Business processes can be used to represent the business-related procedures of a company.
A task that arises from business activities is divided into business processes. These are then broken down into sub-processes, and the overall task is divided into subtasks or individual activities.

Definition of a business process

The connection between activities can be achieved through the exchange of

• information,
• data,
• objects
• or documents

between different entities.

The processes are structured hierarchically. If they are complex, i.e., if many activities follow one another and there are many case distinctions, then the processes are made up of subprocesses. The division into subprocesses is also advantageous if individual parts are to be reused as subprocesses.

The execution of business processes and the associated activities is carried out by human or machine resources. Human resources include, for example, external partners. Machine resources include, for example, computers, programs, or services.

For more information, see Definition of model.

For more information on the business process “Goods receipt,” see Goods receipt – Identification.

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