Choosing a process mapping tool: 7 features to consider

Businesses often use these solutions to cut down the manual time and effort involved in process mapping, which typically relies on techniques such as stakeholder surveys, interviews, and workshops.

The challenge is knowing which tool or solution to pick. The market for process mapping tools has ballooned, offering similar-looking solutions as numerous as the different types of process maps that exist. Any one of them would appear to give you the visibility or process documentation you’re after. If your selection criteria consist mainly of cost, you could end up with something that isn’t best suited to the processes you need to capture, or proves unnecessarily cumbersome.

So what should a process mapping tool do? Here are the most important questions to ask so you choose the right tool for your needs.

1. Does the process mapping tool offer a variety of process maps?

There are many types of process maps available, for deconstructing complex processes or gaining a high-level view of business operations. While some workflow software will allow you to choose between a variety of specialist, granular process maps, others may restrict your options just to a pared-back flowchart diagram.

Not all process mapping tools will equip you with features for notation and adding detailed information to each process step, or for assigning steps and activities to different business functions. That might be fine for a high-level business process map that provides an at-a-glance overview, but not if you need to create a process flow diagram that’s more comprehensive, such as outlining a system migration.

It’s therefore important to check the templates available in the process mapping tool. The more the merrier. Even if you don’t need a particular type of process map right now, you may in future, so it’s preferable to have a variety at your disposal rather than have to invest in an additional tool down the line.

2. How customizable are the process mapping tool’s templates?

Checking the available templates should also include ensuring they’re flexible. Although there’s a standardized range of process maps, you will ideally be able to tailor each one as processes vary by business and function.

Even if a process map such as a flowchart is sufficient for you, you should check that the symbols don’t limit you to a workflow diagram that’s more basic than you’d like. There’s a common group of flowchart symbols, but some process mapping tools include more detailed shapes for representing data inputs and outputs, for example, which are worth considering.

Not all business process mapping shapes may be useful for you, but you also don’t want to be constrained by a small set that’s less suited to capturing your process information.

3. Is the process mapping tool user-friendly?

For a process mapping tool to be most effective, it needs to simplify the work involved in creating the diagram – not over-complicate it. If the tool is overengineered, it could end up demanding more time and effort than the manual methods you’re trying to avoid. The whole investment could backfire.

It’s not just you or business process analysts who will be using these tools. Your process mapping tool needs to be accessible for the stakeholders across the business who may be using it to give their input into process flows. If it’s off-puttingly technical, you could lose stakeholder engagement and therefore leave your workflow with blindspots.

Features like inbuilt templates and a streamlined interface help usability and speed up the process. Compare it with the systems you already use – if it’s similar, it’ll require less adjustment and familiarization. It’s a good idea to run it past colleagues in different teams, so many of the people that will be involved in process mapping are bought in from the start.

4. How much support and training does the process mapping tool include?

As with the consideration around user-friendliness and different competencies, in-built guidance will also set your process mapping team up for success.

Robust support will ensure you have any answers and troubleshooting to hand, avoiding delays midway through your process mapping project. However, requiring extensive training upfront, just to be able to use the process mapping tool could be a red flag that suggests it’s overly complex.

Training shouldn’t just cover using the process mapping software itself. You’ll also benefit from guidance on creating different types of process maps, and using various process mapping symbols, so you can efficiently get up to speed on any you’re less familiar with.

5. Does the process mapping tool support integrations?

Another time-saving feature that can avoid delays once you get going is the ability to integrate with your other business systems and solutions. Those could be customer relationship management (CRM) systems and business intelligence (BI) tools and analytics, such as Salesforce, as well as applications such as Microsoft Office where you might have already stored notes and process documentation.

A process mapping tool that doesn’t support integrations could massively hold up your project management as you’ll need to manually import and export data. Applying process insights you discover also requires a seamless connection with those business systems.

6. Can people collaborate on the process mapping tool?

By its very nature, business process mapping involves multiple contributors, fielding input from people relevant to the process across teams and functions. Without a tool that allows you to collaborate with them, it’s going to be arduous for all involved. You’re forced to shuttle files back and forth, which not only slows you down, but makes it much harder for people to jointly discuss the same aspect of your process map, with inconsistent versions floating around.

Real-time, simultaneous process mapping collaboration saves time – rapid process discovery is a good example – but the tool should also offer comment functionality so stakeholders can add extra detail and clarification.

7. Can you control user permissions in the process mapping tool?

An important caveat to the previous consideration is that you’ll want to be able to limit user access to prevent anarchy. Not every stakeholder will need to edit your process map, so you need to be able to set permissions and prevent untracked edits. This ensures you’re only getting direct changes from relevant stakeholders, and reduces mistakes or accidental alterations to correct later on.

This is especially important for high-level process maps or swimlane diagrams where you’re capturing input from a wide variety of teams and stakeholders across the organization.