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Over the last few years, Business Process Management (BPM) has achieved increasing popularity and dissemination. An analysis of the underlying assumptions of BPM shows that it pursues two apparently contradicting goals: on the one hand it aims at formalising work practices into business process models; on the other hand, it intends to confer flexibility to the organization -- i.e. to maintain its ability to respond to new and unforeseen situations. This paper analyses the relationship between formalisation and flexibility in business process modelling by means of an empirical case study of a BPM project in an aircraft maintenance company. A qualitative approach is adopted based on the Actor-Network Theory. The paper offers two major contributions: (a) it illustrates the sociotechnical complexity involved in BPM initiatives; (b) it points towards a multidimensional understanding of the relation between formalization and flexibility in BPM projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on the Actor-Network Theory, intends to analyze the dynamics of implementation of a Health Information System (HIS) in a Brazilian public hospital by following the actors involved in controversies occurred throughout the project trajectory. The changes observed over the course of the system implementation reveal that the concept of success was jointly developed via negotiation of devices ofinteressement introduced during the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]