Enterprise and process architecture patterns

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to support business process architecture and business process design, and present an application to the domain of public hospitals in Chile. Design/methodology/approach – This method is based on the formalization of generic architectures and their internal process structure, proposed in this work as architecture and process patterns, which have been developed at the Master in Business Engineering of the University of Chile and validated empirically in hundreds of Chilean firms from different industries. Findings – The authors have found that the use of architecture and process patterns accelerates the design of such structures until the last level of detail, providing a good and timely basis for information system design and, in particular, were able to develop comprehensive generic process architecture for public hospitals in two months. Originality/value – The authors' approach considers explicitly the relationships among the architecture elements and process components, providing a systemic view of the business structure and ensuring the alignment between its elements.