Michael zur Muehlen to deliver BPM standards talks in Asia
Professor will lead series of workshops in Tokyo, Taipei and Singapore
HOBOKEN , N.J. — Dr. Michael zur Muehlen, an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology and Director of the Center of Excellence in Business Process Innovation, will lead a series of three workshops on Business Process Management standards in Tokyo, Taipei and Singapore between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3, 2006. The workshops are organized by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), a technology standards body in the Business Process Management area. Professor zur Muehlen was elected life fellow of the WfMC in 2004 for his contributions to the area of workflow standards.
“BPM Standards allow organizations to share process definitions across tools and to link different process management systems within and across organizations.” said zur Muehlen. “Business Process Management technology has reached a level of maturity that allows organizations to expose process services via the Internet. This allows the dynamic assembly of trading partner networks, and the integration of external process participants with less effort and greater flexibility than previously possible.”
The workshops combine a business track and a technology track. The business track, headed by zur Muehlen, provides an introduction to the area of BPM, discusses the business value of BPM technology and the use of process management for risk and compliance management in the context of Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II. The technology track will introduce users and vendors to the XML process definition language (XPDL), the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and other complementary standards in the area of BPM and the service-oriented architecture.
The workshops are sponsored by a consortium of software companies in the Business Process Management area – Fujitsu, Global 360, TIBCO, Bizman, FlowRing, as well as the Japanese Business Process Management Association (J-BPM).
“There is considerable confusion in the marketplace whether process management is a technical or a management issue” added zur Muehlen. “Understanding and improving processes is essential for organizations that have to document their compliance with regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley act or HIPAA. This is not just a matter of picking a technology platform and implementing a process support system, but process management has to be embedded in the organization and reports on process goals and performance should be a core ingredient of managerial decision making.”
The Center of Excellence in Business Process Innovation at The Howe School of Technology Management conducts applied research projects on the interplay between business processes and the organization. Managing process risk and compliance is one of the center’s core research streams. Other areas of study include the effect of corporate and local culture on process design and execution, the setup and operation of BPM centers of excellence in organizations, dynamic task allocation in virtual organizations, and the monitoring and control of process work.
Fujitsu and TIBCO are software contributors to the BPM laboratory at the Center of Excellence , which maintains a state-of-the-art lab infrastructure with several process modeling and automation tools.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.
Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.
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