Business Process Management

Business Process Management (BPM) is the disciplined practice of designing, executing, monitoring and continuously improving the end-to-end workflows that underpin organisational objectives. It encompasses the full lifecycle from process identification, modelling and analysis through to implementation, automation and ongoing governance. Traditional approaches such as Lean, Six Sigma and process re-engineering remain foundational, yet the last decade has witnessed a shift towards data-driven, digital-native methodologies. Process mining and real-time analytics extract actionable insights from event logs to reveal hidden inefficiencies and enforce compliance. Concurrently, advances in robotic process automation, machine learning and cloud-native architectures enable explorative BPM, wherein entirely new process variants are prototyped and validated at speed. Across manufacturing, finance, healthcare and public services, BPM initiatives demonstrate measurable benefits in reduced cycle times, cost savings and enhanced customer satisfaction. Moreover, resilience to external shocks has become an explicit concern: digital governance models and adaptive controls ensure that critical processes remain robust amid volatility, regulatory change and evolving stakeholder demands.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A seminal study has investigated the cognitive underpinnings of process model quality by comparing experienced and inexperienced modellers. Drawing on working-memory theory, the authors distinguished between two memory functions—information maintenance and relational integration—and three phases of the modelling activity: comprehension, modelling and reconciliation. They found that stronger relational integration ability correlates with higher-quality process models in both groups. Moreover, experienced modellers benefited from extended reconciliation phases, refining models iteratively, while novices whose comprehension phases dominated tended to produce lower-quality diagrams. These findings illuminate how individual cognitive mechanisms shape the accuracy and utility of process artefacts, with direct implications for training and tool design in BPM disciplines.

Research from all publishers

A recent information-systems study has demonstrated that embedding machine-learning services on lightweight, modular IT infrastructures accelerates explorative BPM. Four industrial case investigations showed that decoupling ML components and ensuring loose coupling across services reduces deployment latency, thereby enabling rapid opportunity assessment and proof-of-concept iterations. Successful implementations, however, depended on the existence of reusable building blocks and sufficiently flexible middleware.

Another line of inquiry has addressed the static nature of conventional maturity assessments by proposing a Continuous Maturity Assessment Method (CMAM). This five-step routine transforms one-off evaluations into organisational practices, embedding regular maturity reviews into operational rhythms. Case studies across six firms revealed that CMAM not only yields more accurate capability diagnostics but also fosters routine improvement cycles, turning maturity assessment into a driver of ongoing process innovation.

Complementing these perspectives, conceptual research into exogenous shocks and BPM has mapped how sudden external events—natural disasters, crises and pandemics—disrupt process performance over time. The framework outlines how shocks induce unintended process deviations, degrade performance metrics and strain governance structures. It further proposes adaptive monitoring mechanisms, including shock-triggered conformance checks and rapid redesign sprints, to restore process alignment with strategic objectives under volatile conditions.

Business Process Management publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in business process management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Business Process Management (BPM): The systematic approach to defining, executing, monitoring and improving an organisation’s interrelated activities to achieve strategic and operational goals.

Process modelling: The act of creating abstract representations of processes—often as diagrams—to specify the sequence of tasks, decision points and information flows.

Explorative BPM: An innovation-focused variant of BPM that leverages emerging digital technologies to prototype and validate entirely new process designs.

Maturity model: A structured framework comprising levels or stages that assess the capability, performance and sophistication of processes within an organisation.

Lightweight IT: Modular, loosely coupled software components and services that enable rapid development, deployment and integration of digital solutions.

Exogenous shock: An unexpected external event—such as a natural disaster, geopolitical crisis or health emergency—that severely disrupts normal process operation and necessitates rapid adaptation.

References

1. Traditional Business Process Management.
2. The impact of working memory and the “process of process modelling” on model quality: Investigating experienced versus inexperienced modellers. Scientific Reports (2016).
3. Speeding up Explorative BPM with Lightweight IT: the Case of Machine Learning. Information Systems Frontiers (2024).
4. Keeping Your Maturity Assessment Alive. Business & Information Systems Engineering (2023).
5. Exogenous Shocks and Business Process Management. Business & Information Systems Engineering (2022).