How Many Methods Do We Need? – A Multiple Case Study Exploration into the Use of Business Process Modeling Methods in Industry

Business process models have been researched for decades and process modeling methods exist in abundance. They satisfy different purposes and are applied in numerous Business Process Management (BPM) projects. Organizations apply different methods for their specific needs, often using several different modeling methods at the same time. BPM activities are supported either by specialized modeling software, or by standard software tools. However, no conception of the actual handling of purpose and method plurality in organizations has been achieved so far. We aim to close this gap by conceptualizing and empirically investigating different types of method plurality based on four in-depth case studies of industrial organizations. Furthermore, we provide a framework for studying method plurality, and identify contextual parameters which influence the emergence of modeling method plurality