Technology and Tools for Comprehensive Business Process Lifecycle Management

Business processes are collections of one or more linked activities which realize a business objective or policy goal, such as fulfilling a business contract, and/or satisfying a specific customer need. The lifecycle of a business process involves everything from capturing the process in a computerized representation to automating the process. This typically includes specific steps for measuring, evaluating, and improving the process. Currently, commercially available workflow management systems (WFMSs) and business process modeling tools (BPMTs) provide for complementary aspects of business process lifecycle management. Furthermore, new concepts and interoperating tools in these categories are emerging to provide comprehensive support for managing the entire business process lifecycle. In this paper we provide an overview and an evaluation of the process modeling, analysis, automation, and coordination capabilities provided by integrated BPMTs and WFMSs. We also discuss how state of the art WFMSs and BPMTs can interoperate to provide complete support for the entire business process lifecycle. Although we occasionally discuss research issues, we mainly focus on the state of the art in commercially available technology.