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The management of risk in business processes has been the subject of active research in the past few years. Potentially, many benefits can be obtained by integrating the two traditionally separated fields of risk management and business process management, including the ability to minimize risks in business processes by design and to mitigate such risks at run time. While there has been an increasing amount of research aimed at delivering such an integrated system, these research efforts vary in terms of scope, goals, and functionality. Through the systematic collection and evaluation of relevant literature, this article compares and classifies current approaches in the area of risk-aware business process management in order to expose and explain current research gaps. The process through which relevant literature was collected, filtered, and evaluated is also detailed. Finally, a research agenda is proposed.

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Robotic process automation is a disruptive technology to automate already digital yet manual tasks and subprocesses as well as whole business processes rapidly. In contrast to other process automation technologies, robotic process automation is lightweight and only accesses the presentation layer of IT systems to mimic human behavior. Due to the novelty of robotic process automation and the varying approaches when implementing the technology, there are reports that up to 50% of robotic process automation projects fail. To tackle this issue, we use a design science research approach to develop a framework for the implementation of robotic process automation projects. We analyzed 35 reports on real-life projects to derive a preliminary sequential model. Then, we performed multiple expert interviews and workshops to validate and refine our model. The result is a framework with variable stages that offers guidelines with enough flexibility to be applicable in complex and heterogeneous corporate environments as well as for small and medium-sized companies. It is structured by the three phases of initialization, implementation, and scaling. They comprise eleven stages relevant during a project and as a continuous cycle spanning individual projects. Together they structure how to manage knowledge and support processes for the execution of robotic process automation implementation projects.

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