Understanding and Modeling Business Processes with DEMO

DEMO is a methodology for modeling, (re)designing and (re)engineering organizations. Its theoretical basis draws on three scientific sources of inspiration: Habermas’ Communicative Action Theory, Stamper’s Semiotic Ladder, and Bunge’s Ontology. The core notion is the OER-transaction, which is a recurrent pattern of communication and action. This notion serves as the universal (atomic) building block of business processes. Some fifty projects have been carried out with DEMO, of very different kinds and in various organizations. The succes factor has been the same for all these projects, namely the practical relevance of the concepts of DEMO, as well as their clear and precise definitions. The application of the methodology is illustrated taking two well known cases.