A business process is a collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service or product to a client. A business process has also been defined as a set of activities and tasks that, once completed, will accomplish an organizational goal. The process must involve clearly defined inputs and a single output. These inputs are made up of all of the factors which contribute (either directly or indirectly) to the added value of a service or product. These factors can be categorized into management processes, operational processes and supporting business processes.

I would also add that a process may include other processes and is linked to other processes.

You can think of a process as the factory that makes something happen.

The "products" or outputs from processes may be physical or logical (services).

For example:

? Creating or delivering a physical item, e.g. your car, or house

? Document processing. e.g. getting your driver's license or passport. (Although these are physical, the actual product is permission to drive or travel.)

? Information retrieval. e.g. an internet search

? Work/labor. e.g. diagnosing a problem with your car or computer.

Each of these examples represents an output "product or service", but contains multiple tasks that may also include other sub-processes.

How do processes interact? And what drives a process?

A traditional understanding of processes is that the process is always running and producing product.

In reality, processes are triggered by an event. e.g. I ordered a car. This triggers a whole series of events. Can you name/describe some of them?

In all of the above descriptions, I did not say anything about information technology. But, every process requires that some information is recorded and communicated.

e.g. who is the buyer? What is their address? What did they buy? How much? How did they pay? or did they pay?, etc.

The Technology part of Information Technology is the part that captures and communicates all the needed information. At a more advanced level, many information based tasks such as a "credit check" or credit card payment processes are totally automated such that instead of a person calling up the credit agency or bank, the IT does the job behind the scenes.

What can you add to this description?

In what way is a process like or not like a factory?

Starting material (Raw material) Machinery Tools Power Labor Manufacturing Process Completed part (Product) Scrap