ABSTRACT
Abstract: As organizations strive to do things faster, cheaper, and better, it is increasingly important to redesign and improve business processes so as to meet customer needs efficiently and effectively. Although there is widespread literature on business process transformation, there is little discussion of the nature of business processes. This is surely important if transformation is to be successful. This chapter provides a conceptual framework to support a thorough exploration of the nature of business processes. The framework uses four viewpoints to group different notions of business processes, each highlighting certain aspects while placing less emphasis on others. The viewpoints provide the basis for a discussion of the strengths and limitations of different modeling approaches used in the transformation of business processes. We conclude that business processes are multifaceted, and, therefore, successful transformation may require the combination of both soft and hard modeling approaches.
