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What is process documentation? Hi there. In this video, we'll go over what process documentation entails, how to write a process document, and the benefits of having documented processes. And just so you know, I'm the founder of Technical Writer hq, and I have over 10 years of technical writing experience that I'll be using to teach you what process documentation is. But before we fully dive into it, make sure to hit that subscribe button, like this video and activate Notifi. That way you don't miss any of our future videos, and you'll always be first aligned to receive instructional content from top writing experts. Now, let's go ahead and jump in. Before we jump in and answer the question of what is process documentation, we need to first understand what is a business process. A business process is any activity or set of activities. That a business depends on for its day to day survival, and if streamline or optimize, it helps the company with growth. For example, the recruitment process, invoicing process, order processing. These processes should have purposeful goals, be as specific as possible, and have consistent outcomes. The act of documenting a process defines process documentation. It is a detailed step by step description of any type of business process. Moreover, it is a series of preliminary documents that are used to describe a process flow and specifics in a comprehensive manner. It functions as a more focused process mapping guide from the perspective of the employees invested in the process. This real life example may come to your head when thinking about process documentation, any kind of process that occurs in an organization, for example, restocking of the inventory is a process. And within these process, what role does each of those involved play? We have to document that one by one in which we can identify the flow from start to finish so we can properly assign responsibilities. For example, Sarah had an online grocery store. Her stock came in each morning, a vegetables and fruits for the day. Therefore, every activity that occurred in the completion of the process had to be first documented. First. The trucks came. Robert was in charge of unloading and storing them. Then James had to count the numbers and enter them into the grocery management system each day. Once that was done, it was the website managers who had to play their role. They uploaded data to their online store for the arrival of Fresh Doc and Facebook and other outlets were also updated day in and day out. These were some of the activities that were part of the restocking process, and the goal here obviously is to document everything so it can be repeatable. Similarly, there are other processes within organizations that need to be documented all the way from HR to accounting, to finances, to whatever that may be. We must know the why of something to know its importance. So why is process documentation needed? It helps all major and minor stakeholders get a solid understanding of how a business or technical process works, and the purpose is to open the process to all stakeholders and invite critical input for process. So something can't be improved if people don't know how it works. Doing this helps departments optimize processes and instill consistency in the stakeholders. Streamlining processes and making practical work more efficient is the focus of the global industry at the moment. Automation, machine learning and agile processes are at the center of this movement. However, in order to optimize a process, you need to define, describe, and document it. Many documents are created in process documentation to open up a process for all those involved. These include usage tutorials, policy papers, operation checklists, visual media, so screenshots, flow charts, and diagramming process maps, virtual workflows, and links to other sources. So processs can be showed in a variety of format. Let's now take a business process example of a first time user experience and how to document it using a flow chart. It starts with a user visiting the website. Then the user registers next. They get started with the product. They set up a planning board. They add items to this planning board and last they purchase. This is a great example of a process that takes a user from start to finish in the sales cycle. It's essential to know the stats for creating or writing a process. The first step is to define the process before you begin to develop documents, decide on which process you should document first as a priority. Once you've done that, define it clearly and with as much detail as you can, include the purpose of the document, how it will benefit the company, and how the process itself can be improved over time. Then create a separate document with these details in it for guidance during the primary. Process documentation. Now we come to step number two of this document writing process says to describe process scope. Once you have a clear description of the project and its purpose, we're gonna find the short and long-term scope of the project. The project scope consists of basic details of the number of tasks and whether the task will cover a single business or technical process or a series of process. The scope should also be its own separate document, especially for more complicated processes that will have a bigger impact on business outcomes. The third step of writing the process document is to establish process boundaries. In this step, you have to describe the parameters and boundaries of the actual process, including the starting point and endpoint. As well as what causes the process to start and end. Make sure to define each trigger in detail. This will allow all the stakeholders to plan excessive processes around this one and gauge of the process can be streamlined via automation. Additionally, define the start and endpoint of each depth of the process. This will allow the technical staff to see if the number of steps can be reduced to reach the final outcome. That's already been decided. The four step is to determine the process inputs, and. In this step, you have to explain the number and types of resources needed to perform each step of the process and the quantitative outcome of each. This will help the finance and resource management team members determine how they should structure the resource input for maximum gain. It'll also help project the cost to benefit ratio for each process step. So in short, it helps everyone in the long run, especially process owners and company leadership, will be able to track these numbers for current process optimization and make smarter process decisions. Now, let's go ahead and dive into the fifth step. And this is to list and describe the process steps. Once you have the process foundation, start brainstorming the activities and operations needed to complete each step of the process while documenting. Some companies take this step before establishing process boundaries. This may be ing to their own standard operating procedures, although it's preferred to establish boundaries first, so that any step doesn't take up more time and resources than. The brainstorming part of the process should include all the people who have extensive know-how of the company's business needs, documenting SOPs and all the different processes that are currently ongoing. And the next step here is to organize the steps into the optimal sequence to create a smooth workflow. To do this, consider which step follows which, and come up with ways to reduce the gap between each step by implementing more efficient. While doing this, make sure to identify which steps logically follow each other and which go together as parallel activities. Make sure to group the ladder ones together, and in case a step contains more than one activity or two closely conjoined ones, break it up into two steps. The seventh step of the process documentation is to list stakeholders. Describe all the staff members involved in the process and process documentation. Make sure to define their roles in the process. And mention their official titles as well as their individual progress while listing the personnel. Make sure to clarify each person's roles ing to their referential capacity in case they want to reference a document at a later date. An important part of creating an effective document is step eight here, visualizing the full process and optimizing it from a visual standpoint. This will create a mental flow chart of the process in your mind, as well as maybe something that you can actually. As well as improve the readability and clarity of the entire process for everyone involved in case of documentation is graphic savvy. Create a uniform image of the full process in your mind and make all the charts, metrics and diagrams ing to one design principle And just a tip here, it's often helpful to write the caption before creating the illustration, then create the illustration that best represents the caption. This process helps you to check that the illustration matches the. Good captions have the following characteristics. They're brief. Typically, a caption is just a few words. Also, they explain the takeaway after viewing this graphic, what should the reader remember and they focus a reader's attention. Focus is particularly important when a photograph or diagram contains a lot of detail. Highly complex technical illustrations to show processes like the following, tend to discourage most. So you need to find a way to avoid this, and we'll talk about this in just a second. Technical writers have a tendency to do this as they explain user journeys, product, vision, organization, hierarchy, and many more other process oriented documents. Just as you avoid overly long sentences dry to avoid visual run-ons. As I rule a thumb, don't put more than one paragraph's worth of information in a single diagram. , I can already hear you saying, but real life technical systems can be vastly more complex than the example here. And you're right, but you probably don't feel compelled to explain real life complex systems in a single paragraph. So what's the trick here? The trick is to whittle visual clutter into something coherent and helpful so you can organize complex systems into subsystems like those shown in the example here. When you do this, everything becomes much more easier to understand. The idea is after showing the big picture, then he wants to provide separate illustrations of each subsystem. And in that way, when someone can look at the different subsystems, they can easily add that up into the entire system itself. And step nine, it is time to keep future process modifications in mind. It's important to mention any and all steps that might be exceptions to the ones listed in the documentation. This is a future proofing method that opens a process up to streamlining in the future if a new tech product or automation measure comes up. Process owners need to be able to implement that into the process without causing extensive revisions. And for step 10, which says to add a measurements and control points in this step, identify the areas and the process that are the most prone to. And insert control points to help keep process personnel, monitor, and modify the process as needed. Additionally, create measurement procedures that determine the overall effectiveness of the process. This will enable key stakeholders to track the performance of the process and implement improvements that best suit the workflow. Once you have a full process at hand, bring together all the stakeholders and review the documentation sent in step number. Make the process map open to suggestions and critiques, and look for any missing steps, miscalculations and any steps out of order or general errors. And once it's finalized, test out the process and check if anything is missing or if it's consuming simply more resources than necessary. It may take some time to cover all these desks, but you'll see in the end that these steps were worth your time. The last step in writing a process document is to take the completed process document. Sent and send it to technical experts for review and optimization. Your process documents are a living entity as they guide the process along and make everyone involved aware of what the process will look like at every stage. Make sure that you treat it as a living document and continue to make adjustments to it as you find more streamlined activities as well. Again, the idea of processes is to always focus on improving them as much as you. Now let's dive into how you can improve your documentation process and generate more efficiency. So number one, use process documentation tools such as Lucidchart and documentation software such as Microsoft, physio and Excel. And number two, make it concise. Create documents are as streamlined and to the point as possible. If something can be removed without affecting the overall quality of the process or the. Then simply remove it. And number three, update when needed. In case a process requires a new step, or you have discovered a more efficient way to complete a step. Make sure to implement the update in the documentation on time. And number four, store in a centralized location. Always have a centralized storage location for all your process documents and supplementary documents, such as diagrams, case studies, and more. There are a number of process documentation tools that. Access to singular cloud storage as an enterprise package, and you could easily find them via Google. You have things like Document 360, you have FrameMaker, and number five, use visual aids. Make the documentation visually appealing and use graphics to better explain metrics and numbers. Furthermore, use color coding in multiple platforms to explain at different activity levels. And six, synchronize with company standard. Make sure that all documentation is unique to the company's operational standards and processes. Customize the design of the documentation ing to the company design standards as well. So this may be using their corporate logo using the correct branding colors. So find out what these things are. And number seven, and at swim lane diagrams, which means distinguish the different roles, process, steps, timelines, and resource. By adding swim lane diagrams where appropriate, and we cover that earlier by breaking out diagrams into smaller subsets. And number eight, try optimize cost cutting. Look for more cost effective activities and programs that don't affect the quality of the documentation or the intended outcome. And nine, create templates and style guides. If you have a documentation process that has worked for you or one that you have recently. Use that as a template or create a dial guide out of it to help recruits start using it immediately. And the last way to improve your process documentation here is to create individual documents. Instead of compiling everything into one big document, create multiple smaller ones for different processes. If you think one process deviates from another, even slightly, create separate documentation for. In addition to the above, use any existing documents to reinforce your documentation and added value to it. Existing documents could include interview transcripts, case studies, records, field diaries of project stakeholders, and any other documented process knowledge that has been accumulated over time. Regardless of how many processes are ongoing at any one time process, documentation should be a common and mandatory practice at any. It's one of the best ways to ensure that all business processes have some measure of future proofing. And there we have it. We just finished discussing process, documentation and everything that comes with it. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure to go ahead and like it and subscribe to our channel so you can keep up to date with all the videos that we put out on this channel about technical writing and becoming a better writer. And again, my name is Josh. I'm the founder of Technical Writer hq. And I'll be seeing you on some of our following videos, and excited for you in your career as a technical writer and becoming the best writer you can be. Cheers.