Collaboration features in current BPM tools

TLDR: In this paper, the authors provide a comprehensive understanding of collaborative business process modeling that is based on a review of literature and a case study of three selected modelling tools, and they also inform practitioners about the state of the art in tool support for collaborative process modelling.

Abstract: In cross-organizational, distributed environments, Business Process Management requires collaborative technologies to facilitate the process of discovering, modeling, and improving business processes across geographical and organizational boundaries. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of collaborative business process modeling that is based on a review of literature and a case study of three selected modelling tools. The application of the framework reveals that current process modeling tools consider different perspectives on collaboration, and that the included features are orthogonal. This paper informs practitioners about the state of the art in tool support for collaborative process modelling. It also informs vendors about opportunities to enhance the technology support. For research, our paper paper informs social aspects of BPM technology through its explicit focus on the collaboration of BPM stakeholders in the process of distributed modeling.