This section provides definitions of words, terms, phases and acronyms, frequently used or referenced in the business process change community. As the business process change market evolves, these terms evolve and change, as well. Formal business process languages like BPML have semantic definitions that are enforced by the language standard. Other groups, such as the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), publish formal glossaries. Still other groups define terms in ways specific to their particular community. Most of these communities use or define these terms in slightly different ways. Old terms take on new and varied meanings, new terms emerge, and it is often confusing to business managers trying to communicate across the various business process change communities. This glossary recognizes these differences, seeks to provide generic definitions and suggests a common language. In cases where we know that communities use these terms in ways significantly different from those we provide, we note the fact. We hope our members and visitors find this glossary helpful and we pledge to work hard to keep it current.

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P

Private Processes

A process that goes on inside a company. Most companies would rather not tell other companies how their applications accomplish things. On the other hand, certain kinds of coordination require that two or more companies know about each others processes so that they can integrate them more effectively. Some XML business process languages are written to communicate between a company and a public process and others are written to describe, and share, the private processes of multiple companies. Private business processes are sometimes called executable business processes. (Contrast with Public Processes.)