Subprocesses

A subprocess is a level in a business process for each individual business process function. Detailing business functions starts from this level. One or many connected requirements are needed to be able to perform a particular set of activities.

Subprocesses help in visualizing inter dependencies within a business process and have links to other processes. 

Each subprocess must constitute all the grouped functions within it. For example, in order to cash a business process, the following subprocesses should be covered:

• Order intake
• Order processing
• Order release and credit checks
• Product and service sales
• Pricing and term agreements
• Consignments
• Picking, packing, and shipping
• Customer invoicing
• Customer payments
• Intercompany documents
• Returns

Selecting grouped results/subprocesses varies per customer and should always be tailor-made to fit their business model.

Subprocesses are well documented in visual tools such as Microsoft Visio.

The following diagram depicts a sample subprocess with swim lanes showing the involved departments/roles and their inter dependencies:

Make sure that you have the happy path of an end-to-end business scenario for every initiative. This will allow everyone to connect the dots to the big picture of the project, and this happy path process will be utilized at various milestones, for example, testing, training, and so on.

A subprocess could be dedicated to a single functional area or it could be a cross-functional area as well. Some may go a level deeper than the requirements to the activity level, the decision for which depends on the type, complexity, and nature of the initiative. Essentially, in process-flow documentation, there should be a clear definition and depiction of information flow with inputs, outputs, decision points, and roles involved.

Now, let's deep dive into the requirements.