Guiding software development via an enacted process model has by now become state-of-the-art, leading to Software Engineering Environments. Similarly administrative office work also largely follows pre-defined procedures, laws, and regulations, which essentially also establish a process model. Computer support for this field is currently hotly discussed under the catch word of
work flow
.
We explore similarities and differences of both fields with respect to a variety of characteristics. It concludes that both fields obey the same basic paradigm, i.e. describing the desired processes by a process model and enacting this model by a process mechanism. The characteristics are sufficiently similar to justify a common approach, but at the same time there exist significant differences which make it necessary to use different implementations for software development and administrative processes.