A formal representation for context-aware business processes

•We propose an approach to characterize the context of a business process activity in a given domain through conceptual models structured in layers.•We contribute to the literature on organizational process flexibility through a proposal for context representation associated to the process.•We demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of our approach through a case study.•Our work has implications for the strategic management of organizations, by providing a metamodel that provides informational support to decision-makers about when, where and why business processes need to be adapted.

A business process is a set of activities performed in a coordinated manner within an organizational and technical environment that is aimed toward a business goal. The flexibility of a process is related to an understanding of the unexpected events that occur when people, systems and resources interact and require adjustments. Thus, business processes must be designed to respond to information about different events and their specificity. This information defines what the literature calls “context”. To broaden the perception of context in the case of a business process, this work proposes an approach to characterize the context of a business process activity in a given domain through conceptual models structured in layers. A case study was conducted to evaluate the proposal, which provided evidence of the applicability of the model.