Traditional Process Representations are Ill-Suited for Knowledge-Intensive Processes

A business process is “a set of one or more linked procedures or activities which collectively realize a business objective or policy goal, normally within the context of an orgsanisational structure defining functional roles and relationships.” (Lawrence 1997) It is the aim of this position paper to analyze the adequacy of existing business process representations in the context of comprehensive knowledge management. For the purpose of this paper, comprehensive knowledge management consists not only of the management of documents (product-oriented knowledge), but also experience and knowledge on how to create and adapt these documents (process-oriented knowledge). In this context, process-oriented knowledge can be further decomposed into the process description itself and experience on performing the process (e.g., in the form of a process trace, decisions taken while performing the process, or a set of lessons learned). Processes are modeled for various purposes. Among the possible objectives are the support of human communication, easy analysis and reasoning of/about existing processes, guidance and control support, and enabling automated support (e.g., in the form of workflow systems). Often several of these objectives shall be achieved at the same time. Another dimension of process classification is the amount of knowledge available about a process and, thus, the stability of its description. Debenham distinguishes three types of processes (Debenham 2000):