Deriving concepts for modeling business actions

Abstract

We outline a procedure called communicative and material functions analysis that can be used to derive business modeling concepts. It is rooted in the language-action perspective on organizations and has its point of departure in Business Action Theory, an empirically grounded framework for modeling business processes from an action perspective. We apply this procedure to enhance an existing method, the Situation-adaptable work and Information systems Modeling Method. This extended method is then used to analyze a business situation in order to follow up the commitments that are made in the course of a business process with the ultimate aim of detecting flaws in that process. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.