Understanding process hierarchies, levels, drill-downs, activities and outputs... can seem complex when you are new to process mapping and can befuddle you even if you've already been around the process block a few times.
If you want to improve a process however, you need to find a way to handle complexity - so let's work out how.
Process Hierarchies
A Process Hierarchy is an overview of the relationship between a group of maps, showing both higher and lower levels.
Process hierarchies divide complex processes into smaller parts, following the principle 'from abstract to concrete', with the strategy at the top level and the detail at the bottom level.
The level of detail to capture in a process hierarchy is always difficult to decide, but we have found that most people organise their process maps into 3 or 4 levels.
It is these levels that we are going to look at today and how a process mapping project can behave very differently depending on whether you've decided to map from the top-down or from the bottom-up.
It's also important to realise that although the content in this video may seem difficult, it was created so that you could understand the complexity, not shy away from it. To further help you understand the complexity, I suggest you download our 
which covers the 39 terms of Business Process Management, explaining terms from Activity to Output to Workflow Management Tool.
Process Mapping Without the Complex Process Hierarchies
Note:
This video is based on the article: Process Mapping How To: A Practical Solution to Stop You Getting Lost written by Terry Giles.
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Mapping business processes: What level should I map to?
What is BPM Terminology? 39 Essential Terms Explained
Process Mapping How To: A Practical Solution to Stop You Getting Lost