Independent resource / processretina.com
The workflow observation record.
A sequence for turning a specific question about work into a map you can review. Adapt the detail to the setting and the people involved.
1. Write the observation question
Name the relationship you want to understand: a handoff, a decision, a return for clarification or the path taken by a particular work item. Avoid starting with a proposed solution.
Define the boundaries. Write what counts as the beginning and end of the example, and note any parts of the surrounding process that remain outside the map.
2. Choose an example and a source
Identify the piece of work you can follow or the source material you can examine. Record the relevant setting and date in your own working notes where useful.
Distinguish direct observation from a retrospective account or a procedure document. Each may be helpful, but they do not establish the same kind of evidence.
3. Capture the sequence
Write activities as clear verbs with their objects. Add the inputs, outputs or decisions needed to understand each transition. Keep the first draft simple enough to check.
Mark gaps explicitly. If you cannot establish what happened between two activities, save the uncertainty rather than connecting them with an unexplained arrow.
4. Add the relationships
Identify where responsibility or context moves between roles. Note what the next participant needs to continue and where a decision creates different possible paths.
Make waiting visible without assuming its cause. A pause in the record is a prompt for a question, not an explanation by itself.
5. Choose the view
Use a sequence for order, role lanes for handoffs or a decision view for branches. Select the view that supports your question and explain any symbols that are not obvious.
Keep a proposed future arrangement in a separate version. Give each map a clear purpose so an improvement idea does not overwrite the current-state record.
6. Review with the people involved
Ask reviewers to check the language, order and conditions around the example. Note where accounts differ and whether the difference reflects an exception or an unresolved question.
Keep feedback connected to a particular point in the map. If a correction depends on information not yet available, leave it open and identify how it can be checked.
7. Close with a useful next step
Save the map, its boundaries, sources and open questions together. Decide which question is most useful to investigate next and who will take the follow-up.
Review the record before sharing it more widely. Keep enough context for a new reader to understand the map without including unrelated personal or operational detail.