étapes

Étapes is the French noun meaning stages or steps in a process. The word conveys a sequence of actions leading from a starting point to a goal. The singular form is étape, and the plural is étapes. The term originates from Old French étape, originally referring to a stopover or stage on a journey, later extended to refer to any stage in a procedure or process.

Usage and scope: Étapes are used across many domains to denote discrete units in a sequence. In project management they mark milestones and deliverables. In education they describe progression in learning objectives. In the scientific method they list procedural steps. In cooking, recipes are organized into étapes that guide preparation, cooking, and plating. In manufacturing and quality control, steps document assembly, testing, and inspection. In software development, workflows and release processes are described as a chain of étapes.

Structure: Étapes are typically enumerated or labeled with numbers or bullets. Each étape should describe the action to be taken, required inputs, expected outputs, and any prerequisites. In formal documentation, étape boundaries help ensure reproducibility. Some steps may be conditional on prior results or executed in parallel rather than strictly sequential.

Relation to related terms: Étape denotes a concrete action or state within a sequence. Phase or étape can be used depending on scale: a phase often covers a broader part of a project, while a single étape focuses on a specific action. Procédure or séquence can describe the complete set of actions to achieve a result.

See also: phase, procédure, séquence, protocole.