'A business process comprises a "series or network of value-added activities, performed by their relevant roles or collaborators, to purposefully achieve the common business goal."[4] These processes are critical to any organization,[citation needed] as they can generate revenue and often represent a significant proportion of costs. As a managerial approach, BPM sees processes as strategic assets of an organization that must be understood, managed, and improved to deliver value-added products and services to clients. This foundation closely resembles other Total Quality Management or Continuous Improvement Process methodologies or approaches. BPM goes a step further by stating that this approach can be supported, or enabled, through technology to ensure the viability of the managerial approach in times of stress and change. In fact, BPM offers an approach to integrate an organizational "change capability" that is both human and technological. As such, many BPM articles and pundits often discuss BPM from one of two viewpoints: people and/or technology.
BPM or Business Process Management is often referred to[by whom?] as 'Management by Business Processes'. The term "business" can be confusing as it is often linked with a hierarchical view (by function) of a company. It is therefore preferable to define BPM as "corporate management through processes". By adding BPM the second meaning of 'Business Performance Management' used by Pr Scheer [5] in his article "Advanced BPM Assessment",[6] BPM can therefore be defined as "company performance management through processes". And it's this resolutely performance-oriented definition which is chosen[by whom?] here. Dominique Thiault, in Managing Performance Through Business Processes[7] defines BPM as a management-through-processes method which helps to bla bla bla bla bla bla managerspeak bla bla'