Mapping the Happy Path Without Ignoring Reality

Map the happy path as the intended route through a service, but do not stop there: real optimisation also requires understanding the common exceptions and the recovery paths that bring work back on track. A value-stream view follows demand from trigger to outcome, exposing waiting, rework and fragmented accountability that functional reports often miss.

• Map the normal journey first and record the assumptions at each step. Capture the current baseline before changing the work so that benefit can be demonstrated.
• Add common exceptions. In the article's example, an access request map includes missing approval, incorrect role data and urgent-start exceptions alongside the normal route. Use representative cases, not an idealised example.
• Design recovery ownership. Leaving exceptions without owners is a named pitfall, along with documenting only an idealised process and hiding workarounds, which often reveal more about the service than the normal route.
• Measure happy-path completion, exception rate and recovery time together. Read the measures as a set. Pilot on one representative case, review happy-path completion and agree who can act if results move the wrong way before extending the approach.