The Pulse method for documenting how work gets done
Business Process Card & Flow Builder باني بطاقة العملية المؤسسية ومخطط السير
Five stages that move a way of working out of people's heads and onto one page: who does what, where the work waits, what keeps quality in check, and how work passes between two teams without anything getting lost.
Sample data: a fictional company, Orchard Supplies, handling a customer refund request. Names and numbers are for illustration only; replace them with your own business process.
Stage 1/5
Define the business process
Draw the boundaries before the steps: what sets the business process off, when it counts as finished, who receives the result, and what sits outside it. Clear edges stop two business processes being squeezed onto one card.
Optional. In the chosen time unit.
Stage 2/5
Sequence the steps
Name the roles first: each one becomes a lane in the diagram. Then write each step with a clear verb, one owner and a tangible output. Keep the time a step waits before it starts separate from the hands-on time it takes; the gap between the two is usually the biggest improvement opportunity.
Roles (lanes)
Steps in order
Stage 3/5
Add controls and measures
Put a checkpoint where a mistake is costly or hard to spot later, not on every step. Pair each risk with the action that reduces it, and pick just two or three measures that tell you whether the business process works: one for speed, one for quality, one for the receiver's experience or the cost of errors.
Checkpoints on the steps
Risks and what reduces them
Performance measures (2 to 3)
Stage 4/5
See the flow
The diagram draws itself from your steps: one lane per role and a marker wherever work passes between roles. The critical path is the longest chain in time, and it decides how long the receiver actually waits.
Automatic checks
Stage 5/5
Agree the hand-offs
Most delay and rework happens between teams, not inside them. Pick the hand-off that matters most and agree it in writing: exactly what is delivered, when it counts as complete, how fast the receiving side responds, and what happens if it does not.
Save as PDF opens the print dialog with a ready A4 layout: the card, the flow diagram and the hand-off agreement. Choose “Save as PDF” as the destination. Works offline, with no server involved.
What this tool does not do
- A documentation aid, not legal, regulatory or compliance advice, and not certification against any standard. Check the formal requirements that apply to your organisation.
- It assumes steps run in sequence, with the option to run a step alongside the previous one. It does not draw loops or complex conditional branches.
- Times are average estimates you enter; measure them from real cases at least once before relying on them.
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An educational documentation aid, not legal or compliance advice. Your data is saved in your browser only and never sent to a server.