Towards a better understanding of process patterns

In the recent years, many communities have adopted the process pattern approach in order to reuse processes. But till now, the process pattern concept has been loosely defined. To a certain extent, the absence of an adequate definition for this concept leads to confused uses as well as limitations in identification, formalization, organization and application of process patterns. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the process pattern concept and provide a taxonomy for classifying process patterns. This article contributes to a better understanding of process patterns thus promotes studying and applying this concept.