---
title: Conversational Actionability
type: concept
tags: [apm, conversation, actionability, interaction, protocols]
sources: ["[[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]]"]
created: 2026-04-13
updated: 2026-04-13
---

# Conversational Actionability

The third required capability of an APM agent ([[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]], §3.3): the ability to **combine interaction and enactment** — to coordinate with other agents and humans, and to link conversations to concrete process actions.

## Two requirements (from [ref 17] in the manifesto)
- **Process-aware conversation** — interact with users and external agents via a conversational interface to support, trigger, and guide actions related to process enactment.
- **Process-aware actionability** — conversations trigger process executions: decisions, actions, or evolution (priorities, process changes).

## Four enactment roles
Depending on the role of the agent, actionability may cover:

| Role | Purpose |
|---|---|
| **Query** | Provide information on processes at model or execution level |
| **Recommend** | Suggest adaptations / future evolutions of process instances |
| **Create** | Elicit models from domain knowledge and process data |
| **Execute** | Trigger actions that move process instances to a new state |

## Interaction modalities
- **Natural language** (between agents and humans)
- **Domain-specific languages** (process diagrams, dashboards)
- **Formal communication languages** (multi-agent interaction protocols, [[frameworks/fipa|FIPA]], KQML)
- Emerging human-readable token encodings (e.g., **TOON**) and protocols ([[concepts/model-context-protocol|MCP]], ACP)

## Federated vs centralised
APM systems cater to **federated perspectives** — unlike traditional BPM's single point of truth — requiring consensus resolution or tolerance of variance among agents' responses.

## Related
[[concepts/agentic-bpm]] · [[concepts/explainability-apm]] · [[concepts/self-modification]]