All organizational work is part of one or more processes.
At their very broadest, macro processes can span an entire organization and cut across all major functions or departments. At their very narrowest, micro level processes are the work activities, methods, or procedures used by individuals or small groups that make up the myriad of tasks within the broader macro processes. Understanding these processes and making them much more effective is at the core of continuous quality improvement, total quality management, business process improvement, reengineering, and related tools and techniques. When these approaches are implemented successfully, performance improvements are dramatic. Improvement Professionals and executives assume, for example, that knowing what needs to be done will enable people to actually do the job.