Business Journey Mapping
Layer: business observability (the why)
Product and business operations own this layer. Platform teams support emission and storage; they do not define what "success" means for a regulated journey.
Outcome
For each critical journey, you can answer:
- Is the customer completing the workflow?
- Is revenue or obligation impact visible in near real time?
- Which step drives drop-off when outcomes degrade?
Steps
1. Name the journeys
Pick journeys that matter for revenue, risk, or regulation (not every screen).
| Journey | Business owner | Example outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Retail checkout | Product / payments | Payment success rate |
| Claims intake | Operations | First-touch resolution rate |
| KYC onboarding | Compliance / product | Verification completion |
2. Define business KPIs per journey
| KPI type | Example | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Success rate | % payments completed | Raw page views without outcome |
| Conversion | Application → approval | Infra CPU as proxy for business health |
| Drop-off | Abandon at step 3 of 5 | Vanity metrics with no service mapping |
3. Emit business events
Business events are first-class signals, not spreadsheet exports.
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
journey_id | Stable workflow identifier |
step | Named stage in the journey |
outcome | success / failure / abandon |
correlation_id | Join to service traces (required) |
principal | Customer or case identity (policy-compliant) |
4. Set business-facing SLOs
| SLO | Example target | Consumer |
|---|---|---|
| Payment success | 99.5% / 24h | Product + SRE |
| Claims submission completion | 95% / 7d | Operations |
| Onboarding completion | 90% / 30d | Compliance |
5. Map KPI → service entry points
Document which API or event starts the journey slice you measure. Correlation playbook wires the rest.
| Business KPI | Service entry |
|---|---|
| Payment success | POST /checkout/pay |
| Claims intake | POST /claims/submit |
Release gate
- Each priority journey has a named business owner
- KPIs are outcome-based, not activity-based
- Business events include
correlation_id - Business SLOs are documented and alertable
- KPI → service entry mapping exists for correlation