Abstract
Imagine yourself reading this chapter. You glance briefly to the side of your table only to realize that your coffee cup is now empty. A process is then sparked and initialized, and you (1) get up from your chair, (2) lift your cup from the table, (3) walk into the kitchen, (4) pour yourself another cup of coffee, (5) you then return to your chair, and (6) sit down and continue reading. That, in itself, is a process by nature. This is just one example of a very simple and descriptive process so as to better illustrate its elusive concept.
A business process, however, is the same as a process, but with one major difference, namely with the emphasis on the word business. A business process is a collection of tasks and activities (business operations and actions) consisting of employees, materials, machines, systems, and methods that are being structured in such a way as to design, create, and deliver a product or a service to the consumer.
As such, a business process can be understood in the following way:
- It is a placeholder for the action (process area).
- An action is taking place (process group).
- A business task is taking place (business process).
- The location of the business task in the sequence (process step).
- The way the business task is carried out (process activity).
The historical evolution of processes over the course of time.