Conceptual Theory for Workflow Management Support Systems

Workflow Management is a relatively new field which has aroused much interest over the past few years. Largely driven by industrial developments (products, case studies), the field lacks a theory in which workflow can be founded. This paper develops a conceptual framework based on empirical evidence and literature. It provides the concepts and the relations between concepts that constitute the "research area of workflow". It clarifies the content of the field and its position towards other fields of research. 1 Introduction Workflow systems are being introduced in many different organisations, mainly larger administrative organisations for many different purposes such as rationalising a business process, coordinating work on electronic archives, reducing processing times and providing means for better insight in running processes. Nevertheless, users, managers and systems analysts are having trouble to understand the true nature of workflow systems. This leads to confusion during the i..