Introduction

Business process management has received considerable attention recently by
both business administration and computer science communities.
Members of these communities are typically characterized by different educational
backgrounds and interests. People in business administration are
interested in improving the operations of companies. Increasing customer satisfaction,
reducing cost of doing business, and establishing new products and
services at low cost are important aspects of business process management
from a business administration point of view.
Two communities in computer science are interested in business processes.
Researchers with a background in formal methods investigate structural properties
of processes. Since these properties can only be shown using abstractions
of real-world business processes, process activities are typically reduced
to letters. Using this abstraction, interesting observations on structural properties
of business processes can be made, which are very useful for detecting
structural deficiencies in real-world business processes.
The software community is interested in providing robust and scalable
software systems. Since business processes are realized in complex information
technology landscapes, the integration of existing information systems is an
important basis for the technical realization of business processes.
The goal of this book is to narrow the gap between these different points of
view and to provide a step towards a common understanding of the concepts
and technologies in business process management.
The introductory chapter looks at the motivation for business process management
from a high-level point of view. The background of business process
management is explained, and major concepts and terms are introduced. An
example featuring an ordering process is used to illustrate these concepts. The
phases in setting up and maintaining business process management applications
are discussed. A classification of business processes and an overview on
the structure of this book complete this chapter.