What is the best method for mapping processing activities?
Should I choose a process approach or a system approach?
Mapping processing activities equals identifying the data flows in your organisation.
The recommendation of Wired Relations is that you choose a process approach: Bring out your organisation's process descriptions - voila - there is the foundation of your mapping!
Your process descriptions do not translate directly into processing activities, but they provide a good roadmap. You will need to make some decisions, among other things you will need to decide how granular you want your processing activities to be - which processes can be grouped together, which need their own separate processing activity?
Should you not have your organization's process descriptions in writing, right around now would probably be a good time to start putting fingers to keyboard/pen to paper. You know what you are doing every day, you just have not written it down. Yet.
An alternative to the process approach is the system approach, where you take a look at what goes on in each of your systems. We do not recommend the system approach as it increases the risk of overlooking something.
Questions? Write to us at support@wiredrelations.com