Business Process Design Tips - What is a Business Process? | I Heart Tech Docs, Ivan Walsh, Technical Writer

Business Process Design is an essential part of the Software Development Lifecycle. It allows you to capture the broad outline and procedures that govern what a business actually does, from both a technical and operational level. A business process or business method is a collection of interrelated tasks, which accomplish a particular goal. So, how can I use it?

Business Process Design Template

There are three types of business processes:

Management processes, the processes that govern the operation of a system. Typical management processes include “Corporate Governance” and “Strategic Management”.
Operational processes, processes that constitute the core business and create the primary value stream. Typical operational processes are Purchasing, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Sales.
Supporting processes, which support the core processes. Examples include Accounting, Recruitment, IT-support.

A business process begins with a customer’s need and ends with a customer’s need fulfillment. Process oriented organizations break down the barriers of structural departments and try to avoid functional silos. A business process can be decomposed into several sub-processes, which have their own attributes, but also contribute to achieving the goal of the super-process. The analysis of business processes typically includes the mapping of processes and sub-processes down to activity level.

Benefits of a Business Process template

A Business Process is a set of activities designed to produce a specific output. It is used to capture the specific ordering of work activities, including inputs, outputs, triggers and actions. These Business Process templates will help you to:

Introduce the process and outline its purpose, goal, and outcomes
Identify the fundamental assumptions behind this process. For example, what assumptions does the process audience have in relation to this process and how does the process support those assumptions
Identify where and how the process interfaces with other processes or whether it is a component or sub-components of other processes
Use Visio flowcharts to illustrate process activities, including inputs and outputs, decision points and user activity
Identify data to be collected, such as reports, forms, and policies
Identify reporting requirements associated with the performance of the process and the format it must be delivered in
Identify the audience, role, and individuals who will use the process definition, and the responsibilities of these roles

Business Processes are designed to add value for the customer and should not include unnecessary activities. The outcome of a well designed business process is increased effectiveness (value for the customer) and increased efficiency (less costs for the company).

Business Processes can be modeled through a large number of methods and techniques. For instance, the Business Process Modeling Notation is a Business Process Modeling technique that can be used for drawing business processes in a workflow.