Process Relationship Map

The “design or not to design” question aside, one of your first steps when attacking a process is to identify and document all related processes. Rummler-Brache calls this the process relationship map. Every process interacts and touches other processes, especially at the sub-process level where an organization is likely to be working. As new processes are created or existing processes are redesigned, an organization will inevitably cause a “disturbance in The Force.” In other words, one or more of the following statements will inevitably be true:

• A connection to another process will be changed or broken
• Something new or changed will be delivered to another process
• Something new or changed will be needed from another process