Introduction to the Fourth Workshop on Business Process Design (BPD 2009)

Abstract

The conscious (re)design of business processes is a powerful means for the improvement of process performance and process conformance. However, despite its popularity and obvious pay-offs, process design is still more art than science. In contrast to the dense academic expertise that has been developed in the area of business process modeling, theoretical sound and empirically validated business process design methodologies are still not available. Many methodologies on this subject remain relatively vague about how to actually derive superior process designs. The practice of business process design tends to largely rely on the creativity of business professionals to come up with new process layouts. However, the lack of a reliable methodology means that the outcomes of such efforts are hard to predict. This is an unsatisfying situation for the academic and practical BPM community as process design plays an essential role in the overall business process lifecycle.