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What activities are being performed in this step?

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Write down the activities that the user does to complete the tasks in this step of the business process. Get into the details of the activities.

When deciding on the activities, you'll want to consider cause and effect for each activity, how they relate to each other, and how they move you closer to your desired objective. Identify the starting point of the process, and fill in the activities that lead to the objective. ​

Activities can be sequential or parallel, meaning either that one activity can't occur until the other is completed, or two activities can occur at the same time within the process​.

Example: Filling out an expense report

When we spoke to Lee, Shawna, and Rebecca, they told us the steps were:

  1. Decide to file an expense report. Sometimes this occurs at the end of a week or a month, sometimes on returning from a trip, sometimes as soon as the receipt is available.

  2. Find a blank copy of, or print, the expense report form.

  3. Enter personal information (name, employee ID, and so on) and the reason for the expense.

  4. Gather receipts to get the expense information from (and turn them in, if needed).

  5. Fill out details for each item.

  6. Figure out expense categories and which expenses will need extra detail. (Often by looking up this information in the Expense Reporting manual.)

  7. For travel-related expenses, list any per diem the company already paid.

  8. Calculate subtotals and totals.

  9. Figure out which receipts need to be attached, and paper-clip them to the report form. (Often they'll make copies (photo or photocopy) for their own records.)

  10. Get the form and receipts to the manager (either by walking to their desk, interoffice mail, or postal mail).

Note

If your task is done fully on the desktop, you can discover all the steps different people in your organization are performing to complete the task by using our process discovery functionality called process advisor. Process advisor visualizes your process in a process map and reveals bottlenecks and metrics for your process through an analytical report.

Next step: What data is needed?