In this lively BPM360 episode, Caspar and Russell sit down with Prof. Hajo Reijers, whose career spans coding, consulting, and co-authoring the BPM field’s “bible.” The discussion is as energetic as it is insightful: from the quirks of workarounds in hospitals to the excitement of process hackathons, from redesign heuristics to the promise (and pitfalls) of AI in BPM. With plenty of laughs, real-world anecdotes, and a contagious enthusiasm for processes, this conversation shows why BPM is both a serious discipline and a source of endless curiosity and fun.

🔑 Key Takeaways

1. Applied Nature of BPM – BPM is both an academic discipline and a practical craft; lasting impact comes from linking research with real organizational challenges.
2. Process Redesign Heuristics – Simple, experience-based improvement patterns have become some of the most cited contributions in the field.
3. Value of Practice–Academia Hybrids – Consulting experience and academic rigor together provide fertile ground for impactful BPM research and teaching.
4. Rise of AI in BPM – Large language models and AI agents are rapidly lowering the barrier from theory to practice, opening new ways to validate, optimize, and document processes.
5. Workarounds as a Research Frontier – Detecting and analyzing workarounds shows how different roles (doctors, nurses, admin staff) experience processes differently, highlighting the gap between “happy flow” models and reality.

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