Title: “Process Science”

Abstract: The first Lunchtime-Seminar in 2021 will be about “Process Science”. Process science, as introduced in a keynote at the BPM 2020 Conference in Sevilla for the first time, is an exciting new field of science, which is about the interdisciplinary study of processes aiming to understand, influence and design the evolvement of processes.

All happens through processes, and all happens in processes: Organizations work through processes, our lives unfold in processes. Processes are sequences of action and events which take effect over time and in context. They guide our every-day activities, and they dynamically change over time. Processes inevitably make an impact on our society and environment, which, in turn, constrains our actions in processes.

So far, processes have been investigated from the lens of single disciplines, such as computer science, management science, organization science, engineering science or cognitive science. We cannot rely on a single discipline if we want to obtain a full picture of processes. We need to bundle and synthesize contributions, theories and methods from multiple disciplines, and this is what process science intends to accomplish. Process Science shall provide the opportunity to accumulate interdisciplinary knowledge on processes in order to make a real-world impact.

The talk explains why it is timely and important to establish process science as an individual field. Also, a theoretical foundation for process science is provided, specifically drawing from strong process ontology, and it presents four key characteristics of process science. Process science (1) puts processes in the center of interest, (2) scientifically investigates processes (3) embraces perspectives of multiple disciplines, and (4) aims to influence and change processes for the sake of creating impact.

A set of questions will be derived to further guide the development of process science as it is in the making. It will be exciting to discuss these questions further together with the esteemed audience of the seminar.

Speaker: Jan vom Brocke is an alumni from the University of Münster and an inaugural member of the ERCIS. At present, he is the Hilti Chair of Business Process Management and Director of the Institute of Information Systems at the University of Liechtenstein, and he has served as Vice President of the University of Liechtenstein, Vice President of the Association for Information Systems and Vice President of the Association for Business Research. He has been named a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

Jan`s work has been published in many of the A+ and Financial Times Top 50 ranked journals, among others, in Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Communications of the ACM, and MIT Sloan Management Review. He has authored and edited over 40 books, including the International Handbook on Business Process Management, and the book BPM Cases - Digital Innovation and Business Transformation in Practice.

Jan has teaching experience from 25 universities in 13 countries on Executive, PhD, Master and Bachelor-level, incl. many of the Financial Times Top 50 Business Schools, such as the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, the Smurfit School of Business in Ireland, the Vlerick Business School in Belgium and the University of Warwick in the UK. His work has attracted more than €40 million in research funding and it has been recognized by over 30 international awards as well as by press mentions, among others in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mail. Jan has held many senor editorial roles and academic leadership positions throughout the world. He is an invited speaker at and trusted advisor to DAX 30 and Fortune 500 companies and governmental institutions as well as digital start-ups across Europe.

(For more information: https://janvombrocke.com/).