A business process represents a specific set of business tasks and activities which must be executed to reach a well-defined outcome. When this outcome is reached, the process is complete.
Examples of simple processes include hiring an employee, processing a sales order, or reimbursing a business expense. More complex business processes can also be designed according to the needs of a particular organization.
Sometimes it may not be possible to reach the main goal of the process. For example, the shipping clerk may havre to cancel a sales order because the product is out of stock. Therefore, a business process must allow for different possible end conditions besides the principal objective of the process. Ideally it will allow more than one way to reach this objective. For instance, if the product is out of stock it may be possible to offer an equivalent alternative. In turn, this offer may be accepted or rejected. A range of possibilities can thus be included in the process.
The most straightforward or "most expected", path through the process is frequently called the happy path. This path leads directly to the goal of the process. In the case of a purchase order, the happy path would go from order to delivery with no complications such as an out of stock condition.
When designing a process, it is usually a good idea to start out with the happy path, and gradually add the handling of more complex conditions to it. To make the design intention clear, it is also good practice to lay out the happy path as a straight line from left to right, and to show less common paths as deviations from the happy path.
Business processes are broken down into logical steps called activities, each of which can comprise one or more tasks. When activities are executed automatically by the system, they are called automatic activities. When human input is required, they are known as interactive activities. The activities of the business process are linked by transitions, which determine the order in which they are performed and the basic workflow for the process.
Each interactive activity belongs to a role. In turn, roles are assigned to participants, who are the actual individuals who interact with the process. A participant may have one role or many. The participants who can perform an activity are those who have been assigned the role the activity belongs to.
In the real world it is often impossible to predict every possible situation, so a business process usually includes a way to deal with exceptions. Exceptions are special situations where it is not possible to reach one of the normal pre-defined outcomes of the process. However, the process can include a way to handle these events and this usually involves calling attention to the situation so it can be resolved by one of the participants.