Business Process Glossary

Business Process Design Glossary

A
Activity - a process, function or task that occurs over time with identifiable results. A business process is made up of several activities strung together
Activity Based Costing (ABC) - an accounting technique used to determine the costs associated with manufacturing and selling a product or service which does not take the organizational structure of the company into account
Activity model - a chart which represents a business process by demonstrating its activities and their interdependencies

B
Baseline - the current condition of a situation that differs from its previous or future representation
Benchmarking - the measurement of an assessment process which measures points throughout the progression of an activity against those of recognized leaders in order to set priorities and targets
Best practice - a methodology for accomplishing business tasks that is considered superior to all other methods
Business case - a structured proposal for business process improvement which includes an analysis of business process needs or challenges and the proposed solutions
Business objectives - an organization's tangible, precise, intentions that outline the measurement of their success for a given time period, e.g., decrease total costs by 20%, become the largest supplier of widgets in the United States
Business process - a set of associated procedures or activities with defined roles and relationships carried out to realize a business function in pursuit of business objectives
Business Process Design (BPD) - the creation of a business process
Business Process Improvement (BPI) - the improvement of an organization's business practices through the analysis of activities to reduce or eliminate inefficient or irrelevant activities that simultaneously improves quality, productivity, timeliness, or other strategic or business purposes, also called functional process improvement
Business Process Redesign (BPR) - see Business Process Reengineering

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) - a structured approach to transform and improve the methodology of manufacturing an organization's products or services which reduces resource requirements, also called business process redesign

C
Continuous process improvement - the commitment of a business to encourage and empower employees to improve business process design
Cross functional process improvement - business process redesign with the goal of eliminating stove pipe operations

E
Economic analysis - a method of comparing two or more ways of accomplishing a set objective, given the costs and benefits of each
Event - an external happening that causes a business to react

F
Function - roles, responsibilities, actions and activities specific to a company position or business department
Functional area - a grouping of actions or processes that categorize an aspect of a business
Functional Process Improvement - see Business Process Improvement

I
Information - knowledge, data, intelligence specific to an event or situation; a group of facts
Inventory Holding Cost - the sum total of all the costs associated with maintaining inventory
ISO 9000 - quality management and assurance standards adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

J
Just in time (JIT) - a methodology that reduces inventory, wait time and spoilage in calling for the delivery of material, products or services at the exact period in which they are required. Effective use of JIT can reduce inventory holding cost.

K
Knowledge - understanding, familiarity, awareness

M
Management systems - software and other tools used by business managers to support business processes
Method - a system for carrying out a business process based on knowledge and information

O
Organization - a group of two or more people who work together to accomplish goals that can not be achieved alone
Organizational Dynamics - how an organization functions to accomplish its tasks

Organize - a strategic arrangement of an entity, space or process based on knowledge and information
Organization diagnostics - the process of identifying business challenges through study and accumulation of data

P
Paradigm - a philosophical and theoretical framework
Performance measure - an indicator used to evaluate progress towards business goals and objectives usually measured against a target or known standard
Procedural rules - a set of governing principles for taking action to accomplish a task, activity or carry out a role
Process - a systematic series of actions meant to achieve a specified end result
Process model - a chart or graphical depiction of a business process detailing the arrangement of task interdependency, controls, and allocated resources

Q
Quality - conformance to requirements

R
Redesign - see Business Process Redesign

Reengineering - see Business Process Reengineering

Resource - people, materials, technology, information and/or knowledge that serves to support a business function

S
Scenario - a sequence of operations carried out in a specific order to produce a specific result
Stove pipe - jargon referring to a business function that operates vertically but inefficiently or ineffectively, e.g. the marketing department does not coordinate their work with the sales department

T
Total Quality Management/Total Quality Leadership (TQM/TQL) - a business ideology in an organization that values continual improvement which integrates fundamental management techniques with improvement efforts and technology
Trigger - an event that generates a necessary response as per a set timeframe

V
Value added activity - an extraneous activity in a process that adds worth to the business function but is not considered essential

W
Workflow - an automated business process during which information (usually in the form of documents) or tasks are handed from one participant to another, based on some trigger, for their action set forth by a set of procedural rules
Workflow application - a computer software or online-based program that is used to more efficiently manage all or part of a business process that would otherwise not be automated
Workflow management systems - see management systems

Z
Zero Defects - a quality standard when the requirements are met