Process identification, modelling and development

A process is:

• Process is a defined set of activities or behaviours performed by humans or machines to achieve one or more goal.
• Triggered by specific events and have one or more outcome that may result in the termination of the process or a handoff to another process.
• Composed of a collection of interrelated tasks or activities which solve a particular issue.
• End-to-end work which delivers value to customers – end-to-end involves crossing any functional boundaries.

A business process is:

• a set of activities & tasks performed by resources
• using a variety of information
• interacting in a various ways
• guided by business policies and principles
• to bring out a desired result

A business process is a collection of business activities that are comprised of a set of business tasks, that create business events, that are performed on a routine basis for a defined purpose and result.

Good processes don’t make winners, but winners make good processes.

What do process-focused organizations do?

• Place considerable focus on linking processes between individual functions for end-to-end process coverage.
• Ensure everyone is able to more efficiently utilize resources.
• Provide a common language across departments.
• Provide lessons learned supported by reliable data that can be applied to other processes and improvement activities.
• Ensure all employees understand process steps and how they add value.
• Ensure employees understand how processes are behaving.
• Ensure employees help manage each others instead of escalating conflicts.
• Hand-offs between employees are smooth and without artificial boundaries.
• Ensure processes are objectively and frequently measured and reviewed for performance fit.
• Ensure customers’ requirements are known by everyone in the organization.
• Organization structure changes from functional orientation to process orientation.
• High walls between departmental functions change to cooperative partnerships.
• Operational activities change from simple tasks to multidimensional work.
• Employee roles change being controlled to being empowered.
• Processes change from being somewhat flexibel and inefficient to being highly flexible and efficient.
• Focus on delivering value to function shifts to delivering value for the customer.
• Quality changes from being add-on to being built-in.
• Managers change from supervision to coaches.
• Processes change from being uneven to being balanced and capable.
• Focus of performance measures shifts from activity to results.
• Advancement criteria change from being performance based to being ability based.