Business processes are among today's hottest topics in the science and practice of information systems. Business processes and workflow management systems attract a lot of attention from R&D professionals in software engineering, information systems, business-oriented computer science, and management sciences.The carefully reviewed chapters contributed to this state-of-the-art survey by internationally leading scientists consolidate work presented at various workshops on the topic organized by the editors of the book in the past few years. The book spans the whole spectrum of business process management ranging from theoretical aspects, conceptual models, and application scenarios to implementation issues. It will become a valuable source of reference and information for R&D professionals active in the fascinating interdisciplinary area of business process management and for ambitious practitioners.

CAiSE*99 is the 11th in the series of International Conferences on Advanced Information Systems Engineering. The aim of the CAiSE series is to give - searchers and professionals from universities, research, industry, and public - ministrationthe opportunityto meetannuallytodiscussevolvingresearchissues and applications in the el d of information systems engineering; also to assist young researchersand doctoralstudents in establishing relationships with senior scientists in their areas of interest. StartingfromaScandinavianorigininthelate1980 s, CAiSEhasevolvedinto atrulyinternationalconferencewithaworldwideauthorandattendancelist.The CAiSE*99 programlisted contributions from 19 countries, from four continents These contributions, 27 full papers, 12 short research papers, six workshops, and four tutorials, were carefully selected from a total of 168 submissions by the international program committee. A special theme of CAiSE*99 was Component-based information systems engineering . Component-based approaches mark the maturity of any engine- ing discipline. However, transferingthis idea to the complex anddiverse worldof information systems has proven more di cult than expected. Despite numerous proposals from object-oriented programming, design patterns and frameworks, customizable reference models and standard software, requirements engine- ing and business re-engineering, web-based systems, data reduction strategies, knowledge management, and modularized education, the question of how to make component-oriented approaches actually work in information systems - mains wide open."

After a brief introduction to the topic of business process modeling, the book offers a quick-start into model-based business process engineering. After that, the foundations of the modeling languages used are conveyed. Meaningful examples are in the foreground - each of the underlying formalisms is treated only as far as needed. Next the Horus Method is described in detail. The book defines a sequence of activities which finally leads to the creation of a complete business process model. The Horus Method, incidentally, is not bound to the use of the Horus software tools. It can be used with other tools or, if necessary, be used even without tool support. Important application fields of business process engineering are described, where the spectrum ranges from business process reengineering to the development and implementation of information systems. The book concludes with an outlook on the future of business process engineering and highlights current research activities in the area.

Mit groBer Freude haben wir diesen Band zusammengesteHt - mit Freude deshalb, weil wir die Arbeit mit Blick auf einen herausragenden Wissenschaftler geleistet ha- ben, dem wir selbst, dem dartiber hinaus aber auch die UniversitiH Karlsruhe und vor aHem die Informatik in Deutschland viel zu verdanken haben: Wolffried Stucky. Dieser Band ist irn Grunde nieht dem Umstand gewidmet, daB Wolffried Stucky 60 Jahre alt wird: vielmehr ist dies der vordergrtindige AnlaB, dem breiten Wirken eines unermtidlichen und unbeirrbaren Geistes eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu erw- sen. Dieser Band spiegelt in der fachlichen Vielfalt seiner Beitrage die ungewohnliche Spannweite der Interessen und Forschungsthemen von Wolffried Stucky wider. Fest fundiert in den Grundlagen und der Theorie der Informatik ist Wolffried Stucky weit hinausgegangen in die Wirtschaftsinformatik und in die praktischen Anwendungen bis hin zu ganz konkreten Projekten in Unternehmen. Dies ist nicht der Ort fur eine Laudatio - die Art und Zahl der Beitrage, aHesamt von "Jtingern" des Instituts fur Angewandte Informatik und Formale Beschreibungs- verfahren, das mit dem Namen Stucky auf das engste verkntipft ist, spricht jedoch fur sieh. Die Liste der Autoren macht zugleich deutlich, wie sehr dieses Institut tiber die Karlsruher Universitat hinaus gewirkt und die deutschsprachige Informatikszene mitgestaltet hat.

Dieses Buch gibt einen Uberblick uber den Stand von Wissenschaft und Praxis zu dieser Thematik. Behandelt werden u.a. Begriffe und Geschichte des Themas, Standards fur Vorgehensmodelle, Vorgehensmodelle fur verschiedene Projekttypen und Werkzeugunterstutzung."