The increasing adoption of Business Process Management (BPM) has inspired pioneering software architects and developers to effectively leverage BPM-based software and process-centric architecture (PCA) to create software systems that enable essential business processes. Reflecting this emerging trend and evolving field, Process-Centric Architecture for Enterprise Software Systems provides a complete and accessible introduction explaining this architecture. The text presents, in detail, the analysis and design principles used in process-centric architecture. Illustrative examples demonstrate how to architect and design enterprise systems based on the business processes central to your organization. It covers the architectural aspects of business process management, the evolution of IT systems in enterprises, the importance of a business process focus, the role of workflows, business rules, enterprise application integration, and business process modeling languages such as WS-BPEL and BPML. It also investigates: Fundamental concepts of process-centric architecture style The PCA approach to architecting enterprise IT systems Business process driven applications and integration Two case studies that illustrate how to architect and design enterprise applications based on PCA SOA in the context of process-centric architecture Standards, technologies, and infrastructure behind PCA Explaining how to architect enterprise systems using a BPMS technology platform, J2EE components, and Web services, this forward-looking book will empower you to create systems centered on business processes and make today's enterprise processes successful and agile.