Observing the use of BPM tools: a step towards flexibility

Abstract

The development of the tools of Business Process Management (BPM) arises from the spread of the notion of process in the management universe. The application of BPM to strategic processes is blocked by the tools' rigidity. They have difficulty in handling the processes of which the structure is not clearly defined and/or those for which all information is not available at the beginning. That is why increased flexibility is sought. Having stated needs and works, we propose a new architecture exploiting the distances between prescribed processes and executed processes. On the basis of observation data, a set of techniques enables us to extract some elements which are significant for the designer. Here we present our architecture of exploitation of the observation data and give the results of an experiment aiming at checking the feasibility and the relevance of it. They reveal a real potential for development as well as a series of restrictive elements.