Degree of Automation:

Business processes can diverge in the level of automation. There are business
processes that are fully automated, meaning that no human is involved in the
enactment of such a business process. An example is ordering an airline ticket
using Web interfaces. While the process is fully automated on the side of
the airline, the customer is involved with manual activities, such as providing
address information via Web browser interfaces.
Enterprise application integration is another area where automated business
processes can be found. The goal is to integrate the functionality provided
by a heterogeneous software landscape. While there are different techniques to
integrate enterprise applications, process technology is an important technology,
especially since the emergence of service-oriented software architectures
that allow composing services to processes.
Many business processes require manual activities; but they also include
automated activities. Processing an insurance claim is an example of such a
process. Manual activities enter the customer data and determine the settlement
of the damage, while automated activities are used to store data on the
damage in the software systems of the company.
The interaction with the human user is essential in these settings. Early
approaches that prescribe to human users �what to do next� often failed.
User interfaces that accept the knowledge worker as an important source to
improve and control the process provide more user acceptance.