The annual BPM conference is the premium forum for researchers and practitioners in business process manage­ment. BPM is a broad discipline, covering topics that range from formal methods in computer science, techniques in information systems engineering to management science methods. Therefore, not only different research topics are addressed, but also different research methods are employed that require different evaluation criteria in the peer reviewing process.

To accommodate for this diversity, the BPM conference is structured into three tracks and the BPM Forum that cover not only different phenomena of interest and research methods but, consequently, also different evalu­ation criteria. Each track has a dedicated track chair and a dedicated program committee. The track chairs, together with a consolidation chair, are responsible for the scientific program. In this way, the breadth of the BPM community is represented and the BPM conference is positioned as a venue for all aspects of the broad BPM discipline.

Track I: Foundations

Track I invites papers that follow computer science research methods. This includes papers that investigate the underlying principles of BPM systems, computational theories, algorithms, semantics, and methods for modeling and analyzing business processes. This track also covers papers on novel languages, architectures, and other con­­­-cepts underlying process aware information systems, as well as papers that use conceptual modeling techniques to investigate problems in the design and analysis of BPM systems. Papers in Track I are evaluated according to computer science standards, including sound formalization, convincing argumentation, and, where applicable, proof of concept implementation, which shows that the concepts can be implemented as described. Since papers are not required to have an immediate application in concrete business environments, empirical evaluation is not required in Track I. Instead, papers will be evaluated on the basis of the soundness of the formalization and the degree to which the developed foundations permits new ways of modelling and/or analyzing BPM systems.

You should send your paper to Track I if:

  • It provides foundational results about the underlying principles and concepts of BPM systems.
  • It advances the state of the art in BPM through the investigation of formal methods and algorithms.
  • It contributes to the definition of novel concepts, languages, and architectures for BPM systems.
  • It tackles conceptual modelling issues of BPM systems and their environment.
  • It investigates novel concepts of BPM systems through the development of proof-of-concept implementations.

Track Chair: Thomas Hildebrandt

Track II: Engineering

Track II invites papers that focus on engineering aspects of information systems research. The focus is on the investigation of artifacts and systems in business environments. Papers in this track are expected to have a strong empirical evaluation that critically tests criteria like usefulness or added value of the proposed artifact (for example by showing considerable performance improvements compared to past work). This track covers business process intelligence, including process mining techniques, and the use of process models for enactment, model-driven engineering, as well as interaction with services and deployment architectures like the Cloud. It also covers BPM systems in particular domains, such as digital health, smart mobility, or Internet of Things. Empirical evaluations are important to show the merits of the artifact introduced. Where applicable, artifacts should be compared to state-of-the-art in a reproducible manner. A self-critical discussion of threats to validity is expected. Formalization of problems and solutions should be used where they add clarity or are beneficial in other ways.

You should send your paper to Track II if:

  • It has a significant engineering, systems or design contribution.
  • Its results are empirically evaluated, preferably in a reproducible manner, e.g., using public datasets or public Cloud infrastructures.
  • It reports on a system that you designed, with a maturity of at least a prototype, i.e., it can be evaluated in an application context.

Track Chair: Boudewijn van Dongen

Track III: Management

Track III invites papers that aim to advance our understanding of how BPM can deliver business value or competitive advantage, for instance by developing capabilities to improve, innovate, or transform organizations or to tackle the challenges and opportunities of digitalization. Papers that study process thinking, organizational routines, process innovation, and the application and impact of BPM methods and tools in use contexts based on empirical observation are highly welcome, too.

Areas of interest include a wide range of capability areas that are relevant for BPM, such as strategic alignment, governance, methods, information technology, and human aspects including people and culture. We seek contri­butions that advance our understanding on how organizations can develop such capabilities to achieve specific ob­jectives in given (cross-) organizational contexts. Papers may use various strategies of inquiry, including case study research, action research, focus group research, big data analytics research, neuroscience research, econo­metric research, literature review research, survey research, or design science research. Papers will be evaluated

according to management and information systems standards.

You should send your paper to Track III if:

  • It tackles an organizational challenge/opportunity.
  • It builds on and draws from real-world organizational endeavors in BPM.
  • It extends the BPM body of knowledge to better contribute to strategy delivery.
  • It advances our understanding and methodology of BPM to support digital innovation.
  • It contributes to solving grand societal challenges through BPM.

Track Chair: Maximilian Röglinger

Submission

Each paper will be submitted to exactly one track. Please use the track descriptions above to decide where to send your paper. Authors may contact track chairs for clarification. Papers must be formatted according to Springer’s LNCS formatting guidelines. Submissions must be in English and must not exceed 16 pages. The title page must contain a short abstract clarifying the relation of the paper with the topics above. The paper must clearly state the problem being addressed, the goal of the work, the results achieved, and the relation to other work. Student papers are treated as regular papers in the review process. Importantly, the contribution under­lying a student paper must be carried out mainly by the (PhD) student(s), but others (advisors, collaborators, etc.) can appear as authors as well. When submitting the paper, student papers must be clearly marked as such in the EasyChair system. To be eligible for the best student paper award, student papers have to be presented at the conference by a student author.

Papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format via the BPM 2019 EasyChair submission site: easychair.

Submissions must be original contributions that have neither been published previously nor submitted to other conferences or journals while being submitted to BPM 2019. Authors are encouraged to adhere to the best practices of Reproducible Research (RR), by making available data and software tools for reproducing the results reported in their papers.

Accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Com­puter Science series. For each accepted paper, at least one author must register for the conference and present the paper. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version to special issues in Elsevier’s Information Systems (Tracks I and II) and in Springer’s Business & Information Systems Engineering (Track III).

Innovative papers which has high potential of stimulating discussion at the conference but does not fully meet the quality criteria for the main conference will be invited for presentation at the BPM Forum. Those papers will be published in full length in a separate post-proceedings volume in the Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing series, as well as being presented during the main conference. There will not be short papers at the conference.

First-time submitters to BPM may request to be considered for a pre-submission shepherding program in which a selected BPM PC member advises on the presentation and positioning of a shepherded paper. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact the PC Chairs (bpm2019@easychair.org) by February 1, 2019.

PC Chairs

Thomas Hildebrandt (Track Chair, Track I)

Boudewijn van Dongen (Track Chair, Track II)

Maximilian Röglinger (Track Chair, Track III)

Jan Mendling (Consolidation Chair)

 

Key Dates

Abstract submission:                                  1 March, 2019

Full paper submission:                               12 March, 2019

Notification:                                                  10 May, 2019

Camera-ready paper submission:           6 June, 2019

Conference:                                                  1-6 September, 2019

Remark: Deadlines correspond to anywhere on earth