The first step in a process mapping exercise is to assemble a team that covers all the phases in the business process mapping (BPM) exercise, and that will facilitate the different activities (including providing technical support). As general rules, the members of this team should be part of the CRVS system in the country, they must have a deep understanding of how the CRVS system operates in the different agencies/ministries involved, and should have some knowledge about BPM methodology.

It is common that CRVS institutions do not have BPM capacity available among their personnel and they would need to rely on the external support of a business analyst for the first process mapping exercise. However, since process mapping should be a routine activity in CRVS systems, we strongly encourage the development of BPM capacity or the establishment of alliances with local institutions or companies that can provide this service on a regular basis.

The second step in this phase is to identify the CRVS process that will be included in the analysis. CRVS stakeholders usually start with core processes in the systems (births and deaths in the community and in a health facility).

Some criteria that can be used to make this decision could be:

• The ability of the team to improve the process
• The process being a major cause of low performance of the entire system
• Potential cost savings
• The motivation of the staff to change the process
• The complexity of the process.

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The CRVS Digitisation Guidebook provides an overview of the types of skills required for the various roles, including a business analyst.