We often come across the term process documentation, injob sites, resumes and trainings. I have been fortunate to work on a variety ofdocumentation including process documentation. This article will help youunderstand the basics of Process Documentation and the need to develop suchdocuments.

Buzzy is a bee technical writer who was hired by BeeHiveCorp. to develop process documentation for their departments. Buzzy being agood writer decided to first understand the basic concepts of a process and processesdocumentation. He took the help of his colleague, a fellow process engineerwith BeeHive Corp., Wizzy Bee.  Hestarted asking her the following questions and she calmly explained.

What is a Process?
A business process is: A sequence of relatedactivities or tasks that are, structured to effectively produce a specific product,service, or serve a particular goal; and is sold to a customer(s) in order toobtain revenue.
BeeHive Corp is a part of Hexagon Group of Industries andis run by the CEO Queen B and her board of directors the BeeRectors. They areinvolved in the production of Honey Gold that is sold to consumers across thetown. The primary operations of the organization were carried out at Green Park.Along with the primary operations of honey production BeeHive Corp. alsoperformed other subsidiary processes like nectar collection, honey packaging,and honey storage. So considering the definition we can say that all theseprocesses of honey production along with the subsidiary processes together aretermed as business processes.
Like BeeHive Corp a variety of processes undertaken in anorganization are considered as business processes. These processes vary withthe type of domain an organization belongs to. Some of the business processesfollowed in an organization are given below:

What is processdocumentation?
You can simply state that,
The documentation ofall business processes is termed as ProcessDocumentation.

But that is justthe logic behind process documentation. Why do you need process documentation?
Wizzy began to tell him about the actual process to createhoney. She said this process is divided into three key processes and carriedout by different departments:

In addition to these we also have some support divisionsthat help these key processes.

Earlier, when the company was small, with just around 100bees things were easy to handle. Soon the demand grew and as a result theproduction started to grow. But with the growing demand and the resultantgrowing work force, managing all these activities started to become difficultand we witnessed loss of quality and sales, due to conflicts in opinion on:
-         Employee remuneration issues
-         Acceptance criteria for nectar quality
-         Sub-division of work and so on…
So the BeeRectorsdecided to standardize and document some basic process to avoid such conflictsand hopefully improve quality.
The logic is clear – if you have a business process,document it!

Why do we gothrough this entire trouble of documenting processes? Aren’t they obvious?Can’t they be learnt on the job?
Wizzy calmly said that most organizations documentprocedures due to the following reasons:
·        Conflictresolution – A standard process helps the organization to agree upon andstandardize the acceptable business process. These processes should be followedby the organization, its employees, and third party organizations. They areconsidered as the baseline to resolve conflicts within departments,individuals, or with third parties and reach to an agreement.
·        Obtainquality certifications – Standardized and effective processes help thecompany to improve the quality of its products and services. These can in-turnhelp organizations to obtain official certifications, such as:

-         CapabilityMaturity Model^® Integration (CMMI) helpsorganizations to improve their processes with the help of essential elements toimplement effective processes. CMMI helps integrate organizational processes, setprocess improvement goals, provide guidance for process improvements, andprovide a point of reference to evaluate current processes. Refer to, http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/general/
-         InformationTechnology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and policiesfor managing information technology (IT) infrastructure, development andoperations. Refer to, http://www.itil-officialsite.com.
-         InternationalOrganization for Standardization (ISO) is the world's largest developer andpublisher of International Standards. It is a non-governmental organizationthat forms a bridge between the public and private sectors to develop a set ofstandards complied by all its member countries. It is a network of the nationalstandards institutes of 161 countries, one member per country, with a CentralSecretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. Refer to, http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm.

·        Maintainingtransparency – Documenting and publishing standard processes helps tomaintain transparency with the shareholders, employees, government, and third-partyvendors/suppliers. 

If this is whycompanies develop process documentation, who is the target audience?
The target audience of the process documentation consistsof all those parties that are directly or indirectly involved in execution ofthe business processes.
In case of BeeHive Corp. all the parties involved in thebusiness process is the target audience, like:
 Nectar Jocks
-    Honey-makers
-    Gold Packers
-         Beeners
-         Adbins
-         Cellars
-         Queen B and BeeRectors

So which alldocuments do I need to prepare to for good implementation of processes?
Process documents ideally consist of the following typesof documents:

But I don’t knowthese processes clearly. I have just joined BeeHive Corp. So how do I begindocumenting processes?
As a technical writer, your responsibility while developingprocess documentation is to perform the following tasks with the help of theprocess engineer, i.e., me, and the bees in all the other departments:
1. Clearlyoutline the complete process-flow
2. Gathercomplete information about each stage of the process
3. Identifythe roles, responsibilities, accountabilities and rejection standards
4. Developa detailed checklist based on the tasks to be used for sign-off or approval ofa particular stage
5. Developa template to standardize the official sign-off or approval for the completionof the stage.
So that’s exactly what Buzzy did and the processes ofBeeHive Corp were documented.