The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) Process Classification Framework (PCF) is an inventory of idealised business processes for organisations of different types. There is a generalsed cross-industry set of business processes and then some industry specific sets available at https://www.apqc.org/process-performance-management/process-frameworks/industry-specific-process-frameworks.

APQC PCF is not a standard but a framework.

One of its uses is to identify the business processes an organisation should consider implementing.

The PCF is a process architecture that contains a breakdown of all all processes in an organisation by industry.

When documenting processes, the PCF is a potential useful starting point that can reduce effort and improve quality amnd consistency. It can help in a number of ways:

Assist with the definition of the scope of the processes to be defiend

Provide an initial list of processes to be considered

Structure the process inventory and hierarchy

Provides a framework structure for all of the processes within an organisation

For example, operating process 6 relates to managing customer service. Sub-process 6.3 relates to the provision of after sales service. Sub-sub-process 6.3.2 relates to processing warranty claims. Sub-sub-sub-process 6.3.2.3 is concerned with investigating warranty issues. This consists of five activies 6.3.2.3.1 to 6.3.2.3.5.

6.0 Manage Customer Service

...

6.3 Service products after sales

...

6.3.2 Process warranty claims

6.3.2.1 Receive warranty claim

6.3.2.2 Validate warranty claim

6.3.2.3 Investigate warranty issues

6.3.2.3.1 Define issue

6.3.2.3.2 Schedule field service

6.3.2.3.3 Request and receive defective part

6.3.2.3.4 Investigate issue/perform root cause analysis

6.3.2.3.5 Receive investigation result/recommendation for corrective action

These five levels (that is the maximum decomposition provided for in the PCF) can be viewed as:

1 Strategic View - Business Activity

2 Management View - Business Process

3 Tactical View - Work Processes

4 Operational View - Operational Processes

5 Activity View - Process Activities

None of this is an actual process with all the details associated with sets of tasks, triggers, inputs, rules, flows, escalations, outputs, metrics, security, constraints, resource and capability requirements, reporting and roles/business functions.

BPMN is simply a process description graphical language. It is a useful way of representing business processes. There are plenty of free and commercial BPMN tool available. BPMN can also be used as an input to some process automation tools.

Creating specific operational business processes from the PCF requires additional effort. The work needs to consider the additional dimensions not present in the PCF and that will be specific to any organisation such as the organisation capabilities, staffing, roles, operating model and structure and actual structure of the organisation functions that will perform the process.

BPMN also has a number of deficiencies such as the describing handling of cases, definition of business rules and how decisions are arrived at, definition of resource and capability requirements and others.

There are other process classification frameworks available:

Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) - https://www.apics.org/apics-for-business/frameworks/scor

The TM Forum's Enhanced Telecommunications Operations Map (eTOM) Business Process Framework

While eTOM is aimed telecommunications processes it can be readily applied to other utilities. It is very detailed. However, it is proprietary.

The SCOR model is part of wider set of operations reference models that describe a view of the critical elements in a value chain:

Product Life Cycle Operations Reference model (PLCOR) - Manages the activities for product innovation and product and portfolio management

Customer Chain Operations Reference model (CCOR) - Manages the customer interaction processes

Design Chain Operations Reference model (DCOR) - Manages the product and service development processes

Managing for Supply Chain Performance (M4SC) - Translates business strategies into supply chain execution plans and policies