Exploitation and Exploration in Business Process Management – An exploratory paper

This exploratory paper introduces the terms exploitation and exploration within the business process management (BPM) context. Despite the fact that BPM grows in popularity, more and more organizations report on BPM failure. The most recent development in the BPM field has led to a variety of new requirements. Almost all processes in BPM are different and may thus be almost impossible to standardize. Researchers in the BPM research field have recently differentiated between exploitation and exploration as two distinct goals of BPM. Today, BPM is applied to different purposes and the trend is going from the exploitation capabilities of BPM to exploration capabilities. This paper addresses the following research question: Can an understanding of exploitation and exploration be a help for BPM organizations to become more successful? For long-term success, it is essential for BPM organizations to identify the competencies and skills of their employees according to changed requirements. The paper ends with an overview of the author’s ongoing thesis project.