Business process reference models: Survey and classification

Within the Information Systems field, reference models are well-known for many years. The aim of this paper is to survey and to describe reference models for business processes. Our analysis of 30 process reference models is based on a framework consisting of criteria such as application domain, used process modeling languages, model's size, known evaluations and applications of process reference models. Furthermore, we identify model domains, which have been dealt with, describe similarities and differences between the available process reference models, and point to open research questions.