eBPM-C for e-Justice

Abstract

Business Process Management (BPM) has long been employed as a structured methodology for optimizing complex processes. Electronic Business Process Management (e-BPM) extends traditional organizational optimization to encompass technological dimensions. A key limitation of BPM and e-BPM is the tendency to optimize processes in a compartmentalized way, often leading to solutions that are theoretically optimal but impractical in real-world contexts. To address this, we propose the Electronic Business Process Management Context-aware (eBPM-C) methodology, an extension of e-BPM that adopts a holistic, context-aware approach, ensuring that optimization accounts for interdependencies and supports effective real-world implementation. By maintaining a high-evel view while enabling detailed analysis of specific process segments, the methodology supports integrated and sustainable innovation, particularly where digitalization and artificial intelligence-based tools are introduced. This evolution makes the methodology especially suitable for highly regulated and technologically evolving sectors, including e-healthcare and e-Justice, where organizational efficiency and technological innovation must be aligned within a coherent systemic design. This article shows the application of eBPM-C to a complex process: the e-Justice. In particular, to the optimization of civil trial workflows within Italian courts, a context marked by structural delays despite the formal recognition of the right to a reasonable trial duration at both European and national levels. The methodology guides the balanced integration of telematization, dematerialization of case files, and decision-support systems, ensuring that local technological interventions contribute coherently to overall system performance.    

Received: 17 November 2025 | Revised: 13 April 2026 | Accepted: 19 May 2026

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article for privacy issue (GDPR and Italian Law about courts' personal data).

Author Contribution Statement

Ilaria Angela Amantea: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Marinella Quaranta: Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Marianna Molinari: Investigation, Resources, Data curation.