In order to define the architecture for a BPM system, we first need to understand the necessities such systems will have. There are many considerations to take into account when defining these requirements, and we will try to explain the main ones here.

First of all, the main purpose of the BPM systems is to provide an environment where process definitions can quickly change to adapt to a changing complex situation of the company domain, and how it will change to drive the company to its goals. This means we need a way to quickly define the change in our processes, in a manner that it can be notified and impacted quickly in the runtime. In order to provide a quick way to change the representation of our knowledge, we will use a repository strategy to quickly change content as well as to keep track of the changes introduced to the knowledge definitions used.

Secondly, we need to understand that even if initially just one or a few applications will use the BPM system...