Rediscovering Business Processes: Definitions, Patterns, and Modelling Approaches

Abstract

Although it has been more than a decade since the emergence of the concept of business processes, there is still a lack of common ground and agreement about their nature and context, their contribution and benefits to the contemporary business environment. This chapter ‘rediscovers' business processes in the sense that provides a critical review of the multiple definitions by different authors and constructs a schema with the main structural elements that constitute a business process. It also reviews the main modelling approaches and classifies them into three primary groups according to their diagrammatic, formal and execution capabilities. Lastly, the main business process patterns are identified and the main business process modelling techniques are compared based on their pattern support capabilities. The work presented rediscovers business processes by providing a holistic understanding that will lead to their standardisation and further development.