 / The operating question
What actually happens between start and done? Follow one path.
Formal procedures often describe intent. Performers know the real sequence, workarounds, waits, decisions, and rework that occur in practice. This engagement establishes one bounded process as it runs today, then validates the model with relevant stakeholders.
The four questions are deliberately blunt. Most process documentation answers the first and the last, then leaves the middle to assumption — which is exactly where cost, delay, and rework accumulate.
A map that records only the approved route is a description of intent. A map that records the waits, the returns, and the informal authority is a description of the operation.
05 / What a finished map looks like
One bounded process. Every lane, wait, and return on the record.
Below is an illustrative current-state map: a customer request moving to order fulfillment across six lanes. Note what a conventional flowchart leaves out — the two-day supplier wait, the manual status update, the exception path to an alternate supplier, and the loop back for more information.
06 / What becomes visible
Map more than boxes and arrows. Capture the operating detail.
Steps and decisions.
Capture activities, decisions, waits, loops, approvals, and standard sequence.
Role and ownership.
Identify the people performing, approving, receiving, escalating, and closing work.
Exceptions and friction.
Record workarounds, rework, handoff problems, delays, controls, and missing information.
07 / Method
Current state first. Improvement after reality. Validate the map.
01 / SCOPEBound
02 / DISCOVERListen
03 / MAPCapture
04 / VALIDATEWalk
05 / DELIVERExplain
- Scope. Set the process boundary, intended use, participants, evidence, and level of detail.
- Discover. Review supporting artifacts and listen to the people who perform the work.
- Map. Represent the current workflow, decisions, handoffs, systems, exceptions, and records.
- Validate. Walk the draft with stakeholders and reconcile missing steps or variants.
- Deliver. Provide a maintainable map, notes, assumptions, glossary, and visible improvement candidates.
08 / The deliverable
Give one process a shared operating picture. Make the next decision easier.
- Process charter. Purpose, trigger, endpoint, scope, assumptions, and intended use.
- Context frame. Suppliers, inputs, outputs, customers, constraints, and measures where useful.
- Current-state map. Validated workflow at the agreed level of detail.
- Responsibility view. Roles, ownership, approvals, handoffs, and escalation points.
- Friction register. Delays, duplication, rework, missing information, control gaps, and improvement candidates.
- Editable source. Maintainable source with two consolidated correction rounds.
09 / Service ladder
Move up only when the process needs more structure. Choose the right map.
10 / Clear boundaries
The map represents the work. It does not silently become a redesign. Keep scope visible.
Reality before ideal.
Current-state mapping comes first. Future-state design, SOP development, automation, and implementation are separate scopes unless explicitly included.
From $1,500.
Price varies with process depth, stakeholder count, evidence, systems, branches, field observation, and reporting requirements.
11 / The investment
Start with one process you can actually finish. Starting at $1,500.
Defined Process Map / Starting at $1,500The entry point to the mapping ladder. Scope varies with process depth, stakeholder count, evidence, systems, branches, field observation, and reporting requirements.
// ONE BOUNDED PROCESS / CAPTURED AS IT RUNS / VALIDATED BY THE PEOPLE WHO DO THE WORK
12 / Common questions
Make the process clear enough to use. Ask directly.
Is this just a flowchart?
No. It includes scoping, performer-led discovery, current-state capture, validation, exceptions, ownership, and editable source. A flowchart shows the approved route; this records the waits, returns, and informal authority that the route leaves out.
Do you include the happy path?
Yes, and known decisions, delays, rework, exceptions, handoffs, and controls within the agreed boundary. The happy path alone would not be worth mapping.
How many processes are included?
The baseline is one clearly bounded workflow. Additional processes or expanded boundaries are separately scoped.
Are revisions included?
Two consolidated correction rounds are included. New branches or material scope expansion may change the investment.
What if the people disagree about how the process runs?
That disagreement is one of the more useful things the map surfaces. The draft is walked with the people who perform the work, and where accounts differ the variants and assumptions are recorded rather than quietly resolved.
Which map should we start with?
Start here when the work sits inside one team with a manageable number of branches. Move to the Cross-Functional Map when the work crosses several teams, and to the Complex Process & Responsibility Map when authority, variants, and exception paths are the difficulty.
13 / The decision
See the work. Then improve it. Start with one process.
Bring the workflow that is important enough to map and simple enough to begin.
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