Analysis of Basic Terms and Attributes of Process Management

The theoretical foundations of process management are currently ambivalent and continue developing, which has led to the emergence of a large number of interpretations of the essence of the process approach, many definitions of the concept of “business process” and other concepts of process management, classifications of processes, opinions about the structural elements of processes and approaches to their allocation, as well as process management methodologies. All this complicates the study of process issues, slows down the development of process control theory, and leads to certain difficulties in implementing process control in practice. This article discusses the existing definitions of the concept of business the main features of process management, and the structure of processes. The analysis identified the shortcomings of the existing definitions of the concept of “business process” and made it possible to propose an author's definition that takes into account three most important features: the maximum orientation of all structural elements of processes to meet market needs; an agile process management structure when changing customer requirements leads to changing requirements for input products throughout the enterprise’s process network; and higher efficiency compared to organizational management. The author’s definition is as follows: a process is a set of interrelated market-oriented and adaptively-driven structured activities that transform input resources (material, labor, information) into a marketable product in the most efficient way using certain technologies. Keywords: concept, process, process structure, analysis.