Business Process Management

Business Process Management

A Dramatized Journey

Edition 1.0 | Copyright 2025 | Publication Date: April 2024

Sandeep Purao, Bentley University
Caroline Strange, Actor, Singer, Playwright

Overview


Business Process Management: A Dramatized Journey is a new way to experience and understand the world of BPM. This play invites students to embark on a journey where learning is not confined to the pages of a textbook but is brought to life through the power of drama and storytelling.

Be sure to check out the testimonials.

 

Features


Experience Real Business Concerns
Immersion into this play bridges the gap between theory and practice. This collaborative learning project is not just about understanding BPM; it's about experiencing it.

Advance Critical Thinking
Reflection questions and self-assessment exercises at the end of each scene catalyze reflection and discussion that deepens understanding. This advances insight into the technology and the complexity of its implementation.

Promote Business Empathy
By enacting the story, students connect with different types of people with differing business responsibilities experiencing the process innovation journey.

Testimonials



Purao and Strange’s text on business processing management (BPM) is a departure from the norm for teaching students about this critical topic. Instead of having students just read about how BPE works, students ENACT their learning through a drama. The dramatic scenes move one through the typical stages of introducing BPM in a real world company.

 The term-long play begins, appropriately enough, with introductions of the “actors” (or “dramatic personae”). These range from vice presidents of different divisions and functions to professionals in the focal company, Royal Energy. Variations in personalities reflect the diversity of people who would typically play out roles in a reengineering effort. As the scenes develop, participants hone in on important distinctions, such as how processes differ from functions and departments. As the knowledge base grows, the play illuminates how processes can be modelled (intellectually and technically) and how genuine cooperation can lead to more efficient and understandable processes.

What students gain from this experience is learning through enactment, or perhaps more precisely stated, simulated participation in real world scenarios. Through the immediacy of role-playing, they see how processes can be better modelled and how a redesign of an organization’s operations can lead to immense organizational value. This book represents a vitally new pedagogy for conveying intricate material to students and I urge faculty to consider the value of this form of enactment of learning in their classes.

-- Dr. Detmar Straub, Temple University


This book is a great addition to BPM education. I love the way it is written as a play and how creatively it can be used. Not only is this new format refreshingly different and engaging, it also fulfils a most valuable didactic purpose: As BPM is not a routine task, textbook knowledge falls short on providing the important comprehensive BPM skillset. BPM requires skills to navigate complexity, to creatively find innovative solutions to real-world problems and to communicate and discuss ideas and results. To this end, the book offers a whole new realm of experience: students deal with a complex context in a playful (and narrative) way and are guided to understand these from the process perspective and - above all - to develop and discuss creative solutions to problems. I have already had the privilege of trying out this book in an early state and it was amazing to see how it works. I will for sure continue to use it as an important component of my BPM education portfolio in the future. Congratulations to Sandeep, who has brilliantly combined his passion for both process and design science in this piece.

--  Dr. Jan vom Brocke, University of Münster and Director of ERCIS - The European Research Center for Information Systems

 


This book takes students on a novel and fun journey through the human side of business process management and technology implementation. It helps build student intuition from the bottom-up by exposing them to the messy social situations through which work is transformed in real life settings. Along the way, students develop familiarity with techniques for building and analyzing process models, and tackling organizational problems for deploying processes in organizations.   

-- Dr. M. Lynne Markus, Bentley University


This is certainly not just another BPM book - this unique and engaging screenplay style introduction to Business Process Management is the perfect companion for flipping your classroom and making BPM learning fun and interactive. Follow the main characters as they grapple with identifying, prioritising, and improving processes, assign your students to characters to enable them to appreciate different perspectives, or simply use the scenes in the play together with the included reflection questions to facilitate active class discussion. Say goodbye to asking your BPM class a question only to be met with silence in response!

-- Dr. Marta Indulska, University of Queensland


Table of Contents


Detailed Table of Contents PDF


PART 1. THE SETUP


PART 2. THE PLAY

Act I. Exploring Processes in the Organization

  • Scene 1: Thinking in Processes
  • Scene 2: So Many Processes
  • Scene 3: Prioritizing Processes


Act II. Working with a Process

  • Scene 4: Modeling a Process
  • Scene 5: Analyzing a Process
  • Scene 6: Redesigning a Process


Act III. Considering Technological Solutions

  • Scene 7: Deploying Processes
  • Scene 8: Buying Processes
  • Scene 9: Customizing Processes
  • Scene 10: Rolling Out Processes


Afterword

Reflections

About the Authors


Sandeep Purao is a Trustee Professor at Bentley University in the  Information and Process Management Group. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science (with a focus on Management Information Systems) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research and teaching deal with the design and evolution of large-scale, complex, techno-organizational systems. He has taught courses and participated in programs variously titled as business processes, systems design, organization informatics, enterprise systems, and enterprise integration. He is also the Director of Bentley University's Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Initiative. His research deals with designing innovative solutions for organizational problems as well as developing deeper understanding of complex problems involving knowledge management, human resources, technology infrastructures, and their interaction. His consulting work has spanned a number of industry segments including finance, manufacturing and government agencies. He has served on the editorial boards of  MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Information Technology & Management, Journal of Database Management, Journal of the AIS, and Scandinavian Journal of IS. In 2014, he received the lifetime achievement award at the Design Science Research in Information Technologies (DESRIST) International Conference.
Sandeep Purao

Caroline Strange is an Alaskan-born actress and singer working in New York City. She has worked across several commissioned works both online and on stage, including off- Broadway productions and repertory theatres in different states as well commercials for diverse audiences. Caroline enjoys doing voice work, script writing, and plays in different genres. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Caroline Strange

Instructor Resources


Prospect Press provides instructors with an instructor manual, lecture slides and a test bank for each title. Some texts have additional resources including case teaching notes, tutorials, and addenda.

This content is available to instructors only and is password protected.

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