Document a business workflow and its team handoffs

Choose an activity that you can observe closely

A workflow describes how an activity progresses from its trigger to the intended result. In a Moroccan SME, begin with something familiar, such as handling a quotation request, preparing a delivery or responding to a customer complaint. A clearly bounded activity is easier to explain than the whole business. Specify where your description begins and what marks completion.

Ask someone who performs the work to walk you through a recent case. Observe the documents they consult and the exchanges they make. Look for what actually happens, including informal messages and details remembered rather than written down. A description based only on the ideal procedure may conceal the very points that make the activity confusing or difficult to hand over.

Explain how work passes from one person to another

For each stage, record what arrives, who acts and what makes the next stage possible. A quotation enquiry might be received by a team member, clarified with a manager and passed on for preparation. Someone reading the document should understand those transitions without already knowing the team’s personal habits or asking the person who drew the diagram to interpret it.

Specify the information needed at each handoff. Writing that the file goes to sales leaves practical questions unanswered: where can it be found, how does the recipient know it is ready and what might still be missing? Describe the signal that confirms the next person has taken responsibility. This can be more useful than an attractive diagram that says little about the actual exchange.

Show waiting points and common exceptions

Work does not always move forward continuously. It may wait for a customer answer, supplier information or an internal decision. Include those waiting points in the description and identify who can follow them up. This makes it easier to distinguish a request being processed from one that cannot proceed because a necessary detail has not arrived.

Record common exceptions without trying to anticipate every imaginable event. An incomplete enquiry, a change requested after agreement or an absent contact may alter the usual route. Explain how the team chooses what happens next. When nobody knows the answer, record the open question instead of inventing a rule. It can then be discussed with the people whose work is affected.

Test the description with someone outside the activity

Show the draft to a colleague who is less familiar with this work. Ask them to follow a representative case and explain what they would do at each transition. Their questions reveal information that remained implicit. Replace internal shorthand with clear terms and include an example where the purpose of a document or message remains difficult to understand.

Store the description where colleagues can retrieve it and identify a contact for suggested corrections. When working practices change, update the relevant transitions. The document can be useful before it is polished: what matters is that the team recognises the workflow it describes. Felexia can help you examine handoffs and shape a practical account of the activity that fits how your business operates.

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