What is a process activity?

A process activity is a shape and device for process mapping. Activities provide process maps with a tool to demonstrate the tasks within a process.

Not only with respect to where and when those tasks relate to the rest of the process, but also how and why to complete those tasks. Activities are either single or multiple steps towards completing a business goal. The goal can be anything from putting together furniture to how to handle complaints. Activities involve single employees, teams, software or even entire departments. What is crucial, is that a single aspect of an entire business process. Which when combined with other activities, decisions and perhaps events complete the business processes goal.

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An example of a process activity

Gluu represents activities using rectangles with rounded corners, such as in the image below (Set an objective for an article). In some cases, businesses change the colour of their activities shape based on various circumstances. We have seen customised shape colours to be particularly useful for organising large complex business processes. In this example, all of our activities are the default blue, since it is a straightforward process.

You can define which role has the responsibility of completing an activity by placing them within a swimlane. Swimlanes clarify who is involved in which tasks or activities within a process, in this case, the Marketing Manager is tasked with setting an objective for an article.

Activities in Gluu make it very easy to check out how and why tasks are implemented using visual work instructions. This functionality allows organisations to add files, tasks, comments and labels to their work instructions.

Further Resources of Process Activity:

• You can find out more about how to implement Activities in Gluu by checking out our guide on mapping activities in the Help Center.
• To learn how to build a successful process map, swimlanes, events and decisions check out our Process Mapping Guide.

Related links:

• Process Documentation in a Medical Device Company
• How to set up your RPA process for success
• Why your project is really a process (and why you should care)
• Activity-Based Costing
• How to create a good swimlane diagram

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Explore more about different process improvement terms in our BPM Glossary.