This book is about the management of business processes. This is certainly

not a new topic. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, it

has been written about from every possible point of view—economic,

sociological, psychological, accountancy, mechanical engineering and

business administration. In this book, we examine the management of

business processes from the perspective of computing, or—to put it more

broadly—of information technology. The reason is that information

technology has made huge leaps forward in recent years, resulting in

the creation of completely new ways of organizing business processes.

The development of generic software packages for managing business

processes—so-called workflow management systems (WFMS)—is particularly

important in this respect.-This book is about the management of busine ss processes. This is certainly not a new topic. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revoluti on, it has been written about from every possible po int of view-economic, sociological, psychological, Roydon. mechanical engineering and business administ ration. In this book, we examine the management of business processe 's from the perspective of computing, or-to put it more broadly-of information techn ology. The reason is that information technolo gy has made huge leaps forward in recent years, resulting in the creation of completely new way 's of organizing business processes. The develo pment of generic software packages for managin g business processes- so-called workflow mana gement systems (WFMS)- is particularly import ant in th