What is a process and why are you describing it?

Latest update: July 7, 2025

What is a process?

According to theory (as described in Thinking in Processes (Denken in Processen) by Peter Matthijsen), a process is ‘the set of activities that takes place between the demand for a product or service and its delivery’. Thus, a process is a series of activities (performed by people or machines) that require various resources. These activities require information and communication.

Common processes within organizations are the procurement process, the internal control process, or the delivery process. A process can run across different departments, sometimes even different organizations. Adequate management of these and other, related processes is then a requirement, and business process management helps with this.

The management philosophy Lean distinguishes between three processes: primary processes (customer oriented), supporting processes (internally oriented), and control processes (for control and adjustment).

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How do you describe a process?

The image above is based on René Margritte's famous work "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"). By this he meant to say that it is not a pipe one is looking at, but a painting of a pipe; in other words, not a real pipe.

The same applies to processes. A process description is not itself a process, obviously. And whoever modifies a process description does not change the process itself. A process description is a representation of reality, just as the painted pipe is a representation of a pipe, but not a real pipe.

The end result

Often, people still think in terms of tasks and departments: a vertical or task-oriented view. People reason only from their own actions and thus are less aware of how their work contributes to the end result.

And about the end result: the most important element in a process is the customer. A process always starts and/or ends with the customer (this can also be an internal customer). The quality delivered to the customer depends only partly on the quality of the execution of all those separate tasks. Problems often lie precisely between the tasks and departments.

When looking horizontally at processes, you can see the different activities in the process from customer to customer in relation to each other. This suddenly brings the customer into the picture, because that's what we all do. Process thinking = customer thinking!

Why is it good to have a described representation of reality?

Well, process descriptions and processes are two different things, but they are nevertheless very much related. Why is it actually necessary to describe a process? There are a variety of reasons for this, some of which we will mention and explain below.

First, it provides insight into an organization. You make a clear blueprint of your organization, in which everyone can look up who has to do what, when, and why. This makes it clear to (new) employees how the organization works.

It also gives your employees a foothold in their work. It is a good way to record work agreements, so everyone knows what was once agreed upon (and why). Employees obviously know very well through their training and experience how to perform their work, but it is still good to have a reminder.

It gives outside agencies insight into your organization, such as the inspectorate, the auditor, or new customers. If you are certified as an organization, process descriptions are usually necessary. Although the days of large, dusty process manuals are over.

But what now?

Now that you know better what exactly a process is – plus how and why to describe it – it's time to actually get started with process descriptions. But where do you start? What tools will help you describe processes properly? A good first step is to think critically about why you want to describe a process. Is it a reminder for daily work, is it to improve a business process, or is it to optimize business activity flows? Depending on your purpose, you can make a good choice in the tools you want to use.

For example, do you want to know which tools you can use to describe processes? Or are you looking for additional tips on describing processes? Questions we can help answer for you!