The operational perspective in business process management: towards holistic task execution support

Abstract

This paper redefines the operational perspective in Business Process Management (BPM). While BPM inherently operates at the operational level, its traditional focus on automation, standardization, and software execution has historically overlooked a holistic understanding of task execution, particularly manual tasks and the tools and materials required for them. Our mixed-methods study, which combines a structured literature review and abductive reasoning, confirms this oversight, a gap also visible in modeling support. To address this, we introduce a novel classification scheme for process entities and propose a comprehensive vision for future operational support. Leveraging developments such as the Internet of Things (IoT), this vision encompasses enhanced modeling artifacts, intelligent planning, and real-time execution assistance. This paper bridges a critical abstraction gap between automated and manual tasks by redefining the operational perspective, introducing a novel classification of process entities, and proposing a framework for holistic support.