How to Create Effective Business Processes — A Practical Approach
You Cannot Design Business Processes in Isolation
The worst thing you can do is invent business processes while sitting in an office with a coffee machine.
If you create a “perfect” business process in the quiet of your office, detached from real work and real people, you can safely throw it in the trash.
Business processes bring value only when they are created based on knowledge coming from the future actors of those processes — that is, from the company’s employees.
Business processes should help employees, not hinder them. To achieve this, they must be built on the recommendations of the best professionals in your company.
Take Employee Feedback into Account
When modeling a business process, it is absolutely necessary to interview employees. Ask them how exactly they perform their work and how their interaction with colleagues should take place.
Pay special attention to the problems they encounter.
You may discover many interesting insights — not only about business processes.
In one company we worked with, a detailed process for selling products to individuals was developed. This process assumed that customers cared about features such as color, design, power, and basic technology. IT systems were built around this assumption. In reality, it turned out that customers, regardless of gender and age, were primarily interested in price rather than color or technical details.
If management had asked sales managers how they actually sell, many unnecessary expenses could have been avoided.
A Business Process Is a Clear Set of Specific Steps
After interviewing employees, you can start designing business processes. When doing so, describe each step briefly and clearly. Use professional vocabulary and terms you heard during the interviews.
Each step should occupy one icon in the Drakon diagram. Do not combine multiple steps into a single icon.
There are only two main types of steps in a business process: actions and decisions.
Actions are commands given to participants in the business process. Describe actions as short imperative instructions, for example:
“Turn off the power on switchboard B” or “Perform a sheet-by-sheet count of banknotes and a unit count of coins.”
Decisions are questions that the actor must ask themselves, followed by choosing the next action based on the answer. Examples: “Are the car wheels locked?” (possible answers: “Yes” and “No”), “What is the vehicle category?” (possible answers: “Motorcycle”, “Passenger car”, “SUV”, “Other”).
In decision text, avoid the words not, and, and or, as they make understanding more difficult. Use standard Drakon mechanisms for logical relationships instead. Specifically:
- Instead of not, swap the Yes and No outputs of the “Question” icon.
- Instead of and and or, split the question into two parts and place them in separate “Question” icons.
In addition to actions and decisions, a business process may include other elements such as event handling, pauses, time indicators, loops, parallel processes, etc. However, their main purpose is to support and complement actions and decisions.
Do Not Force Actors to Design Business Processes
Of course, you should not require employees to design business processes for themselves. That is your job, not theirs. Everyone should focus on their own responsibilities. Additional duties are irritating, and more importantly, business processes cannot always be designed “from the bottom up.” Management has a strategic vision and understands financial and operational goals, so optimal processes may differ from how people are used to working.
A Business Process Diagram Is Created for the Actor
When designing business processes, remember: the primary reader of the diagram is the actor. Be concise and write only what helps them do their job. Avoid vague statements about transparency, efficiency, company values, and similar abstractions.
Get Feedback
After creating business processes, be sure to give them to the actors and request critical feedback. The value of such feedback cannot be overstated.
Train Employees
Once business processes are approved, employee training must be conducted. Each employee should know the processes relevant to their role.
Ensure Diagram Accessibility
Employees must have constant access to business process diagrams. Designing processes “for the drawer” is pointless. Only when employees can refer to diagrams at any time will business process modeling truly benefit the organization.
Improve Business Processes Based on Experience
Once employees begin working with the new processes, nuances and details that were previously unclear will emerge. Based on this new understanding, business processes must be revised and refined. This requires regularly asking employees how the new processes are working for them.
Each time changes are made, they must be communicated to employees. Simply holding a meeting is not enough. Diagrams must be updated and employees must have access to the latest versions, whether in paper or electronic form.
Use Professional Tools for Business Process Modeling
Redrawing diagrams in graphic editors is labor-intensive and tedious. Specialized process editors, such as DrakonHub, allow you to modify processes quickly and easily.
DrakonHub differs significantly from traditional diagram editors. Its main advantage is automatic diagram construction. The user simply adds a new step to the process, and DrakonHub automatically connects elements, rearranges them, and creates space for the new step. Additionally, you can copy diagram fragments and paste them into other diagrams. DrakonHub automatically rebuilds the diagram, eliminating gaps and preventing overlaps.
Conclusion
Business processes are not theoretical diagrams — they are practical tools. They should be:
- Based on real employee practices;
- Clear to actors;
- Balanced between usability and the company’s strategic goals;
- Flexible and subject to continuous improvement.
Developing business processes is not a one-time task but a continuous cycle: research → modeling → training → testing → refinement. This cycle is best managed using professional business process modeling tools.