Business, Business Processes and Formal Models

Abstract

Business processes as seen from the business point of view are often not only highly structured linear processes but less structured control processes mechanisms with feedback and mutual adjustments are also important. In case of conflicting rules decision making in business processes is sometimes automatically by predefined decision rules, and sometimes by human assessment of context and interests. There seems to be an inclination in more formalised approaches to business process modelling to adhere to the machine metaphor for analysing organisations and its processes, with a lack of concepts to deal with more complicated process structures. In this paper I will look into the implicit background notions such as the machine metaphor for organisations, the assumption that the organisational world can be represented as a set of clear-cut facts, and the market metaphor for the internal workings for an organisation. A practical example will be presented to analyse different kinds of business processes, and to show where the machine metaphor is too narrow to be of much practical interest for the wider concept of business processes as used in business.