Process Management Conceptual Evolution Map

Process management concepts have been present within the modern organizational development since its early days. Since then, we have been able to detect many changes, challenges and improvements that occurred in the field during the past century with the primary aim remaining unchanged: defining and optimizing organizational processes in order to achieve better business results. This paper discusses the field of process management from three angles: the evolution through time, the architecture of the concepts and the notable interaction within the scope of its evolution. The significant contribution of this paper is a development of the graphical conceptual evolution map built on the basis of the three perspectives, revealing the complexity and the impact of the process management in last two decades as well as the indication for the future development. It is a simple tool for improving the understanding of how the conceptual evolution has influenced what are today known as Business process management systems. During the research phase we concluded that relations, connections and time scopes of many different approaches under the concept of process management have not been specifically evaluated or discussed. This providedthe framework for the proposed conceptual evolution map with the opportunity for future expansion and additional shaping with new details.