Business analysis glossary
Process Model
What it is
A process model is a diagram or description of the steps, decisions, people and systems involved in completing a piece of work from start to finish. It shows how work actually flows, or how it should flow. Models can be informal sketches on a whiteboard or formal diagrams in a standard notation, depending on the audience and the need.
Why it matters
Pictures expose handoffs, delays and duplicated effort that are easy to miss in text. Stakeholders can point to a box and say "that is not what happens". They also serve as a training and review aid, because a new colleague can follow a diagram faster than reading pages of procedure text.
Example
The analyst draws the Lumen Retail returns process: customer request, support check, label creation, warehouse inspection, finance refund. Seeing the diagram, the team notices the same order number is typed in three separate steps. Fixing that duplication became a clear requirement, and the diagram made it easy for the finance team to see why the change mattered to them.