Exploring the process space : A grammatical approach ... 2 of 35 2 Exploring the Process Space : A Grammatical Approach to Process Design / Redesign

Acknowledgment: We would like to thank Thomas Malone for providing a spark that started this work as well as for his later comments. We also thank George Herman, Mark Klein, and Elisa O'Donnell, whose earlier work provided a starting ground for this work. Abstract This paper introduces a grammatical approach to the design and redesign of work processes. Process grammar allows an explicit representation of the space of possible processes within a given domain, making it possible to search for alternatives more effectively than traditional techniques. Unlike some applications of formal grammar, where complete representation is required, process grammars can be useful even when the representation of the domain is incomplete. We argue that grammatical analysis provides a complementary approach to process redesign, rather than a substitute for existing approaches.

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