Classification of business processes. The concept and types of business processes

Business processes can be classified in different ways, depending on what to take as the main criterion. Most often they talk about processes in terms of the organizational structure of the company. In such cases, the main criterion is the functional load. Based on this principle, the most common classification of business processes is as follows:

1. Basic - are associated with the production of the main products of the company (goods or services):

• adding value to the product;
• creating a product;
• revenue generating;
• those that the client is willing to pay.

2. Auxiliary or internal - administrative and economic support:

• personnel Management;
• financial management;
• logistics management, etc.

3. Managers - HR, corporate governance, quality management, etc .:

• strategic;
• planning processes;
• controlling.

Some sources call this classification and describe it as structural business processes. At the forefront is a corporate structure.

Other business process classifications

Processes can be grouped according to their complexity:

• Monoprocesses are monosyllabic repeating actions.
• Nested processes are chains of actions built from monoprocesses.
• Related processes are sequential chains of monoprocesses within the framework of algorithms.

Types of business processes according to the hierarchy principle:

• Individual horizontal processes are actions of individual employees.
• Cross-functional horizontal processes - borderline interactions between employees of "neighboring" departments.
• Horizontal processes - horizontal interaction.
• Vertical processes - vertical interaction (pure hierarchy).
• Integrated processes - chain of actions of employees vertically and horizontally at the same time.

Functional business processes are grouped in accordance with corporate units and their functions: these can be warehouse, logistics, financial, and managerial processes. In this classification, one of the most important points is the coordination and description of the “joints” between departments - sections of the process chains. Most often, the output of the process of one department is the entrance to the process of the next department. To agree “on the shore” about how the entrance to the “receiving” side is seen, and to coordinate this vision with the “letting go” department is a necessary and indispensable condition for effective interaction of the process “neighbors”.

What is a business process?

There is simply trouble with the concept of a business process in the sources: there is no universal and clear wording. It got to the point that many authors simply avoid such explanations and pretend that everything is clear already - by default. This tactic is not a bad option, because inventing your own alternative formulations like “business entity” can bring chaos and confusion to a difficult process approach and everything related to it. Based on the foregoing, the definitions of the basics of a business process are as follows:

Process - advancement, course, course of events. This is the transformation of "entry" into "exit."

A business process is a sequence of actions of people in a team fixed on a medium for analysis, regulation and optimization.

Extremely important details are an integral part of the general definition; they can be called the main characteristics of a business process:

• Without people, there are no business processes. If we are talking about actions performed by automatic machines or software, then this is a technological chain or specification.In addition, the end result of the process is always unchanged, with no options. If there is a marriage, then due to violations in technology. In a business process, the result may differ depending on certain conditions specified in the chain (“forks” of options).

• More than one person is always involved in a business process. Even if the actions are scheduled for one (individual horizontal process), there are always implicit “colleagues” in the process - for example, customers.
• Without a description, there is no business process. Sometimes processes are described "as is", sometimes - "as it should be." In both cases, this is a very creative affair.
• No types of business processes can be 100% perfect. There is always the possibility of optimization - at least immediately, at least in the future. Correction and improvement, taking into account the human factor and, in particular, scientific and technological progress, is one of the main advantages of the process approach over any other management systems.
• Improving business processes is continuous and endless - something like this slogan will suit everyone who is seriously involved in process modeling.

Customer Value Creation Processes

The first sign of core business processes is that they create core revenue for the company. They generate value for an external customer. Previously, a single chain of company product creation was considered as the main process, but now the picture of the main processes is much wider. This process group now includes:

• supplier relationship management;
• direct production of the product;
• product delivery to the customer;
• risk management;
• customer relationship management;
• designing new products.

Supporting business processes

Supporting or internal business processes are often referred to as supporting. It is a mistake to think that we are talking about actions of the "second grade" of importance. In a company, all functions are equal and valuable. The only difference is that such processes do not bring value to the external client, he will not pay for them. For example, a client living in a hotel does not care about the work of the human resources department of this hotel. But the whole hotel staff has a matter: good personnel officers can add serious value to the quality of staff work. In other words, the supporting business processes add value to the company's final product, but do not add value to it.

Sometimes it is difficult to decide what kind of classification some business processes belong to. For example, human resource management includes several complex components. The process of hiring new employees is purely internal. As for the training and development of employees, these processes are directly related to managing strategic initiatives. The key to success in the competent differentiation of processes is the correct and detailed organizational structure.

Control processes

The input to the control processes is most often the data of internal and external reports. They have their own classification of business processes. They can be divided into two large groups:

• Strategic processes aimed at the development of the company, its competitiveness and current activities.
• Purely management, aimed at managing the activities of the company.

Control processes are the only kind of processes to which a typical structure can be applied. The process model is the same, but the management objects are different: it can be personnel management, financial management, planning management, etc. As for the standard model of managing business processes, it is as follows:

• Planning - collection and analysis of information, development of an action plan.
• Communications - explanations, motivation and support of employees before starting work.
• Implementation of the action plan.
• Monitoring of work according to the terms and points of the plan.
• Control - comparison and analysis of the actions taken with the plan.
• Adjustment of the plan of further actions, evaluation of the results.

Why fence the garden, or the essence of process management

Why describe what everyone already knows well? This question, combined with a heavy sigh, most often sounds in departments at the beginning of the implementation of the process approach. The benefits and arguments for the implementation of process management are known and very tangible. Business processes need to be described, analyzed and optimized for:

1. Effective study and continuous improvement of the business (including management).
2. Visibility, which will help to understand in detail all types of work to people from the outside.
3. Minimization of office "wars" between departments, since it is possible to register and coordinate all the "butt" sections of horizontal processes.
4. Clarity, comprehensibility and visibility of real work processes for all employees. With the prescribed business processes, it is impossible to “splurge” neither the bosses, nor the auditors, or colleagues.
5. Reducing the company's dependence on the personal competence of employees, especially stellar ones. There are no names in standardized processes, there are only position names and attributed actions.
6. For replication of processes in branches.

Implementation and support of the process approach is much simpler than it seems to many employees and company executives. This stereotype is formed, unfortunately, due to the considerable number of people on the market who call themselves consultants, who in reality are “process charlatans” with hypertrophied diagnostics of difficulties and errors on the way to processes.

The best option for implementing process management is to do it yourself. The main thing is to believe in your strength and work thoughtfully and slowly, in such things, speed is not required.

About typical processes

In each organization, regardless of its profile, several dozen consecutive chains of actions can be counted. Therefore, the classification of business processes can not do. Another question is how to group the actions and operations taking place in the organization so that everything is logical and understandable. Models of standard processes, with the help of which it would be possible to prescribe all production and administrative sequences, would well help in this.

But, unfortunately (and maybe, fortunately), standard process models practically do not exist. Even for companies in the same industry with similar production cycles, typical business processes (such are sometimes offered on the consulting market) will in no way correspond to the real process picture. Unless, of course, the task of the company is to introduce a truly effective process approach, and not a formal formal reply to the shareholders “we are all like people”.

Write off other types of business processes will not work. More precisely, it will turn out, but in the end it will not just be zero, but much worse: discrediting both the process approach and the company’s management with their “regular idiotic quacks because of a bad head that doesn’t give rest” (literal quote from a logistician companies after he was forced to compose the processes of the entire department). No doubt, business processes in the organization do not deserve such words.

Principal features of process management

Let's start with a small question. If you decide to produce, for example, stools, then all operations, including choosing a color, cutting legs and so on, will fit into the chain of a business process. Question: what will be the result of the process at the end of this chain? Ready stool? High sales? But no. There, on your brand new stool, a satisfied (or dissatisfied) consumer sits with his opinion, which you should be sure to be interested in regularly.

Here it is - the fundamental difference between the process approach and other control systems: not a stool, but a consumer sitting on this stool.If we talk about the process of cleaning the office of the company, then at the end of the chain there will be not a “clean office”, but employees who are happy with the cleanliness and order in this office. Shifting the focus from “we make very good stools” to “consumers are satisfied with our products, praise and buy more.”

In other words, the main criteria for evaluating the company’s performance in all respects is customer opinion, and not their own thoughts about themselves (usually significantly overstated). Consumers of goods or services are external and internal.

Everything is clear with external clients - these are buyers, but sometimes it’s very difficult for employees to get used to the appearance of internal clients. A typical example is the picture that can be seen in the accounting departments. Employees of such departments are accustomed to reporting only to the head and financial audit.

At first, it is difficult for them to get used to the fact that the quality of their work is assessed by colleagues from neighboring departments: a deuce for the speed of issuing invoices or invoices at first only causes shock and protests. The only treatment for such situations is through detailed explanations combined with patience. Particularly valuable explanations come from company management.

How to describe the process

As noted above, creating business processes is an interesting job. An important condition is to show employees that it is:

1. Not as difficult as it might seem.
2. Extremely exciting and interesting.

It is not so important who exactly will collect detailed information and the sequence of actions of each participant in the process - a consultant, an appointed employee or the entire team of process executors (the best option). The main thing is not to rush and collect exhaustive and maximally detailed information in order to translate it into a graphic presentation. The text version is also possible, in this case there are no strict requirements, but the picture works better than the "wall" of the text. This is especially true when business processes are described for a large number of people.

Algorithm for describing business processes:

1. Gather process participants.
2. Define the name and purpose of the process.
3. To fix the beginning and end of the process is the first and last action.
4. Define the input and everything you need to enter (materials, information, other resources).
5. Determine the output (everything that should be obtained as a result).
6. Name the stages of business processes.
7. Name the process owner with authority and responsibility.
8. Accurately identify and coordinate (very important!) The performer of each stage.
9. Clarify the timing of each stage, list all the necessary supporting documents and forms.

The degree of detail of business processes may vary. It depends on the readership for which they are being described. The best option seems to be one that will be clear to a beginner who has come to a new place and delving into new responsibilities. Learning a business process with related questions and explanations from a mentor would be an ideal example of on-the-job training.

It will be useful to separately state the key processes in an enlarged version on one page - “raise the picture” to see the entire process landscape.

Myths, mistakes and tips

• A serious and common misconception is to think that business processes must be profitable. This is true if the process is associated, for example, with direct sales. You can’t talk about profit in other processes - the formation of personnel reporting or the intermediate shipment of goods. Adding value is not making a profit.
• No need to write huge sheets with the most detailed details. It’s even scary to look at such “masterpieces”, not to mention learning or optimization. Laconicism and simplicity are the most important requirements for the design of business processes.
• Do not confuse corporate business processes and IT processes that have nothing in common with each other, except for names. Think IT processes are just full namesakes, nothing more.
• It makes no sense to invent their own "copyright" ways of depicting processes. It is best to use off-the-shelf systems, such as BPMN2.0 or IDEF3, which minimize errors and help standardize your processes so that they are understandable to a wide audience of users.
• A common mistake is to describe business processes “as is” and calm down on this. The result is a "description for the sake of description." Artists forget that creating graphic processes is just a tool to achieve the main goal: improvements, optimizations, lower costs, increased profitability, etc. Writing business processes is only the beginning. The most interesting begins later.
• When analyzing and adjusting business processes, in no case should one ignore the external context, especially in today's rapidly changing world. Counterparties, competitors, crises, changes in taxes - there are no trifles in the external environment.
• Stereotypes associated with Japanese "legends" about lean manufacturing, production principles in Toyota, the kaizen system, etc. Without a clue about the essence of Japanese quality management, consultants or employees themselves try to fit their new business process system into a Japanese stencil . Foreign stencils have never helped anyone, especially the Japanese developments, which are associated primarily with the peculiarities of culture and mentality.
• Too much attention is paid to secondary details: a detailed description of the process of ordering corporate lunches is unlikely to play any role in improving the efficiency of the company. It is necessary to describe and optimize all actions in all departments, but priorities must be known and followed.