An Ontology for BPM in Digital Transformation and Innovation

Technologies are being incorporated continuously into day-to-day life, introducing new shapes for all businesses. Nevertheless, it is interesting to notice that most novelty is based mainly on processes, rather than on technology. Although the literature seems to agree the digital transformation and innovation (DT&I) and business process management (BPM) connection is almost mandatory, there is not a clear and precise conceptualization of the relationship of these two domains. Therefore, the authors argue that a conceptual model is needed to organize the knowledge raised on these subjects structurally. This article presents an ontology to provide a formal and explicit specification as a common understanding basis of this topic. This research contributes to leveraging the BPM in the digital age, exploring their relationship, investigating to what extent the BPM characteristics initiatives affect—and are affected by—DT&I. The authors evaluated the proposal using a public domain business case to confirm the model requirements and assess whether it adequately addresses the research problem.