What is procedure modeling?

Business functions and business processes represent what the business should be doing. The business procedure defines how the company should do this.

Each step in a process is a function. Similarly, each step in a procedure will be a mechanism: a mechanism is the means by which a function is executed.

example: suppose we have a business function called ‘accept customer order’. This can be done in a number of ways, for example by phone, by fax, by email or by post. Each of these methods represents a mechanism to execute the “accept a customer’s order” function.

Chaining these mechanisms together in a logical and predetermined way gives us a business procedure.

A common way to represent a procedure is the flowchart.

A procedure, like a process, must have at least one trigger and at least one preferred result. It may also have one or more non-preferred results. These are controlled commercial results and acceptable, although not preferred, for the procedure.

It is a common mistake to confuse process with procedure and vice versa. Much of the so-called “process modeling” software on the market is, in fact, only suitable for modeling procedure.

The simple rule to remember to avoid this confusion is:

• Process models show the order in which business functions are carried out – this is what the business should be doing.
• Procedural models show the detail of how processes are executed.

instructions

Procedures have to do with the order in which things should be done. The detailed actions for each step in a procedure are generally called work instructions.

Detailed work instructions will define who, what, when, where, skills, resources, and limitations for each step of a procedure.

Procedure modeling is an essential modeling technique for business systems modeling, business process modeling, and bpm.

However, it is a secondary modeling technique and should be never be used as the primary means of modeling a company.