WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PROCESS AND A PROCEDURE?
When setting up or improving a management system, the question often arises of where to draw the line between a "process" and a "procedure". This article suggests some ways of answering this question.
The definitions proposed by the ISO standards
Let's go back to the source of the definitions. The ISO 9000:2015 standard is the standard that defines the most common terms used in management systems.
- Process (in accordance with article §3.4.1 of the ISO 9000:2015 standard): a set of interrelated or interacting activities that uses inputs to produce an expected result.
- Procedure (in accordance with article §3.4.5 of the ISO 9000:2015 standard) : a specified way of carrying out an activity or process
On the basis of these two definitions, we can conclude that the process defines the " what "(what needs to be done) and the procedure the " how "But this distinction has its limits. However, this distinction has its limits. The distinction depends on the level of description. For example, if you want to describe the steps involved in personnel management in a company, you could say that this involves defining personnel requirements, finding candidates, signing employment contracts, paying salaries, training, etc. You could say that these steps describe "how" personnel management is carried out. You could say that these stages describe "how" personnel management works. So it's not a key that can be used to quickly decide whether you're in a process or a procedure.
Our experience in the field of management systems has led us to propose a key to differentiation simple and unequivocal way of distinguishing between "process" and "procedure". This would mean saying that a sequence of activities would be considered a "procedure" when this sequence of activities only concerns one person in relation to a piece of work equipment (software, machine) or a particular situation (e.g. procedure in the event of an emergency). The procedure would thus describe the performance of an operational task by one person in relation to a specific object or situation. For example :
- Data backup procedure
- Software update procedure
- Maintenance procedure for forklift truck or XY machine
- Procedure for creating a new supplier in the billing software
- ...
In this sense, the procedure comes close to the notion of "instructions for use" or "work instructions".
It should be noted that the current version of ISO 9001 no longer refers to procedures, but to documented information.
Using SIRIS+, this question no longer arises, because you can create a "seamless" tree structure from your process map down to the most operational level (activities in the field) without having to ask yourself each time whether it's a procedure or a process. In this way, you can describe the entire way your business works in a fluid and coherent way. At the end of the day, what's important is that everyone quickly has the information they need to carry out their activities smoothly and easily. However, if you wish, SIRIS+ allows you to easily tag all your flowcharts or documents with "procedures" or "processes".
