What Is Process Documentation, and Why Do I Need It?

Have you ever discovered a major knowledge gap when an employee leaves the company or an inability to access crucial process documentation when a team member is out of office?

Employee knowledge is one of the greatest assets your company has, but without a process documentation system, it can become a liability. Learn how to create a system for effective process documentation, understand common pitfalls, and discover what tools can support you along the way.

What is process documentation?

Process documentation is the act of capturing each of the steps in a business process. For example, documentation might explain how and when to escalate a customer service ticket or how content is reviewed, approved, and published. Ongoing process documentation and maintenance enables managers to train employees and helps businesses achieve consistent, efficient, and repeatable operations.

What process documentation looks like

Process documentation can take the form of written documents, checklists, images, flowcharts, and even videos. Beyond traditional document files housed in a company’s resource library or work OS, companies may have knowledge bases, tutorial videos, or online learning modules. Interactive formats can make processes easier to learn, more engaging, and quicker to pull up and reference at a moment’s notice.

The importance of documenting your processes

A Salesforce Health Care and Life Sciences report cited inefficient processes and siloed information as some of the top barriers to productivity. On the other hand, companies using the right tools to streamline documentation and knowledge sharing may see higher employee output, while saving on IT costs.

Here are some other ways detailed process documentation is good for business:

• Knowledge retention. When only a few people know how things work, and they’re out of office or leave the company, that knowledge disappears. Documentation makes key processes accessible to the entire team—not just the “go-to” person.
• Improved efficiency. Without centralized knowledge sharing, employees may try to reinvent the wheel, repeat work, or hit bottlenecks. Process documentation is a common reference point where people can go for answers without interrupting others or wasting time on something that’s already been solved. Documentation can also illuminate ways to optimize existing processes.
• Reduced errors. Without documentation, team members might complete the same task in different ways, leading to errors, inefficiencies, or missed steps. Documentation standardizes best practices and ensures teams follow procedures the right way each time.
• Better compliance and accountability. Audits, safety checks, or legal requirements are hard to meet if processes aren’t documented. Documentation demonstrates that your business follows consistent and trackable procedures to stay compliant. They also make sure employees don’t skip important legal or regulatory steps.

A step-by-step guide to process documentation

Step 1: Define the purpose and scope

Before you start mapping a process, clarify your why, or the goal of documenting the process. Here’s an example for a customer service ticket escalation:

• Purpose. To ensure customer issues are resolved in a timely and effective manner, boost customer satisfaction, and reduce churn. This process provides clear guidelines for when, how, and to whom a customer support ticket should be escalated.
• Scope. This process applies to all customer service representatives handling support tickets in our Help Desk system. It covers tickets submitted via chat, email, and the support portal that cannot be resolved using the standard knowledge base or have been open for more than 48 hours without resolution.

Step 2: Choose a documentation format

Next, choose which format is best for documenting your process and how much detail is needed. Here are several different formats to consider:

• Flowcharts help teams visualize big-picture processes by breaking them into smaller, clearly ordered steps.
• Swimlane diagrams are cross-functional flowcharts that split steps into “lanes” for each department or role.
• SOP templates may combine text and images to outline detailed, multistep process instructions.
• Policies and guidelines describe rules and best practices for carrying out processes. HR policies are a common example.
• Video tutorials help visual learners by showing difficult-to-describe processes. For instance, Slack’s video library shows users how common functions in Slack work.
• Online modules can be used to train stakeholders on common processes using a logical flow and interactive features. Salesforce’s Trailhead Academy is a good example.

Step 3: Engage with stakeholders

Documentation can’t happen in a silo. Since many stakeholders participate in a process, they may also need to participate in creating documentation or give their input. Start by listing the people who play a role in completing a process, including at what stage they’re needed or what they’re responsible for. This typically includes those who perform the task, but it also may involve decision makers for that process. Reach out to those stakeholders to enlist their help and participation.

You can do this in Slack by creating a dedicated channel or canvas where teams can brainstorm at their convenience. If you work with external partners, you can use tools like Slack Connect to gather their input directly in Slack.

Step 4: Gather process data

To gather process data, perform a complete process walkthrough, step by step—even if you know the process well. Write down or screenshot every action and step as you go. Explain each step and decision criteria as though you were explaining it to someone who’s never done it before.

If you’re documenting a process that someone else typically does, ask to shadow them while they complete the steps. Observe their workflow, record the process, and conduct interviews to collect more data. Understand who’s responsible for each piece and what the deliverables and expected timelines are.

Step 5: Draft the document

Copy your notes into your process documentation software or your selected documentation format. Review every detail to make sure you didn’t miss anything. If you’re building a flowchart, map out the flow with the appropriate shapes, symbols, and text. Incorporate definitions, images, and videos as needed.

Make sure to specify what should happen at the end of the process. This might be something like, “The finished app rolls out to end users,” or “The software update pushes to all registered users without hiccups.”

Step 6: Incorporate tools and automation

One barrier to keeping up-to-date documentation is how tedious it can be. Workflow automation and AI tools can help with data extraction, template generation, and transcription to streamline the process.

For example, let’s say that you have recorded training videos of a manager walking new hires through key tasks. An AI-powered tool like Agentforce can analyze the video transcript and convert it into a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

AI is also powerful for uncovering gaps in documentation. For instance, Slack AI can summarize any channel (like a customer service ticket channel) to uncover trending issues that customers or employees can’t solve on their own.

When you make your documenting process faster and easier, you increase its chance of adoption. For example, 91% of teams using automation report that it has positively impacted their productivity.

Step 7: Review and test the process

Next, validate your documentation by testing each process with a quality assurance (QA) framework. This step helps identify gaps or ambiguities by testing how well someone unfamiliar with the process can follow the instructions. Gather feedback from users and make necessary adjustments to make sure the documentation is as clear as possible. The idea is anyone can come to this document and learn how to execute a process on their own—no help or clarification needed.

Step 8: Standardizing formatting and compliance

To make documentation and knowledge sharing effective across an entire organization, it’s important to standardize your formatting across all documents. A great first step is to create a branded template for process documentation.

Align your documentation with industry standards, regulatory requirements, and internal policies as needed. If you work in a regulated industry or anticipate audits and legal reviews, you may want to ask your compliance or legal teams to review documentation before you finalize it.

Step 9: Finalize and share documentation

Once you’ve incorporated feedback and all parties have signed off on the final version, you can start sharing it across your organization.

It’s critical to choose the right place to store documentation. While sharing a simple PDF or Word document is easy, there’s a real danger of losing version control because employees may continue referring to outdated versions. Consider cloud-based solutions like:

• A centralized knowledge base where teams can search for accurate documentation
• A digital adoption platform (DAP), offering checklists, tips, and in-app walk-throughs
• A learning management system (LMS) with online training modules
• A shared digital workspace dedicated to tutorials and documentation, with comprehensive search and AI features. For example, you can use Slack to create an onboarding guide canvas that centralizes company resources and provides an onboarding checklist.

Step 10: Maintain and update processes

Workflows change all the time as companies find ways to improve, adopt new tools, and compliance and regulation standards evolve. Establish a review schedule cadence to update processes as business needs change. Delegate a lead to take ownership of documentation for ongoing maintenance.

Best practices in process documentation

Successful process documentation requires a well-organized document management system and standardized templates. This ensures teams can easily find documents and have a consistent, repeatable approach to documentation. Pay close attention to formatting, visuals, and accessibility to make sure your documents are easy to view and understand.

Keep these best practices in mind.

Keep documentation clear and concise

• Use plain, consistent language and avoid jargon.
• Use short sentences for better readability.
• Highlight important points with callout boxes, color coding, and checklists.
• Integrate visual representations of your processes, such as diagrams and screenshots.

Ensure accessibility and usability

• Store documentation in a central location where all stakeholders can access the latest versions.
• Optimize for accessibility, considering folks who may have vision or hearing impairment.
• Use analytics to track how often each document or tutorial is viewed.

Create repeatable systems

• Create templates to make documentation consistent and streamlined.
• Schedule regular updates with automated reminders to keep documentation current.
• Use version control to differentiate between versions.

Common pitfalls in process documentation and how to avoid them

Despite their best efforts, companies often fail at effective process documentation. A lack of employee buy-in, time constraints, and inefficient tools and leadership contribute to poor documentation. Avoid these common pitfalls that can trip up even the most well-intentioned companies.

Overcomplication and clutter

Process documentation should improve efficiency, but poorly produced documentation can do the opposite. Documentation that includes excessive or irrelevant information can make processes difficult to understand. Overly complex or lengthy documents may confuse users, hinder adoption, and make updates more challenging, reducing their overall effectiveness. Aim to make your documentation as user-friendly and straightforward as possible.

Failure to update documents regularly

It only takes a couple of times of running into inaccurate documentation for a new employee to lose trust in the process. There’s no exact timeframe for how often to update your documentation, but it’s good to review your processes regularly—at least annually—and update documentation as it evolves. Some processes may stay the same for years, while others change frequently. It’s essential to develop a process for document maintenance to ensure accuracy and retain efficiency.

Lack of leadership and ownership

Above all, effective process documentation is a matter of culture. Leadership and assigning documentation ownership are crucial to ensure documentation remains a priority. It needs time and resources to succeed. By setting high standards and a culture of regular documentation and maintenance, leaders set the tone for the entire organization.

Best tech and tools for process documentation

Comprehensive process documentation can be time-consuming when done manually, but the right tech can alleviate many of those pain points. Here are our top recommendations for tools that can streamline process documentation.

The following list is curated from G2, which scores software based on user feedback, features available, and overall satisfaction. G2 uses a five-star system focused on usability, customer satisfaction, and market presence. Each of the tools listed here has a minimum rating of four stars, ensuring they are top contenders for streamlining process documentation and improving efficiency.

1. Slack

Slack is a complete work operating system with rich features for automating workflows, documenting processes, and sharing knowledge. It allows users to select or create templates for process documentation, create workflows that capture essential process steps, and automate routine tasks within the platform.

How teams can use Slack for process documentation:

• Its Workflow Builder tool can automate workflows for documented processes.
• It has a customizable template library for creating workflows.
• Project management features help teams manage multistep approval workflows.
• Integration with third-party apps supports seamless workflow management and less tool-switching.
• Real-time document collaboration tools help teams write, edit, and update documents.

2. Confluence

Confluence is a collaborative knowledge management platform that enables teams to create, organize, and share process documentation in a centralized, searchable workspace. It supports robust permission controls and seamless integration with other Atlassian tools like Jira. Users praise its flexibility, ease of collaboration, and robust search capabilities.

How teams can use Confluence for process documentation:

• Customizable templates provide documentation standardization.
• Real-time editing and inline commenting let teams collaborate and sign off on key documentation.
• Search and organization functions make it simple for teams to store and surface documentation.
• Version history, audit trails, and permissions settings allow teams to control documentation processes.

3. Notion

Notion is an all-in-one workspace that lets teams create structured, collaborative documentation. It offers flexible templates, real-time collaboration, and a clean interface for organizing process steps, instructions, and resources.

How teams can use Notion for process documentation:

• Its library of customizable process guide templates lets teams choose the right format for their needs.
• Real-time collaboration tools enable stakeholders to provide timely input; task assignments notify team members when something needs their attention.
• Hierarchical page and subpage organization makes it easy for teams to find documentation when they need it.

4. Process Street

Process Street is a dedicated process management platform designed to streamline workflows through task automation, approvals, and dynamic templates. It’s ideal for documenting recurring processes and tracking execution.

How teams can use Process Street for process documentation:

• Its drag-and-drop editor helps teams create detailed process templates.
• Automation features like stop tasks and dynamic due dates keep documentation on track.
• Multi-stage approvals help streamline decision-making.

5. Document360

Document360 is an AI-powered knowledge base software tailored for internal and external process documentation. It offers a platform to create structured SOPs, employee handbooks, and technical guides. Users particularly value its version control and analytics capabilities.

How teams can use Document360 for process documentation:

• Version control helps teams easily track changes and roll back edits.
• Integration with platforms like Slack make it simple to implement and use within existing workflows.
• Analytics help teams track and measure documentation engagement and identify areas for optimization.

Visual aids and flowcharts

Visual documentation can simplify complex processes and illuminate concepts at a glance. Consider creating flowcharts, diagrams, and other visual aids to enhance your process documentation. Tools like canvases, Lucidchart, Miro, Canva, and Creately are powerful and intuitive methods for creating visual aids you can include in process documentation.

Turn shared knowledge into increased efficiency with process documentation

Many of the challenges businesses face come down to knowledge: who has it, and how it’s organized and shared—or not. Silos and company culture often prevent knowledge sharing across departments. But sometimes it comes down to your systems and tools. Companies should embrace interactive formats, automation tools, and standardized templates to ensure their processes are clear, consistent, and easy to follow.

The clearer your processes are, the more you set up your teams for success. You can onboard new employees faster, train teams on new product and service updates as they roll out, and give your teams the clarity and confidence they need to execute tasks on their own, ultimately improving efficiency and productivity.