Do workflow-based systems satisfy the demands of the Agile enterprise of the future?

Abstract

Workflow-based systems dominate the theory and practice of Business Process Management (BPM) leaving little space to other directions, including Adaptive Case Management. While there are reasons for such dominance in today's enterprise environment, it is time the BPM community studied this dominance in the light of the requirements of the enterprises of the future. This paper analyzes whether workflow-based systems will be able to satisfy business needs in the future based on the assumption that the essential property of the enterprise of the future is agility. The paper identifies properties that a business process should possess in order to be suitable for employing a workflow-based system to support it. Then, it analyzes whether these properties are compatible with the needs of the enterprise of the future and shows why workflow-based systems may become obsolete in the future. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.