PROCESS MAPPING

Sixty years of drawing pictures of work.

Process mapping has swung between rigour and accessibility for a century, and never held both at once. PAL is built on PULSE, so the map is not a drawing of the work. It is the work.

Process mapping has swung between rigour and accessibility for a century, and never held both at once. PAL is built on PULSE, so the map is not a drawing of the work. It is the work.

Where process mapping came from

Every era bought rigour or accessibility. Never both.

The 1921 flow process chart

1921

Flow process chart

The Gilbreths watch the job and draw it. Five symbols. Process mapping is born on paper.

A Petri net

1962

Petri nets

Mathematically provable. Unreadable to anyone actually doing the work.

A hand-drawn swimlane diagram
A hand-drawn swimlane diagram

1990s

Swimlanes

Human and readable at last. Lives in a drawer. Out of date by Friday.

A Visio-era swimlane diagram

2000s

The Visio era

Digitised, but still a drawing. Changing it needs the file, and the specialist.

A BPMN 2.0 diagram

2011

BPMN 2.0

A standard so complete it became a profession of its own.

A collaborative whiteboard flowchart

2015 on

Digital Whiteboards

Everyone can join in. Nothing underneath it actually runs.

TODAY

Map your process. Launch your process.

No diamonds to decode, no gateway symbols to learn. A decision is simply a step that branches, labelled Yes and No. And every card carries what the old maps never could: who owns it, how long it takes, which documents and systems it touches.

Hiring a New Team Member
Version 3|Draft|Saved 2m ago
Map
Send for Approval
Management
Department Manager
HR Department
HR Officer
HR Director
Process Start
Consolidate Product Line Details
3 days
2 documents
1 system
Review Existing Market Products
2 days
3 documents
1 system
Contact Data Team for Product Details
3 days
2 documents
2 systems
Consolidate Product Line Details
5 days
1 document
3 systems
Provide Up to date Product Data
4 days
2 documents
1 system
Conduct Product Analysis
3 days
1 document
1 system
Yes
No
Manual step
Automated step
Decision step

* the screenshot represents a simplified UI expression of PAL

BPM for the masses

Process mapping spent a century getting more rigorous and, in the process, more exclusive. PAL hands it back. If you can describe how the work gets done, you can map it. No notation, no certification, no specialist holding the file.

Process mapping spent a century getting more rigorous and, in the process, more exclusive. PAL hands it back. If you can describe how the work gets done, you can map it. No notation, no certification, no specialist holding the file.

See a process map that runs

Bring a process you already know. We will map it with you and show you what happens when it goes live.

Book a demo