The Process Checklist

When enterprises are determined to introduce process management, they usually aim at IT system supported execution of processes by Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) or Process-aware Information Systems. In constrast to this common tendency of process technology, we introduce a paper-based scheme to enact and execute human-driven processes in the work at hand. Our approach is motivated by insights into problems of firms that tried to establish process technology and failed with conventional methods. One of the design objectives for our scheme was to provide a straightforward, quickly viable alternative to WfMS-based process execution at a reasonable effort. The paper-based scheme we introduce follows classical checklist concepts and builds upon the checklist idea in order to reach the same objectives as WfMSs: task coordination, execution guidance, traceability. In this article, we describe how to transform Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) process models into Process Checklists. We also present extensive evaluations of this approach both in the academic and in the business domain.