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> Business Development > Glossaries > Business Process
Design Glossary
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A |
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Activity -
a process, function or task that occurs over time with
identifiable results. A business process is made up of
several activities strung together |
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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 |
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Activity model
- a chart which represents a business process by
demonstrating its activities and their interdependencies
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B |
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Baseline -
the current condition of a situation that differs from its
previous or future representation |
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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
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Best practice
- a methodology for accomplishing business tasks that is
considered superior to all other methods |
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Business case
- a structured proposal for business process improvement
which includes an analysis of business process needs or
challenges and the proposed solutions |
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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 |
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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 |
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Business Process Design (BPD)
- the creation of a business process |
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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 |
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Business Process Redesign (BPR) -
see
Business Process
Reengineering
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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 |
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C |
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Continuous process improvement
- the commitment of a business to encourage and empower
employees to improve business process design |
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Cross functional process improvement
- business process redesign with the goal of eliminating
stove pipe operations |
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E |
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Economic analysis -
a method of comparing two or more ways of accomplishing a
set objective, given the costs and benefits of each |
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Event
- an external happening that causes a business to react |
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F |
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Function
- roles, responsibilities, actions and activities specific
to a company position or business department |
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Functional area
- a grouping of actions or processes that categorize an
aspect of a business |
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Functional Process Improvement
- see
Business Process Improvement |
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I |
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Information -
knowledge, data, intelligence specific to an event or
situation; a group of facts |
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Inventory Holding Cost -
the sum total of all the costs associated with maintaining
inventory |
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ISO 9000 -
quality management and assurance standards adopted by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
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J |
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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.
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K |
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Knowledge
- understanding, familiarity, awareness |
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M |
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Management systems
- software and other tools used by business managers to
support business processes |
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Method
- a system for carrying out a business process based on
knowledge and information |
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O |
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Organization -
a group of two or more people who work together to
accomplish goals that can not be achieved alone |
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Organizational Dynamics - how an
organization
functions to accomplish its tasks |
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Organize -
a strategic arrangement of an entity, space or
process based on knowledge and information |
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Organization diagnostics -
the process of identifying business challenges through
study and accumulation of data |
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P |
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Paradigm -
a philosophical and theoretical framework |
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Performance measure -
an indicator used to evaluate progress towards business
goals and objectives usually measured against a target or
known standard |
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Procedural rules -
a set of governing principles for taking action to
accomplish a task, activity or carry out a role |
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Process -
a systematic series of actions meant to achieve a
specified end result |
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Process model
- a chart or graphical depiction of a business process
detailing the arrangement of task interdependency,
controls, and allocated resources |
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Q |
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Quality - conformance to requirements |
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R |
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Redesign -
see
Business Process Redesign |
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Reengineering -
see
Business Process
Reengineering |
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Resource -
people, materials, technology, information and/or
knowledge that serves to support a business function |
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S |
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Scenario -
a sequence of operations carried out in a specific order
to produce a specific result |
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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 |
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T |
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Total Quality Management/Total Quality Leadership (TQM/TQL)
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a business ideology in an organization that
values continual improvement which integrates fundamental
management techniques with improvement efforts and
technology |
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Trigger -
an event that generates a necessary response as per a set
timeframe |
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V |
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Value added activity - an extraneous activity in a
process that adds worth to the business function but is
not considered essential |
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W |
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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
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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 |
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Workflow management systems
- see
management systems |
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Z |
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Zero Defects - a
quality standard when the requirements are met |
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