| dc.description.abstract | Almost 5 years ago, we decided to join forces and deliver a textbook on Business
Process Management (BPM). Since then, BPM has grown more important than
ever. Businesses around the world are carrying out BPM initiatives with the aim to
outperform their competitors or meet the demands of regulatory authorities. At the
same time, a lively academic community is pushing the boundaries of the discipline:
computer scientists, management scientists, and engineers add new elements to
its repertoire, which are eagerly being picked up by practitioners. We felt that
having a textbook available that organizes the broad spectrum of the topic would
help us teaching at our institutions about the fascinating concepts, methods, and
technologies behind BPM. What is more, we hoped that a textbook on BPM would
also enable a broader audience beyond the students in our own classrooms to learn
about its marvels.
When the first edition of the book hit the shelves in early 2013, it became clear
to us that our textbook met an unsaturated demand. The book quickly became the
basis for BPM courses at around 200 universities across the continents. Lecturers
around the world reached out to us to discuss the material and a community of
BPM educators evolved from these interactions. We traveled to various institutions
ourselves to deliver guest lectures on the basis of the book and, from time to time,
also stepped into the corporate world to preach the BPM gospel. The demand was
such that we were compelled to produce a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
based on the textbook, which brought together over 7,500 participants in its first
delivery and over 25,000 in total after several deliveries. In a sense, our mission
seemed to be accomplished. But then again, we knew it was not. | en_US |
