Step 3: The Shapes

Activities

There are three types of activities:

• Activity
  Used for most tasks and describes something that is done.
• External Activity
  Used to show an Activity that is performed outside the organisation. Often used when the Activity is brief and the Output Deliverable returns immediately back to the organisation.
• Decision
  A special kind of Activity which has multiple, mutually exclusive outputs.

Activities show at the bottom of the shape, the person or role that is responsible for ensuring that the activity is completed correctly and successfully. They may not be the person who performs the activity, but they are responsible for ensuring it is done.

If you single-click on the Activity, its Properties will be displayed. The Properties are customised for your organisation and their values are input when the Process Map is created or amended.

Deliverables

There are four types of deliverables:

• Internal Deliverable
  These are created and used internally within the Department.
• Handover Deliverable
  A type of Internal Deliverable that can be used to show where a deliverable moves between Departments within the Organisation.
• External Deliverable
  A Deliverable that is used or produced outside the scope of your end-to-end process map. Typically, an external Input will come from the company's suppliers and an external Output will go to the company's customers.
• Start/End Deliverable
  A type of External Deliverable in that it indicates the end of a process. It is often used to designate an Archive.

NOTE: The colours on the Handover Deliverable and Start/End Deliverable may be different and there may be additional deliverables if your organisation has customised the maps.

If you single-click on the Deliverable, its Properties will be displayed. The Properties are customised for your organisation and their values are input when the Process Map is created or amended.

Hyperlink Circles

There are two sizes of Hyperlink Circles. The smaller hyperlink circle is placed next to an activity and allows access to external files or applications related to the activity. The larger hyperlink circle is usually placed just below the Version bar and can be used to provide access to external files and application relevant for the whole process on the map.

Hyperlink Circles do not have Properties, but each of the hyperlinks on them have a description. If there is only one hyperlink, it will try to open it. If there is more than one hyperlink, it will display the list of the hyperlinks with their descriptions for you to choose.