Non-standard BPM platforms

This chapter is devoted to research and development of non-standard BPM platforms. We call a platform non-standard if it is not primarily designed for managing business processes that are specified in terms of explicit, imperative control flow, as discussed in the first two chapters of this handbook. In Chapter 5 of this handbook, we have discussed BPM engines that we can label as ‘standard’ from this point of view: each of them is primarily geared towards supporting control-flow-based, prescriptive business processes. In this chapter, we look at research and development of platforms that provide BPM functionality, but that either are not primarily control-flow-based (in the imperative interpretation of the term), do not have BPM as their primary functionality, or both. We first provide a classification of such platforms. Next, we zoom in into the probably most important class: dynamic case management platforms. In doing so, we cover the related CMMN standard for case modeling. Then, we discuss an example commercial platform to show how two paradigms from two classes (dynamic case management systems and rule-based systems) can be combined into a single platform.