Run a management system that matches how your business operates.
Your procedures, controls and evidence can describe the work as it is done, in one model with an owner against each part. You already hold most of what it needs. The route is to check it against the work, then connect it.
An auditor asks to follow a procedure from the manual to the people who run it. The manual describes one route and the team describes another, and both are sensible. With the two brought together and an owner named, the same question takes a few minutes.
The management system you have is the right starting point.
It holds years of decisions about how the organisation works. The task is to confirm which parts still describe the work and which have moved on.
Most organisations hold a manual, a set of procedures, process maps, a controls register, audit findings and a corrective action log. Several of these were written for a particular standard, by different teams, in different years. Each is accurate for its own purpose, and they were not built to be read together.
ISO describes the process approach in ISO 9001 as managing processes and their interactions so they support consistent results, performance evaluation and continual improvement (ISO, The process approach in ISO 9001). A process-led system is that idea put into practice: one model of how the organisation works, its process architecture, with each standard answered from it.
Four steps from the system you hold to one you can rely on.
Take them in order, one process at a time, starting where an auditor or a change programme will look first.
Start with what you hold
Inventory the manual, procedures, process maps, controls and records, and who owns each. Nothing is redrawn at this stage.
Establish how it runs today
For the processes that matter first, gather evidence from the people who do the work and from the records and event logs their systems keep.
Bring both into one model
Link each process to its procedures, controls and evidence, with an owner at every link, so the documented system and the work sit side by side.
Keep it current
Set a review rhythm by owner and by age. When the work changes, the model and the documents change with it.
Step two is work for people. Our discovery services establish how the work runs today, with the people who do it and with event logs where they exist. That evidence is what makes the rest of the model worth relying on. Step three uses the same joining as information lineage, which traces where each item starts and what depends on it.
One supplier approval procedure, checked against the work and linked.
An illustration of the method, not a client case. It makes no claim about results.
Take a supplier approval procedure in a quality manual. The manual says a new supplier is approved by the quality team before the first order. Following it through the documents and the work answers the rest.
List what is documented
The procedure, the control and the record already exist. Each is linked to the process and given an owner.
Check it against the work
A walkthrough with purchasing and a look at the purchase order records show that urgent orders are placed before approval is complete, with approval confirmed afterwards.
Decide and record
The owner chooses whether to change the procedure to describe an urgent route with its own control, or to change the way urgent orders are placed. Either way, the manual and the work then agree.
The finding is an illustration of the kind of difference discovery brings out. It is a normal one, and it has a clean resolution once someone owns the decision.
Every statement in the model shows its source, its age and its owner.
A connected management system is only useful if you know which parts you can stand behind.
IGX360 Insights works over the repository and the documents around it, such as iGrafx models, SOPs, procedures and Visio files. It brings them into one model you can query, and it shows, for each link, where the information came from, how confident you can be in it, how recent it is, who owns it and where two sources disagree.
That tells you which procedures are ready for an audit and which need a review first. It reads what is documented and modelled. It does not replace your repository or your modelling notation, and it does not assume you have one. Confirming how the work runs today is what discovery is for.
A current management system gives AI something true to work from.
An agent follows the procedures you give it. Linked, owned and current ones are the ones to start with.
When procedures, controls and evidence are linked and owned, you can see which steps have one clear procedure and one accountable person. Those are the steps to automate now. You can also see where two documents disagree, so you know where a human gate belongs before an agent acts.
One linked model answers different questions for different roles.
Integrated management system process discovery: frequently asked questions
What should we do when our documented processes do not reflect how the business operates?
Start with what you hold: the manual, the procedures, the process maps and the audit findings. Check each against the people who run the work, one process at a time, beginning with the ones an auditor is most likely to ask about. Then update the document or the way of working, and give each one an owner so it stays aligned.
How do I establish whether our procedures reflect what employees actually do?
Compare the procedure with the work. Walk it through with the people who do it, look at the records and system data the work produces, and note where the two tell a different story. This is process discovery, and it gathers new evidence from people and from event logs. Documentation alone cannot answer the question.
Where should we start when reviewing an Integrated Management System?
Start with an inventory of what is documented and who owns it. Choose a small number of processes that matter most to your customers, your certification or your regulator. Establish how those run today, link the procedures, controls and records that belong to each, and review them first.
Should we map our actual processes before rewriting our IMS?
Yes. A rewrite is quicker and holds for longer when it starts from how the work runs today and from the documents you already have. Map first, then decide what to keep, what to change and what to retire.
How do you map real processes rather than documented procedures?
Gather evidence from the work: structured conversations with the people who do it, observation of a live case, and the records or event logs the systems already keep. Then compare what you find with the documented procedure. Where they agree, the document stands. Where they differ, you have a decision to make.
How can we connect processes, procedures, controls and evidence in an IMS?
Give each process, procedure, control and record a shared identifier, and link them in one model with an owner against each link. A question that spans all four, such as "what evidence do we hold for this control?", then becomes a lookup. A process repository such as iGrafx Process360 Live can hold the models, and IGX360 Insights brings the documents around them into the same view.
How do we fix a management system that has drifted from day-to-day operations?
Treat it as a sequence. Establish how the work runs today for the processes that matter first, bring the findings and the documents into one model, decide what changes, then set a review rhythm with named owners. You do not need to rebuild the whole system at once.
How should a large company create a process-led Integrated Management System?
Start from a process architecture: a structured hierarchy of the organisation's processes with an owner at each level. Hang the procedures, controls and records off it, so each standard's requirements can be answered from one model instead of a separate set of documents per standard.
Who can help us map our actual processes before we redesign our IMS?
IGX Solutions is a UK process intelligence consultancy and an authorised iGrafx partner since 2009. Our discovery services establish how your work runs today, with the people who do it, and our process design services put the result into a model your management system can be built on.
What does IGX360 Insights add to a management system review?
It reads the documents and models you already hold and shows what you can stand behind: where each statement came from, how confident you can be in it, how recent it is, who owns it and where two sources disagree. It works from documentation, so you confirm how the work runs today through discovery.
Go deeper.
Enterprise process architecture: the structure a management system hangs from
Read the definitionInformation lineage: trace where information starts and what depends on it
Read the guideProcess discovery: establish how the work runs today
See the serviceStart the conversation
Start with one process an auditor will ask about.
Pick a procedure that matters to your next audit or change. We will show what checking it against the work and linking it to its controls and evidence tells you.