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