Quick Reference Guide: APQC Process Classification Framework
May 19, 2014
In David Jones and Roderick Brown’s recently published Quick Reference Guide: Business Process Frameworks, they outlined the main Business Process Frameworks commonly in use. In this paper they take a look at the APQC Process Classification Framework.
The APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF) has been around for just over 20 years, with the first version created in 1992. The PCF is arguably the most well-known and possibly most commonly used Business Process Framework. The APQC PCF is published as a generic cross industry framework and 11 industry specific frameworks.
The PCF is widely used but few people fully understand how it is structured and what other things it can be used for, such as benchmarking. In this guide, David Jones and Roderick Brown cover some of these topics to give a better understanding of the framework.
Last updated on
November 4, 2025
In David Jones and Roderick Brown’s recently published Quick Reference Guide: Business Process Frameworks, they outlined the main Business Process Frameworks commonly in use. In this paper they take a look at the APQC Process Classification Framework.
The APQC’s Process Classification Framework (PCF) has been around for just over 20 years, with the first version created in 1992. The PCF is arguably the most well-known and possibly most commonly used Business Process Framework. The APQC PCF is published as a generic cross industry framework and 11 industry specific frameworks.
The PCF is widely used but few people fully understand how it is structured and what other things it can be used for, such as benchmarking. In this guide, David Jones and Roderick Brown cover some of these topics to give a better understanding of the framework.