Process Improvement by Design

Although workflow-oriented software has been around for years, a newgeneration of BPM software is spreading beyond the leading-edge userset. Founded in 1992, the Business Process ManagementBusiness Process Management Group--aU.K.-based user organization--boasts more than 2,500 members, 200 ofwhich joined during the past few months. Alles zu Business Process Management auf CIO.de

Vendors of many stripes--integration middleware, workflow andenterprise applications--are converging on BPM as well. Because somany software products now include embedded workflow engines, aprecise definition of BPM is tricky. But the most common feature setincludes a business-process-modeling tool, a run-time engine toexecute and monitor processes, and a development environment withconnectors to enterprise applications.

Many experts argue that BPM is the killer application for Webservices. Once Web services becomes more commonplace, end users andbusiness analysts without extensive training should be able to designand build process workflows that tie together, or "orchestrate,"several prebuilt services. IT organizations, relieved a bit of theapplication backlog, will then have time to focus on IT infrastructureand system-to-system process automation--or at least that'sthe hope.

But perhaps most compelling, BPM technology is versatile enough forall manner of applications. Just ask Shell Oil.