Multi-Paradigm Process Management

Automation and integration of business processes are at the heart of contemporary enterprise systems. In the pursuit of this goal, process automation technology is employed at varying levels of the enterprise information systems architecture. Larger organizations are faced with multiple instances of process management systems, each of which may provide a different paradigm for capturing, representing and executing processes. Still, each of these systems provides unique process support functionality that may not be covered by the other systems. Current systems integration methods focus mainly on the technical connectivity between these disparate systems. They do not address the integration of multiple process modeling methods that may exist in enterprise applications. This paper discusses the method integration necessary to bridge the gap between the high-level process models and the executable workflow definitions. We propose a structured methodology for the systematic design of enterprise processes that takes advantage of the capabilities of different modeling methods, while maintaining a consistent view of enterprise processes across multiple platforms. Using such an approach, business analysts and system engineers can follow a stepwise procedure that will minimize overlap and redundancy in enterprise processes, and maximize integration potential between applications. We call this approach Multi-Paradigm Process Management (MPM).