In: van der Aalst, W.M.P.; Desel, J.; Oberweis, A.: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 1806: Business Process Managements - models, techniques and empirical studies, pages 66-82. Springer-Verlag, 2000.
Abstract: This paper introduces a new notion and notational tool - ``organized activity'' (OA) and its theory (TOA) - to the BP/BPM community. Most of this ``introduction'' is accomplished via an example - the ``Pulsar'' - which is: (a) an ``organized activity'' claimed to be useful to business, but also other activities; (b) new; (c) easy to understand; (d) suitable to computer support; (e) richly illustrative of OA ideas, in its ``computerized'' and non-computerized versions. A significant terminal part of the paper is devoted to a comparison of OA/TOA to Petri nets - for two reasons: (a) OA/TOA grew out of Petri nets; (b) many readers of this paper are familiar with Petri nets, and rely on them professionally.