Process documentation is an essential for companies to maintain consistency, transparency, and efficiency in their operations.

Think for a moment, do your new employees have any knowledge of their processes’ details? Is there a document to help them understand what needs to be done or which procedures to follow? Furthermore, do they know which departments and responsible parties are involved in their assigned tasks?

When a company creates an internal document specifying activities and steps, it provides these newcomers and all other workers with essential information. This wealth of detail explains, from start to finish, how to perform a task.

But what does it take to document processes? We tell you everything in this step-by-step guide.

What is process documentation?

Process documentation is the formalization and detailed explanation of tasks and steps necessary to implement and execute a given process.

It is a set of information that serves as a guide for employees to clarify their doubts, considering stages, responsibilities, resources, and other information that describe how a workflow should be executed within the organization.

These documents are useful for both existing processes and for including and monitoring the progress of new processes. Similarly, they cover simple to more complex processes.

Process documentation expands the view of how many parallel and simultaneous tasks occur within the company. It also allows understanding which irrelevant activities can be removed to increase productivity.

Each company can adopt the methodology it prefers for process documentation. Thus, this file can take the form of a checklist, flowcharts, training manuals, tutorials, work instructions, among others.

Is process documentation the same as process mapping?

Although there are many similarities and related concepts, process documentation and process mapping have different purposes.

Process documentation records the information and details of processes. It is a comprehensive guide for consistent and efficient execution, considering steps, procedures, responsibilities, resources, instructions, forms, related policies, and other aspects.

On the other hand, process mapping focuses on visual representation or diagramming of how the workflow occurs. Thus, it presents the steps, decisions, information flow, and interactions between elements in a broader and more holistic view.

Although they have their particularities, both tools are essential for the management and efficiency of an organization.

Guide to creating a process document

Now that you understand the concept, it’s time to understand, in practice, how to create this document:

1. Identify the process to be documented

When implementing this methodology in your company, it is important to stipulate which process will be documented first.

Make a list of all potential processes considering the most critical, operational, administrative, specific workflows, among others.

Once defined, create a brief outline of the pertinent information for carrying out these activities, listing participants, schedule, priorities, and other information.

The clearer this survey is, the more detailed the document will be, and the more understandable to those involved.

2. Determine the objectives and type of documentation

The second step is to understand the reasons for this process to exist, what its objectives are, and whether it is directly related to the company’s raison d’être.

This clarification provides understanding of how activities relate and understanding of how far each responsibility goes.

As we mentioned, there are various types of documents, when establishing objectives and having a scope, it will be simple to define how to organize the content.

For example, a complex process is more easily explained by adopting a flowchart. While a simple process can be documented in a checklist.

At this stage, it should also be stipulated whether the document will be divided into sections, chapters, by area, department, hierarchical levels, logical sequence, among others.

3. Make process boundaries clear

Many activity flows interact with other tasks and teams. Therefore, it is important to delimit what each one should perform. This limitation will be important to define the actions that trigger the start and end of this specific process.

When these boundaries are delimited, guidelines are established to interconnect different processes.

4. Identify the process inputs and outputs

Parallel to the boundaries, list what is necessary for this process to start and finish. Not only the actions but also the required resources.

Consider that inputs are all the resources required for execution, and outputs are the expected results upon completion.

This practice allows defining goals that must be met and facilitates monitoring to measure whether the set objectives are being achieved.

5. Organize process steps

The next phase is to list how these inputs will be transformed into outputs. Gather employees and the team to understand all the steps and their responsible parties.

Based on what was stipulated as the process boundaries and activity dependencies. For example, for a purchase request to progress, manager approval will be required.

Try to list the main parts of the process, listing each task in a practical and simple way, preferably in sequence.

6. Assign responsibilities and relate participants

From the definition of the process structure and steps, assign who is responsible for each task.

It is important that each team member knows what is expected of them and who to turn to in case of need.

In an Integrated Management Platform that automates activities, the flow can be built based on this structure, stipulating that each responsible party will receive a notification to approve a request and continue the process.

7. Test the process and seek feedback from employees

The final stage of building process documentation is to use the guide to test execution. This is the ideal opportunity to make changes that optimize the process or identify flaws and potential issues.

At this point, it is important that the test be carried out by the team that will perform this flow of activities daily. Thus, the construction will be evaluated, whether it makes sense, is understandable, or if there are missing steps that have not been described.

Exceptions that may occur and how professionals should act in these moments should also be observed and described here.

Keep the information from these tests and implemented improvements archived so that they can be accessed and reviewed later if necessary.

Process documentation best practices

Just like the company, processes change as new technologies and methodologies are applied. Therefore, continuously review these documents to keep them consistent and reflect the processes.

Understand that various people will have access to these guides – the simpler they are, the more understandable.

This documentation should be easily accessible and available. Therefore, adopting a document management platform makes these documents found more quickly, regardless of the location or time of access.

Another point to be highlighted is the importance of using suitable software for this documentation.

Neomind’s Fusion Platform is an end-to-end platform that enables the management of processes and documents. That is, the employee can consult how to do and already execute the process in the same tool.

In this way, errors are considerably reduced, processes have no losses, and there is total clarity about steps, objectives, and expected results.

Repetitive work is also reduced, resources are well allocated, there is improvement and clarity in communication, all of which contributes to making the process more efficient.

Process documentation is a tool that improves processes, and the use of Fusion enhances the results of processes and the company overall.

Try Fusion Platform to create, store, and provide accessibility to your company’s process documentation.

How many physical files are on your desk right now? How about your drawers? Look at any company and you’ll find countless folders, cabinets and the like holding the most diverse types of documents, won’t you? Have you ever thought about the cost that all this paperwork brings, or how having to search manually for a document actually lowers your productivity and even makes you miss important deadlines? Or even worse: what if a confidential document falls into the wrong hands? With so many files, how do we address the vulnerabilities printed documents leave behind?

Maybe you already took these questions into account, but you still wonder “how could I change something that has been done the same way for such a long time?”. You’re not alone, for this is a rather common concern in the corporate world. So, let us reassure you with a resounding “Don’t worry! There is indeed a solution (and it’s called Electronic Document Management)”! The Electronic Document Management (or simply EDM) is, like BPM and Analytics, one of the modules available on the Fusion Platform. Although EDM may not be the most popular tool around (perhaps due to its perceived challenging implementation), it has essential features for those looking to reduce costs, organize their workflow, increase productivity, and gain many other benefits that will be listed in the following sections of this article.

What is EDM, and how can it contribute to my organization?

EDM deals with the management of different types of documents, enabling functionalities such as creating, storing, editing, processing, printing, and executing actions on a wide range of image, video, audio, and text file formats. In addition to these management features, it also makes it possible to organize, retrieve, distribute, and dispose of documents effectively and securely, ensuring that they will be available at the right time for people with the appropriate access permissions.

Implementing an EDM system means transforming the organization into a paperless company. Initially, this may seem daunting, but rest assured, it’s not! However, it is a task that will require dedication and collaboration from everyone.

To encourage your company to implement an EDM system, it’s good to assess its main benefits:

● 1. You go paperless by transforming physical files into digital data;

● 2. You greatly reduce costs;

● 3. You become a more environmentally friendly company;

● 4. You get access control for all documents, thus increasing security;

● 5. You better organize workflows resulting in more efficiency and productivity;

● 6. You get better version control, revisions, and approvals;

● 7. You get certified digital signing;

● 8. Searching for content and keywords within documents becomes quick and easy. Once you learned about the benefits digital transformation brings to this area, a new question arises: what tools do you need to achieve them?

● Simultaneous editing coordination to ensure that changes made to a document by one person do not overwrite those of another, with a Check-In to signal documents available for editing and a Check Out to indicate those which are unavailable because they are already being edited.

● Version control, saving different versions of a document, each with its change record and responsible parties, making it possible to restore previous versions as needed.

● Access control and security, enabling permissions to be assigned to each new document according to users, roles, or groups.

● Certified digital signing in the ICP-Brazil standard for electronic documents.

And now that you know the features of such tool, it’s time to learn the steps to actually implement an EDM system in your corporate environment.

EPSDDA: A step-by-step guide to implementing an EDM system

To help you and your company to implement an EDM system and make this transformation an easier process, we use to recommend what we call the EPSDDA step-by-step process (which stands for Encourage, Plan, Set Deadlines, Dispose, Automate):

1. Encourage: motivate your staff about the implementation of Electronic Document Management (the benefits we mentioned previously are excellent arguments!). This way, everyone will be informed, willing, and prepared for the digital transformation;

2. Plan: many important tasks and analyses will come with EDM. They must be done carefully and mindfully, so we suggest you plan ahead all related activities. Only then can you determine how long it will take you to become a paperless company, and ensure that you won’t miss the mark.

3. Set Deadlines: Along with planning, come deadlines. Set dates for document digitization. Initially, there will be a large volume of documents to be digitized, so it’s necessary that at this stage you run an evaluation of what actually should undergo the process. Each department can classify their physical files in two ways: those that can be discarded without digitization and those that must be stored digitally. This will require its share of effort (which can vary from company to company, as it depends on how much paper documents are used). Nevertheless, don’t give up!

Each department can classify documents in two ways: those that can be discarded without being digitized, and those that must be stored digitally. This will require a greater demand for effort (of course, this can vary from company to company, as it depends on how much your company uses paper documents). Even so, don’t give up!

4. Dispose of documents: but only after a period of 30 to 90 days, this way you ensure a kind of backup in case there is an error in the digitization process during step 3. After this period, your confidence in electronic document management will be strengthened, and you will feel much more comfortable getting rid of all that paperwork!

5. Automate: after drastically reducing (or even eliminating) physical documents in your company, you need to:

● Organize them in your Document Center: the document publishing process includes the document types stage, which occurs before it goes online. Fields are defined for

that document standard. For example, let’s suppose customer registrations are being digitized along with a service contract. The “Customer Registration” will then be registered in the Document Type. You will enter the necessary fields to identify each one, and in the file field, you will append the digitized contract.

In the next step, in the document center, you can then publish a document with its type, filling in the necessary information and attaching the digitized document. Then, you repeat this action until all documents are registered.

File organization also includes folders and subfolders which are kept in the document center, as well as their respective access permissions, which can be configured in both folders and individual documents.

● Automate processes: previously, how was a customer registration and contract done in your company? Which department initiated this registration? Did it go through the approval of certain employees? Who has access to this information? Think about all the possibilities regarding a process that generates or comprises a document. Did you think about it? Notice that working with a simple document requires a sequence of events, each with its specific user permissions and availability. For instance, who can view, edit, or delete a given document?

In general, automation allows for the publishing and control of documents in a more secure and precise manner, as well as the advantage of centralizing a large volume of documents in a single place.

In conclusion

Many people still feel more secure with a printed document because it is tangible. However, when you consider the cost, productivity, efficiency, security, and convenience benefits, EDM becomes an essential tool in managing your business.

At first glance, implementing an EDM system may raise concerns in companies with a large volume of documents. For this reason, taking the initial steps and, more importantly, following through with this process can be challenging.

To achieve this, encouragement is necessary. All employees, engaged and informed, should embrace the paperless environment, following the step-by-step process to implement it efficiently and organized.