Process

Process

A set of related activities our enterprise carries out.

Description Processes focus the design attention on a flow of activities needed for product creation (either directly or indirectly). They consist of a set of activities that are performed in coordination in an organisational or technical environment. A process is composed of activities connected by flow relationships. A process can be strictly structured (the sequence/ flows stay more or less the same in every process instance) or less structured (activities may be omitted, the sequence/flows can vary). If designed well, they lead to enterprises that operate efficiently and effectively.

A process transforms a set of inputs into a set of products or intermediary outputs. In a Business Process Management practice, each process shall have a Process Owner that has the overall responsibility for the end-to-end management of one or more processes.

Examples

• A car company has largely automated their production process.
• An insurance provider treats incoming claims in a structured fashion.
• A government lab engages citizens to contribute to public innovation as a non structured process.
• A software company uses agile methods to manage their development process.

Use

• Engineer operations for efficiency.
• Design the interplay between organisational units.
• Design flows of data or physical structures.
• Establish a continuous improvement of processes.

Related

• Product is created by Process
• Organisation performs Process
• Process realises Capability
• Process requires Asset

Variants

• Automated process
• Manual process
• Structured process
• Non-structured process