Modelling Emergent Processes in Knowledge-Intensive Environments

A business process is traditionally made up of a number of tasks carried out by people, who must coordinate their activities to ensure that the process reaches a satisfactory conclusion. Processes can be characterized in the way shown in Figure 1. At one end of the spectrum are predefined processes, where the work in each individual task can be clearly defined and, usually, each task is carried out by one or more specified persons. Predefined processes are currently supported by workflow management systems. Although such predefined processes can support the more traditional organizational functions such as inventory control or financial transactions, they cannot predefine the more emergent processes that take place in knowledge intensive environments such as innovation or the design of specialized products and services.