What is a process?
A process is, in accordance with ISO 9001, a series of activities which, through the use of resources, transforms inputs into outputs.
What is the process approach?
The process approach isone of the management toolsused within the repository PAC at CINES. In accordance with ISO 9001, it helps to understand the functioning of the organization through the concept of process by highlighting the interactions between different “objects”. This approach is a way to monitor an organismsuch as the PAC Archive departement at all levels and to guide all stakeholders on the results of their activities against the expectations of the submission service.
What are the described objects types ?
These objects are of three kinds possible .
Activities
Activities (the smallest object formalized – shown in black): i.e. a serie of simple operations (or tasks);
For example, “Report to the liaison committees on a change in the list of archivable formats” is an activity which is composed of the following operations:
- Inform the liaison committees of the change in the list of archivable formats;
- Amend Schedule 3 of all agreements signed ;
- And publish information on the website of CINES .
Sub-processes
Sub-processes ( object of intermediate size – represented in blue): these are series of activities. For example, the “lifecycle management of the formats list” (i.e. the scenarios of transition from one of the 5 lists of formats, managed by the format expert, to another ) is a sub-process;
Processes
Processes( object of larger size – shown in red): the processes contains sub-processes that have a semantic link. For example, the “formats expertise ” is a process which includes sub-processes of “lifecycle management of the formats list” ” and ” watching on formats”.
To summarize this first approach (a bit simplistic …), we can say that the processes are composed of sub-processes that are themselves composed of activities.
What is the interest of a process approach?
The process approach is a way to improve performance and quality of service without fully questioning practices of the organization. Such an approach allows, in fact, of:
- Better meet the needs and expectationsof Archive CINES customers and other interested parts;
- Develop communication bothwithin the organization (greater involvement of team members, understanding and taking into account the constraints of each …) and vis-à-vis all its partners (external communication);
- Deploy in a structured way the strategy and objectives ;
- But also to continuously improve the quality of service offered (self-evaluation and traceability of changes in the information system more easy).
In addition, all of the documentation produced by the formalization of business processes is the foundation of the rest of the documentation of the Archive service since it describes its production context Consequently, the business processes management , or “process network “, is the backbone of the Archive documentation .
Other definitions …
Mapping: graphic representation of processes. The mapping process has the particularity to identify the different processes to each other.
- General mapping processes : Graphical representation of all processes and flows between them.
- Macro mapping process : Graphical representation of a process and its sub-processes and other processes and / or sub-processes with which it communicates.
- Detailed process mapping : Graphical representation of a process, its sub-processes and activities, as well as other objects with which it communicates.
