Towards Business Process Management in networked ecosystems

Managing and supporting the collaboration between different actors is key in any
organizational context, whether of a hierarchical or a networked nature. In the
networked context of ecosystems of service providers and other stakeholders, BPM is
faced with different challenges than in a conventional hierarchical model, based on up
front consolidation and consensus on the process flows used in collaboration. In
networked ecosystems of potential business partners, designing collaboration upfront is
not feasible. Coalitions are formed situationally, and sometimes even ad-hoc. This
paper presents a number of challenges for conventional BPM in such environments, and
explores how declarative process management technology could address them,
indicating topics for further research.