Requirements Engineering Journal

Call for Papers for a Special Issue On

Coordinated Development of Business Processes and their Support Systems

in connection with the 5th BPMDS workshop

Special issue has been published in : REJ, vol 10, issue 3, 2005, guest editors Gil Regev, Pnina Soffer, Ilia Bider
Another Special issue on the same topic: SPIP, vol. 10 issue 4, 2005, guest editors Gil Regev, Pnina Soffer, Ilia Bider

Traditional RE for business applications mainly concerns creating requirements on a software system based on business needs.  During the past ten years, requirements on functionality of business applications have been slowly changing. The shift consists of moving from the command-based applications to the applications of workflow and groupware type. The difference between the traditional applications and the new generation is that while the former support the execution of certain activities, e.g. to write a letter, to print an invoice, to complete a transaction, the latter support the whole business process. A Business Process Support (BPS) system provides the possibility to run a business in a new, process-oriented way, a way which is more effective and efficient but which is not possible to introduce without a BPS system. This, in turn, demands not only to consider requirements the business imposes on the system, but also requirements the system imposes on the business. In the broader context, the focus of the development project should be shifted from the software development to coordinated development of business processes and BPS systems.

The goal of a co-development project can be formulated as “Creating and Maintaining the Fit between Business Processes and Support Systems”. The focus of the creation phase is on concurrently designing business processes and business software applications. It involves RE activities as well as development and implementation activities of both business processes and BPS systems. All the involved activities relate to business as well as to technological issues. The maintenance phase is about the parallel evolution of the business and its BPS system as a reaction to changes in the business environment as well as to “revolutions” in the information technology.

While the need for alignment of business processes and their support systems has been emphasized and discussed, there is a great need for systematic approaches and tools for achieving it. The special issue on ‘Coordinated development of Business Processes and their Support Systems’ seeks contributions that will fill this gap. Papers are encouraged from both the academic and business communities. Contributed papers may deal with, but are not limited to: