UPN LO3-2: Basic building blocks (notation basics)
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
– Warren G. Bennis
The simple notation is BY FAR the most fundamental aspect of UPN. So, do hardwire this in your brains!
And again, the way we engage with our audience is critical for success.
UPN has only 1 (one) symbol and that is the rectangle. A rectangle always represents WHAT happens (to something) and is depicted as VERB-NOUN.
Even more important -actually… the most important- is as to WHY an activity needs to happen. What is the business value you want to achieve with an activity? Note that there is a difference between a business why and a system status. See the expert text below.
Then you need also to understand what triggers the activity, WHEN does an activity actually start?
You also need to add WHO executes the activity and, optionally, in what context: The resource or role with the optional RASCI indication. If you are not familiar with RASCI, no worries at this stage.
Last, but not least, when the WHAT needs more explanation, you can create a so-called DRILL DOWN or child diagram under the current activity. Depicted as a (default blue) top-left shaded corner in the activity box. This drilldown explains HOW something happens. This can repeat itself again and again (but don’t exaggerate).
Getting this stuff right is fundamental to all your UPN process diagrams.
EXPERT
There is a difference between answering the business WHY and (simply) using the past tense to depict a (system) status. Example:
“Classify incident” leads to a “Classified incident” (=system status). But does not answer as to WHY you need to classify an incident (to understand the incident type and what the next steps are).
In UPN we first want to know the business objective and value; additionally, you can add statuses on the flowline, but there are other ways (e.g. using Data Tables). Or add a flowchart for more technical situations.