Insurance process diagrams
Insurance BAs draw these all the time: in workshops, in requirement documents and on the whiteboard in interviews. Learn to sketch each one from memory in two or three minutes.
Practise on a blank whiteboard →Quote to policy (process flow)
When to draw it: The most common whiteboard question: 'Walk me through how a policy is sold.' Also the starting point of almost every requirements workshop.
- Draw left to right, one box per step, then add the STP / NSTP decision.
- Name the system at each step (portal, CKYC, rating engine, payment gateway, PAS) to show you think like a BA.
- Cover normally starts only after premium is received (section 64VB), so payment sits before issuance.
Parties and money flows
When to draw it: Use it to explain the industry to a new stakeholder, or when an interviewer asks who the parties in insurance are.
- Put the insurer in the centre; arrows show who pays or serves whom.
- Brokers act for the customer; agents and banks act for the insurer.
- TPAs and surveyors serve claims but carry no risk; reinsurers carry risk but never meet the customer.
Motor premium build-up (waterfall)
When to draw it: Explaining a rating specification, or answering 'walk me through a motor premium'. Also a good UAT artefact: each bar is a line to check.
- Read left to right: each bar starts where the previous one ended.
- NCB reduces only own damage, so it sits before third party is added.
- Figures are the default car quote on the Calculators tab: Mumbai, 1,197 cc, 27 months, 25% NCB.
Policy lifecycle (state diagram)
When to draw it: Designing statuses in a policy admin system, or explaining endorsements, renewals and cancellations.
- Boxes are states; arrows are events that move a policy between them.
- Endorsements and claims happen while the policy stays in force.
- Every state change needs rules: who can trigger it, what it costs, which documents and refunds follow.
Motor own damage claim (swimlane)
When to draw it: Asked to map a claims process, or to find where delays and leakage happen in it.
- One lane per party; time runs left to right.
- Mark decisions an interviewer will probe: cashless or reimbursement, repair or total loss (about 75% of IDV).
- The customer pays the compulsory deductible and depreciation on parts unless they have zero depreciation cover.
Cashless health claim with time limits
When to draw it: Any health claims question, and a favourite for 'where would you put system timers and alerts?'
- Highlight the two IRDAI clocks: 1 hour for pre-authorisation, 3 hours for discharge.
- Show enhancement requests when treatment costs more than first approved.
- If discharge authorisation is late, extra hospital charges fall on the insurer.
Reinsurance: quota share and excess of loss
When to draw it: Explaining how an insurer limits its exposure, or answering a reinsurance calculation question.
- Quota share splits every claim in a fixed ratio.
- Excess of loss pays only the slice of a loss above the retention, up to the layer's limit.
- Both examples match the reinsurance questions in the Interview tab.
System context: policy administration
When to draw it: Asked which systems an insurer runs, or to scope the integrations for a new product or channel.
- Put the system you are changing in the middle and the systems it talks to around it.
- Label each line with the data that flows, for example 'quote request' or 'receipt'.
- External systems (VAHAN, CKYC, IIB, Bima Sugam) are often the riskiest integrations.
Core data model (entity relationship)
When to draw it: Data mapping, migrations, reporting and API design. Interviewers ask you to sketch the main entities for a motor or health policy.
- 1 and N show 'one to many': one customer can hold many policies.
- Keep the insured risk (vehicle or member) separate from the cover, because one risk carries several covers.
- Endorsements, payments and claims all hang off the policy and need effective dates.