Re-Engineering and Automation of Business Processes: Criteria for Selecting Supporting Tools

Re-engineering of business processes and their automation is an activity very common in most organizations in order to keep or create a competitive business advantage in the changing business environment. Business Process Modeling Tools (BPMTs) and Workflow Management Systems (WFMSs) are the most popular tools used for business process transformation and automation of the redesigned business processes within and outside organization's boundaries. This chapter describes a set of criteria for selecting appropriate BPMTs and WFMSs among the diversity of the tools offered in the market in order to assist the interested manager or business process engineer to more successfully manage the business process transformation. While establishing the proposed criteria, we considered currently available technology and standards for visual enterprise support and inter-organizational business process modeling and automation.