Process

The process building block defines how work flows through the organisation to create and deliver value. It describes the sequence of activities, decisions, and handovers that together produce outcomes for customers and stakeholders. Processes can cover both core value delivery (e.g. product development, service delivery) and supporting activities (e.g. HR, Finance, IT).

Why it's important

Processes provide the connective tissue between people, systems, and decisions. Without clearly defined and well-maintained processes, organisations risk inefficiency, duplication of effort, inconsistent outcomes, and difficulty scaling. A process view makes work transparent, repeatable, and improvable, forming a foundation for operational excellence.

Interactions with other building blocks

Organisation – Processes define how roles and teams interact; the organisation executes them.
Systems & Technology – Many processes are enabled or automated by IT systems.
People & Capabilities – Processes depend on people’s skills and behaviours; training often aligns to process steps.
Performance & Metrics – Process performance is tracked with KPIs such as flow time, quality, and cost.
Governance & Policies – Processes must comply with internal and external rules and standards.

Common challenges

When defining the process building block, key questions include:

Which end-to-end value streams are critical for customers and the business?
How are core, management, and support processes defined and documented?
Where are the handoffs and how can they be reduced or simplified?
How do processes connect with roles, teams, and systems?
What level of standardisation versus local flexibility is needed?
How will processes be maintained and improved over time?

Our vision

The core value creating processes must be described in end2end processes.
The flow for these processes must be optimised using metric, this avoids sub-optimisation.
Activities in the described processes are assigned to the roles described in the organisation building block.
Policies and processes give insight for the people responsible of defining and maintaining the Operating Model. However, the specific roles need consistent working instructions.
Make sure processes are easily accessible. Whenever we evaluate the way of working it should be easy to find the relevant processes (and work instructions) to support the discussion.