Automated process support for organizational and personal processes

We propose two views on process: an organizational view and a personal process view. Information technology applies Automated Workflow technology to define, execute, and track an organization's automated business processes. Calendaring tools provide a form of personal process view through scheduled work items. However, the personal, or individual, view of the process space has largely been ignored. We maintain that as organizations become increasingly decentralized, a single organization's process space is becoming difficult to recognize. Individuals of the organization are asked to do work that spans organizational, functional, and even geographic boundaries. An integrated view of organizational workflows and personal processes is needed to address these new demands. In this paper we argue for the need to integrate organizational and personal processes. We then propose a component-based process modeling approach and supporting process architecture that integrates these process spaces. Finally, we describe our recent efforts at developing Java prototype process tools that realize the proposed modeling technique and supporting architecture.