Editing Business process modeling (section)

==== Sub-processes ====
;Delimitation

[[File:VAC Process sales pipeline.png|thumb|Breakdown of the business process ''Process sales pipeline'' into sub-processes based on phases]]
August W. Scheer is said to have said in his lectures: ''A process is a process is a process.'' This is intended to express the [[recursion|recursiveness]] of the term, because almost every process can be broken down into smaller processes (sub-processes). In this respect, terms such as ''business process'', ''main process'', ''sub-process'' or ''elementary process'' are only a desperate attempt to name the level of process decomposition. As there is no universally valid agreement on the granularity of a ''business process'', ''main process'', ''sub-process'' or ''elementary process'', the terms are not universally defined, but can only be understood in the context of the respective business process model.

In addition, some German-speaking schools of business informatics do not use the terms ''process'' (in the sense of representing the sequence of [[Action (Philosophy)|actions]]) and ''function'' (in the sense of a delimited ''corporate function''/action (activity) area that is clearly assigned to a ''corporate function owner'').

[[File:FT-Excerpt-of-company-functions.png|thumb|Function tree with an excerpt of typical company actions, ''sales pipeline'' relevant functions marked]]
For example, in August W. Scheer's ARIS it is possible to use functions from the ''function view'' as processes in the ''control view'' and vice versa. Although this has the advantage that already defined processes or functions can be reused across the board, it also means that the proper purpose of the ''function view'' is diluted and the ARIS user is no longer able to separate ''processes'' and ''functions'' from one another.

The first image shows as a value chain diagram how the business process ''Edit sales pipeline'' has been broken down into ''sub-processes'' (in the sense of representing the sequence of actions (activities)) based on its phases.

The second image shows an excerpt of typical ''functions'' (in the sense of delimited ''corporate function''/action (activity) areas, which are assigned to a ''corporate function owner''), which are structured based on the areas of competence and responsibility hierarchy. The ''corporate functions'' that support the business process ''Edit sales pipeline'' are marked in the function tree.

;Utilization

A business process can be decomposed into sub-processes until further decomposition is no longer meaningful/possible (smallest meaningful sub-process = ''elementary process''). Usually, all levels of decomposition of a business process are documented in the same methodology: Process symbols. The process symbols used when modeling one level of decomposition then usually refer to the sub-processes of the next level until the level of ''elementary processes'' is reached. Value chain diagrams are often used to represent ''business processes'', ''main processes'', ''sub-processes'' and ''elementary processes''.

;Workflow

A [[workflow]] is a representation of a sequence of tasks, declared as work of a person, of a simple or complex mechanism, of a group of persons,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iso.org/home.html|title=ISO - International Organization for Standardization|website=ISO|date=27 May 2024 }}</ref> of an organization of staff, or of machines (including IT-systems). A workflow is therefore always located at the elementary process level. The workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work, segregated into workshare, work split, or other types of ordering. For control purposes, the workflow may be a view of real work under a chosen aspect.