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Business Process Mapping

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Business Process Mapping 2020-11-16T14:47:48+00:00

Business Process Mapping

Delta DogAll employees and departments will be impacted to some degree by the change to the new ctcLink system. For some individuals, the impact will be minor and for others, it will change the bulk of their daily work processes. These daily work processes have been documented in what is called business process mapping.

Read All About It

Tim Wrye, who participates on the Educause Enterprise IT advisory group, asked colleagues from other ctcLink colleges to contribute to an article examining the common process alignment effort. The resulting article, “Aligning Institutional Processes Through Business Process Redesign” (Educause Review, 9/25/17), provides a good overview of the process. Look for “Edmonds Community College, Peninsula College, and Seattle Colleges” midway through the article.



Business process mapping (BPM) was the first step for us to be prepared to transition to ctcLink. BPM means describing exactly how we do things now in our day-to-day business operations. Working with consultants, Highline employees described and documented the steps in the business processes that are essential parts of the college’s work.

BPM is not about how we should be doing them or how we will be doing them in the future.

Some of these business processes include preparing financial reports, tracking student data, and approving time. The college has well over 200 such processes.

BPM will also help us make sure employees have the right security and access roles to do their jobs in the new system.



BPM will help the college in a number of ways. In addition to ensuring a smooth transition to ctcLink, BPM will help us train new staff members, identify redundancies and inefficiencies, and provide a clear understanding of how processes performed in one department impact others, among many other things.


There were approximately 90 people directly involved in BPM on Highline’s campus as subject matter experts (SMEs).

People were chosen to participate because of their roles and expertise on campus. Participation in the BPM process was essential to ensuring that our future transition to ctcLink goes as smoothly as possible.

Highline contracted with an experienced outside facilitator to lead and document our mapping process. This reduced the amount of time that individual staff members spent on BPM.

Participants attended mapping meetings and answered questions about the processes that their department “owns” or is responsible for.



Ask Delta Dog

Delta DogWho is this blue dog? Learn why Delta Dog is our trusty companion on the journey to ctcLink.

If you have questions about ctcLink, ask Delta Dog.

You can also view the Frequently Asked Questions page.

For information about the statewide ctcLink project, visit the SBCTC ctcLink page and read the blog, ctcLink Connect.