Workflow process documentation describes a process that crosses people and systems: the order that starts in the web store, is picked in the warehouse, invoiced in the accounting product and closed in the CRM. A plain procedure describes one person's steps; workflow documentation adds the handoffs, the system each step happens in and the waiting between them, because the handoffs are where a cross-team process loses time and orders. The process documentation template on this site costs the set and prints its payback.
Handoffs are steps
Every point where the work passes from one person to another is a step with its own failure mode: the email not sent, the ticket not assigned, the file in the wrong folder. Documenting the handoff as a step, with who tells whom and how, is what makes the workflow followable by people who do not share an office.
Name the system at every step
Which system the step happens in, and what the record looks like there, is what lets a new person follow the workflow without asking. It is also what makes the documentation useful when a system changes: every step that named the old system is a step to revisit.
Cost it and read the payback
Eight processes at three hours of writing and an hour of review each, against a hundred and twenty runs a month saving six minutes each, is a payback in months the process documentation template on this site prints from your figures. Workflows that cross teams usually pay back fastest, because the handoffs are where the minutes are lost.
Keep it against the process, not the department
Workflow documentation filed by department splits a process into pieces nobody owns end to end. Filed against the process, with one owner and one version, it is a procedure. RunbookDesk Pro keeps it that way with sign-offs from each role in the workflow.
Questions people ask about workflow process documentation
Is workflow documentation different from process documentation?
Workflow documentation is process documentation for a process that crosses people and systems, with the handoffs and the systems named at each step.
Do I need a diagram?
A swimlane diagram helps when more than three roles are involved; the written steps with the handoffs named are what people actually follow.
How do I know which workflow to document first?
The one with the most handoffs and the most runs. Put both into the template and read the payback it prints.