What is Function

The effective use of information and communication technology, or ICT (Barua, Kriebel, & Mukhopadhyay, 1995; Burn & Szeto, 2000; Mahmood & Mann, 2005; Mukhopadhyay, Kekre, & Kalathur, 1995; Sircar, Turnbow, & Bordoloi, 2000; Zammuto, 1982), requires a careful design of information systems and the business processes they support from a communicative perspective (language-action perspective). The literature on language action provides a broad spectrum of frameworks for modeling business processes, for example, business action theory (BAT; Goldkuhl, 1996, 1998; Goldkuhl & Lind, 2004), dynamic essential modeling of organizations (DEMO; Dietz, 1999; Dietz & Habing, 2004; Liu, Sun, Barjis, & Dietz, 2003; van Reijswoud, 1996; van Reijswoud & Dietz, 1999), action workflow (Denning & Medina-Mora, 1995; Kethers & Schoop, 2000; Medina-Mora, Winograd, Flores, & Flores, 1992), action-based modeling (Lehtinen & Lyytinen, 1986), and conversation for action (Winograd & Flores, 1986). Among these frameworks, BAT can be seen as the most general because it does not commit the modeler to any specific methodology allowing for a free choice of the most appropriate one in the context. A possible choice would be that of the situation-adaptable work and information systems modeling method (SIMM; Goldkuhl, 1996).