PCD 4/22/05 Moran
We use the term "Business Activity" to encompass not only formally-specified in business processes, but also the situational, semi-organized, on-the-ground work that people do together. The former are "run" by workflow-driven business applications and the latter are supported by standard collaboration tools. Systems deal with tools and artifacts; activities are mostly tacit, being only partially represented by ad hoc, localized, and specialized constructs. We argue that the full range of business activity should be supported in business platforms by an explicit construct we call "Unified Activity," which will enable a new degree of business integration, easier collaboration, capture of business practice, and more effective business process evolution. The goal of Unified Activity is to create a unified representation for Business Activities, both informal and formal, that supports the aggregation of resources to support the activities, interaction with formal business process workflows,