ISO 9001: 2000 defines process as a set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs to outputs. Anjard (1998) and Hamid, Baldry & Alexander (2008) describes a process as a series of activities (tasks, steps, events, operations) that takes an output, adds value to it, and produces an output (product, service, or information) for a client. The Businessdictionary.com (2014) define ‘process’ as, “a sequence of interdependent and linked procedures which, at every stage, consume one or more resources (employee time, energy, machines, money) to convert inputs (data, material, parts, etc.) into outputs. These outputs then serve as inputs for the next stage until a known goal or end result is reached”.
The Information Technology and Services of Syracuse University (2012) described ‘process’ in the following ways:
- a collection of interrelated work tasks initiated in response to an event that achieves a specific result for the customer of the process.
- that achieves a specific result:
- must deliver a specific result
- this result must be individually identifiable and countable
- a good process name clearly indicates the result or end state of the process
- for the customer of the process:
- a customer receives the result or is the beneficiary of it
- the customer can be a person or an organisation
- customer can be identified and can pass judgment on the result and process
- customer point of view helps identify and name the process accurately
- initiated in response to a specific event:
- the process must be initiated in response to a specific event
- multiple events can initiate a process
- having an event AND a result allows the tracing of the sequence of tasks that turns the event into the result
- work tasks:
- a collection of actions, activities, steps or tasks make up a business process
- a step in the initial workflow will probably be divided into more detailed steps later
- a collection of interrelated:
- the process steps must relate to each other
- interrelationship is through sequence and flow…the completion of one step leads to (flows into) the initiation of the next step
- also interrelated by dealing with the same work item
- steps related by being traceable back to the same initiation event
References
Businessdictionary.com (2014). Definition of process Web Finance Inc. Retrieved on June 26, 2014 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/process.html
Information Technology and Services, Syracuse University (2012). Process. Center for Science & Technology, Syracuse, NY.
