On Controlled Flexibility

Striking a balance between rigidity and flexibility is a central challenge in designing business processes. Striking this balance begins on the type level, because expressiveness on the type level is essential to control flexibility on the instance level. With this paper we would like to start a discussion on the ability to accurately specify flexibility on the process type level. The paper proposes a more detailed categorization scheme than the common categorization of processes into allowed and disallowed sequences. Specifically, three ideas are put forth: (1) Use a finer granularity in classification, (2) make fine-grained classification possible across several dimensions, and (3) provide formalisms, design tools, and systems to make such classifications easy, adaptable, and directly supported in design tools and BPS systems. In addition, the paper poses several open questions related to the suggested approach, most importantly: How can this finer classification scheme be built int...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: CAISE
• Authors: Signe Ellegård Borch, Christian Stefansen
• Keywords: CAISE 2006, Detailed Categorization Scheme, Information Management, Process Type Level, Type Level