Process Map and Process Descriptions: showing your company on one page

12 modules · about 60 minutes · final test with 31 questions, 25 correct to pass · certificate of participation as PDF

What this course is about

The process map is the first page the auditor opens — and the page the company understands least. It answers three questions: How do we earn money (value creation)? What keeps that running (support)? Who steers (management)?

No registration needed. We only ask for your name and e-mail address before the final test – just for your certificate. Your progress is saved in this browser. You can stop at any time and continue later.

Module 1 of 12

What clause 4.4 requires: determine processes — and know eight things per process

Process-oriented means: the company is not described by departments or by clauses of the standard, but by the flows that turn an input (enquiry, material, need) into an output (quotation, product, invoice). Clause 4.4.1 requires these processes to be determined and eight things to be defined per process:

Under 4.4.2, only what the company needs to support its processes must be documented, plus the records. Process map and process sheets are the usual form — one process sheet per process, one page.

What a process is — and what it is not:

ISO 9001:2026 leaves 4.4 unchanged in content and links it more closely to risks and opportunities (6.1, separately) and to planning of changes (6.3) — anyone who knows risks and KPI per process meets both.

Module 2 of 12

The map on one page: management, value creation, support

The map has three bands and reads from left to right:

On the left is “Customer: requirement”, on the right “Customer: satisfaction” — the value creation band connects the two. Arrows only for the main interfaces (enquiry → V1, V1 → V2, S1/S2 → V2, V2 → customer, S4 → M4). More arrows do not make the map more precise, only illegible.

Rules: one page · legible from one metre (notice board) · processes with number and name, no clause of the standard on it · every process has exactly one sheet · every process has exactly one owner.

Leave out processes that do not apply: no measuring equipment, no S7; no development, no V3; no warehouse, no S2 as a separate process (then part of S1). A company with three employees has seven processes, not twelve.

Typical mistakes: departments as processes (“office”, “workshop”) · 25 boxes because every activity became a process · occupational safety as a QM process (does not belong) · map taken from a template set with processes the company does not have · arrows between everything and everyone.

📄 Map template (three bands) as a fill-in page and the standard library of 15 processes with short description and records

📄 Map template in PowerPoint to adapt (three bands, boxes, arrows)

Module 3 of 12

Industry templates: manufacturing, trades/construction, trade, services/IT

Adaptation path in 30 minutes: (1) Take the industry template. (2) Adapt each value creation process to your own words (“ticket” instead of “service”, “site” instead of “execution”). (3) Delete processes that do not exist — without replacement. (4) Enter one owner per process from the organisation chart (function). (5) Go through it with management in ten minutes: “Is anything missing that we earn money with?”

How to recognise a good template: management recognises its own company without anyone explaining what a process is.

📄 Four maps as a starting point (manufacturing, trades/construction, trade, services/IT) with processes, suggested owners and deletion list

Module 4 of 12

The process sheet: one page per process with turtle logic

The turtle asks six questions of a process: What comes in? What goes out? With what (equipment, software)? Who (competence)? How (instructions, methods)? How well (KPI)? You do not have to draw it as a turtle — the fields of the process sheet are the same:

Writing rules: one action verb per step · function instead of name · one record per step (otherwise the step cannot be checked in the audit) · what-to-do-if for the two most frequent deviations (customer changes, deadline at risk) · one page.

The step table is the heart: it is what the auditor walks along on the last order (“Show me step 4 for order 2026-131”). If the record is missing from the table, it is missing in the audit.

📄 Process sheet template (one page, all fields, step table) in Word

📄 Completed process sheet V1 order handling as an example with eight steps, records, KPI and what-to-do-if

Module 5 of 12

One process, one owner, one KPI

One owner per process — as a function, not as a name. Management may own M1, M2 and V1; the quality manager owns M3 and S8, but not value creation (otherwise in the audit they are responsible for everything and competent for nothing). The owner: maintains the process sheet, delivers the KPI for the management review, carries the actions from audits and complaints for their process, is the contact person in the audit.

One KPI per process — with target value, source and person measuring:

KPIs that nobody collects are no KPIs. Rule: the figure must come from something the company already has (ERP, ticket system, lists) — no new tally sheets.

Link: the KPIs of the process sheets are the rows in chapter 2 of the management review (“process performance”), the quality objectives (6.2) pick out two to four of them with an improvement target, the audit programme plans one audit per process. That is how everything hangs on the map.

Module 6 of 12

Interfaces and interaction: where processes hand over — and where errors arise

Errors rarely arise within a process, but between two processes — at the handover. The standard calls this interaction; in practice it means: for every handover it is defined what is handed over, in what form and with which record.

The interface table (one page, annex to the map) lists these handovers — it is the best preparation for the audit question “How do you ensure that production gets everything it needs?”

Swimlane diagram (lanes per function, steps as boxes, arrows as handovers) is worthwhile for processes with more than three functions involved — usually V1. For all others, the step table is enough. Anyone who uses swimlanes keeps them as an annex to the process sheet, not as a replacement (the table carries the records).

📄 Interface table: the handovers between processes with what, form, record, typical error — completed for the standard library, as a template

Module 7 of 12

The map as the backbone: manual, risk analysis, audit programme, management review

Anyone who uses the process numbers consistently has a system that explains itself:

Changes to the map are changes under 6.3: new process (e.g. maintenance contracts as V4), outsourced process (contract manufacturing — stays on the map, marked “external, controlled via S5”), discontinued process. Change sheet, new map with status, manual chapter, audit programme adapted. Outsourced processes have a module of their own (next module).

Module 8 of 12

Outsourced processes: contract manufacturing, haulage, cloud — on the map, not under the carpet

An outsourced process is a piece of your own value creation that someone else performs: painting, hardening, electroplating, haulage, subcontractors on the construction site, cloud operation of your own software. Not meant are the purchase of material or services outside value creation (tax adviser, cleaning, payroll) — these run through normal purchasing.

Three rules:

1. On the map. The process is on the map, where it sits in the flow, marked “external” (dashed box or note). If it is missing, the auditor's first question is: “Where is the painting?” — and the finding on it is the third most frequent on 4.4.
2. A short sheet. Half a page: what is outsourced, to whom (supplier class A), which specifications the supplier receives (drawing, coating thickness, delivery date), how it is inspected (goods receipt inspection level 2, sample, certificate), which records the supplier delivers (inspection certificate, delivery note with batch number), who is responsible (purchasing or foreman).
3. Control under 8.4. Supplier marked in the supplier list as “outsourced process”, evaluated annually, complaints to them documented. The responsibility for the result stays in-house — that is the sentence the auditor wants to hear.

Borderline case haulage: anyone who has goods delivered by a haulier has outsourced the process “shipping to the customer” — it goes on the map (V band, “external”), controlled via supplier evaluation and shipping check. That costs one row and saves a finding.

Module 9 of 12

The map in the audit: the eight questions on 4.4 — and the three most frequent findings

The three most frequent findings: map taken from a template set with processes that do not exist (minor nonconformity 4.4, major for a core process) · process without owner or without KPI (minor nonconformity 4.4.1 c/e) · outsourced process missing from the map (minor nonconformity 4.4/8.4).

Five-minute check: map on the notice board and has a status · every process has a sheet with owner and KPI · KPIs are in the last management review · external processes marked · an employee can name their process.

Module 10 of 12

Case study: Brenner & Son — draw the map, write two process sheets

Brenner & Son Specialist Supplies (fictitious; any resemblance to existing companies is coincidental): wholesale and specialist trade in fastening technology, fittings and tools with an installation service for gates and gate drives, head office with warehouse, one branch, 22 employees: management (owner Brenner senior, son Brenner junior), purchasing, eight sales staff, six warehouse staff, two fitters, three administration. Certified since December 2026; the map was taken under time pressure from a template set. It shows 14 processes, including “Development”, “Production”, “Control of measuring equipment”, “Maintenance of machines” and “Calibration” — none of which exist. In the first surveillance audit in 2027: minor nonconformity “map does not correspond to the company; process installation missing”.

What the company does: customers (tradespeople, industry, private customers) buy goods at the counter, order by phone/online shop, goods are picked and delivered or collected; gate drives are installed on request (two fitters, manufacturer specifications); returns and complaints run through sales; purchasing from twelve suppliers, goods receipt in the warehouse; fleet of three vehicles; inventory management in the cloud.

Task (90 minutes):

1. Redraw the map (template 01/02): management, value creation (customer → customer), support — only processes that exist; external processes marked.
2. Assign an owner (function) and one KPI with target and source to each process.
3. Write the process sheets V3 Installation and S4 Returns and complaints (template 04).
4. Complete the interface table for sales → warehouse, warehouse → installation, customer → return.

📄 Brenner & Son: company description, organisation chart, the old map with 14 processes, audit finding, task

📄 Model solution: new map with 10 processes, owners and KPIs, process sheets V3 and S4, interface table

Learning point: of 14 processes, nine remain — and one is added (installation), which never appeared in the template set although it causes the complaints; ten in total. Afterwards the map is the company, not the standard.

Module 11 of 12

Records and maintenance: map with status, process sheets up to date, one hour a year

Annual maintenance in one hour (date: before the internal audit, in the audit programme): every process owner takes their sheet and checks four things — are the steps still right? Is the record created at every step? Is the KPI collected and is it in the management review? Are the risks up to date? Changes go through the three steps of document control; the quality manager collects the statuses in the document list.

What really changes every year: rarely the map, sometimes an owner (staff change), often a KPI (target value) and two or three steps (new software, new supplier). More change points to a map that was never right.

📄 Checklist process map and process sheets: 12 criteria (mature/almost/not yet) with annual maintenance checklist per process owner

Module 12 of 12

Procedure in our company

Your company completes this module. The general part of the training ends here; what follows, only your company knows:

Companies with a company account of the Academy receive this module with their own details; participants then see the names, dates and filing locations of their company. Without customisation: ask your management or your quality manager where these details are laid down in your company — usually in the quality manual.

Final test

31 questions, one correct answer each. You need 25 correct answers to pass (80 %). Scoring happens on the server — there is no answer key on this page.

Your result