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4 W. van der Aalst et al.
process. Consider, for example, the case of an employee being granted permis-
sion for leave; this should not only result in an email notification to the applicant,
but also in an update to the Human Resources records. By capturing both tasks
and resources, it is possible to expedite processes using information regarding the
current availability and workload of resources. Or, consider the case of a travel appli-
cation delayed for 5 days, because it ended up in the in-tray of the absent director,
while it should have been automatically rerouted to the acting director. Or the case
of the sales inquiry that was left unanswered as it was directly addressed to a sales
representative who had since left the company. A task allocation on the basis of roles
rather than individuals would have avoided this problem. As a consequence of the
explicit representation of tasks and their chronological dependencies, as well as the
involvement of resources in the execution of these tasks, it is easier to adapt busi-
ness processes in order to react in a timely manner to environmental changes, for
example, market fluctuations or legislative adaptations. Instead of having to make
changes somewhere deep in application code, these changes can be made at the
specification level. Analysis and simulation support may help decide whether these
changes satisfy certain correctness criteria or are likely to have their intended effect
before they are actually deployed. Monitoring capabilities provide scope for rapid
detection of problems and subsequent escalation, while post-execution log analysis
(i.e., process mining) can provide a solid basis for process improvement.
In the field of BPM, it is recognized that business processes go through var-
ious stages of the so-called BPM life-cycle, cf. Fig. 1.1. Business processes start
this life-cycle when they are created, either from scratch or through configuration
of an existing model. This corresponds to the process (re)design phase in Fig. 1.1.
The business process is subsequently implemented by configuring the correspond-
ing information system. This system configuration phase may require substantial
implementation efforts or may be a simple selection step. This all depends on the
underlying technology and on how much customization is needed. Then the process
can be executed and monitored in the process enactment and monitoring phase.
Finally, in the diagnosis phase one can learn from the running process and use
this as input for business process improvement. Diagnosis of the actual process

Fig. 1.1 The BPM life-cycle