Every business analyst and consultant has drawn a flowchart at some point in their career. Many probably still are. 

Type “flowchart” into Google and you get 75 million results. Type “horse and cart” into Google and you get 380 million results. But the car has superseded the horse and cart.

In the same way, flowcharts are now an outdated way of capturing process content. Over the last 5-10 years there is a simpler and more engaging diagramming notation. It is proven in major highly regulated industries right down to innovative startups and small nonprofits. It is called UPN (Universal Process Notation) and it is not proprietary to any company and doesn’t require any specialized software.

Why the change?

Over the last 20 years I’ve been helping companies understand, document and drive adoption of their operational business processes. It is important to recognize there are a number of different and competing personas, each of whom believe it is THEIR process content.  

So to keep things simple, we’ve found it useful to consider the different perspectives and to use hats.  Each of the four groups has (in most cases) valuable inputs and concerns about any given process. But it is important to ensure that the way document the processes supports their differing needs and perspectives.