[FuriouslyAdrift]

When I worked disaster recover and continuity, we had to map every business process.

We would make one map from the info the managers told us and one map of the actual processes by talking to every single employee involved.

We frequently found critical processes no manager knew about and also that some random secretary was the focal point for entire departments (mundane processes no one else wanted)

[pjc50]

This is incredibly difficult, valuable work that so few organizations dare to do. Often the answers are unpopular.

[thenobsta]

Whoa, this is unsurprising, but surprising/unfortunate.

I'd love to read a tutorial of how mapping every business process is done in practice. Do you have any pointers?

[FuriouslyAdrift]

You start with any documentation they already have (usually done for insurance or legal reasons) and start mapping much in the same way you would map data flow in a program.

Other sources are any existing ERP or other business process system.

Paperwork of any kind (invoices, quotes, POs, accounting) can also be used.

Even if a business thinks they are a flat org and have few processes, I guarantee there are ad hoc managers/leaders along with shadow processes.