What Is a Business Process? Definition, Types, Examples and How to Map One
A business process is how an organization turns a request into a result: an order into a delivery, an applicant into an employee, a complaint into a fix. Every company has dozens of them, whether or not anyone has written them down. This guide gives the standard definition, breaks a process into its parts, shows examples and types, explains how to map one step by step with a worked example, and ends with how process work connects to careers.
The definition
The textbook Fundamentals of Business Process Management (Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling and Reijers, second edition, 2018) defines a business process as “a collection of inter-related events, activities, and decision points that involve a number of actors and objects.” The definition goes on to say that these elements together lead to an outcome that is valuable to a customer.
In plain English, a business process is:
- a repeatable set of steps,
- done by people and systems,
- that starts with a trigger and ends with a result someone values.
The customer can be outside the company, such as a buyer. It can also be inside, such as the finance team that receives an approved invoice.
The parts of a process
| Part | What it is | Example: handling a customer order |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | The event that starts it. | A customer places an order. |
| Inputs | What the process needs. | Order details, stock, payment. |
| Activities | The work steps. | Check stock, pick, pack, ship. |
| Decisions | Points where the path can split. | Is the item in stock? Is payment approved? |
| Actors | Who or what does the work. | Warehouse staff, the order system, the carrier. |
| Outcome | The result of value. | The customer receives the right item. |
| Measures | How you judge it. | Time to deliver, error rate, cost per order. |
The example is our illustration. If you can name all seven parts for a process, you understand it. If you cannot, you have found the first thing to fix.
Everyday examples
| Process | Trigger | Outcome | A measure you might track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order to cash | Customer order received. | Order delivered and payment collected. | Days from order to payment. |
| Hiring | Open role approved. | New employee starts. | Days to fill, offer acceptance rate. See transparency in hiring. |
| Expense reimbursement | Employee submits a claim. | Employee is repaid. | Days to repay, claims returned for errors. |
| Customer support | Customer reports a problem. | Problem resolved. | Time to first reply, time to resolve. |
| Employee onboarding | Offer accepted. | New hire productive. | Days until set up with tools and access. |
These are typical examples, not complete lists. Each company runs them a little differently.
Three types of business process
A common way to sort processes is by their role in the organization. Different authors use slightly different labels, but the idea is the same.
| Type | Purpose | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Core (primary) | Directly create value for customers. | Manufacturing, order fulfillment, delivering a service. |
| Support | Keep the core running. | Hiring, payroll, IT help desk, purchasing. |
| Management | Plan, steer and control the organization. | Budgeting, strategy, performance review, compliance. |
Customers see core processes. Support and management processes decide whether the core runs well. Many organizations find their biggest delays in support processes.
Process vs. procedure vs. workflow vs. project
These words are often mixed up.
| Term | What it means | Key difference |
|---|---|---|
| Process | The whole chain of activities that creates an outcome. | The big picture, end to end. |
| Procedure | Detailed instructions for doing one step or task. | A process has many procedures. |
| Workflow | The way work and information move between people or systems. | Often a process as implemented in software. |
| Project | A temporary effort with an end date to create something unique. | A process repeats. A project ends. See what project management is. |
How to map a process in six steps
Mapping means drawing the process as it really works. A simple map is enough to find most problems.
- Name the process and its boundaries. Write the trigger and the end result. “From claim submitted to employee repaid” is a boundary.
- Name the customer and what they value. Speed? Accuracy? Low effort?
- Walk the process with the people who do it. Ask them to describe what really happens, not what the manual says.
- List the steps in order, with who does each one and every decision point.
- Add time and effort to each step. Note both work time and waiting time. Waiting is often the biggest number.
- Mark problems: delays, repeated work, hand-offs, unclear owners, steps nobody can explain.
Then redesign. Remove steps, combine steps or change who decides. For tools, see business process modeling tools and techniques.
A worked example: expense reimbursement
This is a made-up company, but the pattern is common. Employees complain that expense claims take weeks to repay.
| Step | Who | Work time | Waiting time | Problem found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Employee fills in claim form | Employee | 20 min | — | Receipts often missing. |
| 2. Manager approves | Manager | 5 min | 3 days | Claims sit in an inbox. |
| 3. Finance checks receipts | Finance | 10 min | 4 days | Batch checks happen weekly. |
| 4. Errors returned to employee | Finance | 5 min | 2 days | Rework in about 1 of 5 claims. |
| 5. Payment run | Finance | 5 min | 3 days | Payments only on Fridays. |
Total work time: about 45 minutes. Total waiting time: about 12 days. The process is slow because claims wait, not because people work slowly.
Fixes the map suggests: require receipt upload before submission, auto-approve small claims, check receipts daily and pay twice a week. A good mapper shows the team where time goes, not who is slow. The numbers above are an illustration, not real data.
Standard notation: BPMN
If you draw processes often, use a shared notation. The most widely used is BPMN, the Business Process Model and Notation. Its version 2.0 was released by the Object Management Group (OMG) in January 2011.
It also exists as an ISO standard. ISO/IEC 19510:2013 is described as a notation that business analysts, technical developers and managers can all read, and it is identical to OMG BPMN 2.0.1. The core symbols are events, activities, gateways (decision points) and the flows that connect them.
You do not need BPMN to start. A box-and-arrow sketch is fine. Use BPMN when many people need to read the same diagram.
From process to process management
Business process management (BPM) is the discipline of improving processes continuously. Dumas and colleagues define it as “a body of methods, techniques, and tools to identify, discover, analyze, redesign, execute, and monitor business processes.”
| Activity | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Identify | Which processes matter most? |
| Discover | How does this one really work today? |
| Analyze | Where are the delays, errors and costs? |
| Redesign | What would work better? |
| Execute | How do we put the new version in place? |
| Monitor | Is it working, and what has changed? |
Read what BPM is for the full picture, and how BPM is used in government. Quality methods such as Six Sigma DMAIC apply the same logic to processes with measurable defects.
Common mistakes
- Mapping the manual, not reality. Walk the process with the people who do it.
- No clear owner. A process without an owner has nobody to fix it.
- Ignoring waiting time. Most delay is hand-off and queue time.
- Automating a bad process. Software makes a broken process faster, not better.
- Mapping everything. Pick the few processes that matter most to customers and cost.
- Forgetting the people. Changes work only if the team understands and supports them.
Careers that work with processes
Process thinking is the daily work of many analysts and managers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks management analysts, who recommend ways to improve an organization’s efficiency. For May 2025, it reports a median annual wage of $101,860, 1,077,100 jobs in 2025 and 10 percent projected growth for 2025 to 2035. A bachelor’s degree is typical, and some employers prefer an MBA. These figures describe the occupation, not any course.
To go further, explore our business process management certificate guide, the business analysis guides and the business analyst job description.
Frequently asked questions
What is a business process in simple terms?
A repeatable set of steps that turns a trigger, such as an order, into a result that someone values, such as a delivery.
What are examples of business processes?
Order to cash, hiring, expense reimbursement, customer support and employee onboarding are common ones.
What are the three types of business process?
Core processes create value for customers, support processes keep the core running, and management processes plan and control the organization.
What is the difference between a process and a procedure?
A process is the whole chain of activities that produces an outcome. A procedure gives detailed instructions for one step or task within it.
What is the difference between a business process and a project?
A process repeats and has no end date. A project is temporary and creates something unique.
What is BPMN?
BPMN is a standard notation for drawing business processes. Version 2.0 was released by the Object Management Group in January 2011, and it is also published as ISO/IEC 19510:2013.
What is business process management?
It is the set of methods, techniques and tools used to identify, discover, analyze, redesign, execute and monitor business processes.
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