On the complementarity of workflow management and business process modeling

The way business processes are implemented currently is out-of-date. It cannot keep pace with the rapid changes of today's business behavior. Thus, new ways to structure business processes have to be investigated. Business process reengineering is the upcoming discipline that is able to cope with the requirements posted by today's way of conducting business. However, models of business processes defined through business process reengineering still lack a suitable execution environment. Conventional infrastructures are too static and inflexible to adequately reflect rapid changes in business processes. Workflow management promises to cope with this requirement by providing a highly dynamic execution platform for multi-faceted business processes. In this research paper we discuss the interrelationship between business process modeling and workflow management and show how they can mutually benefit from each other.