---
title: Process Awareness
type: concept
tags: [apm, bpm, awareness, framing]
sources: ["[[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]]"]
created: 2026-04-13
updated: 2026-04-13
---

# Process Awareness

The assurance that agents' inner workings conform to organisational processes and adhere to their operational constraints, regulations, and goals ([[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]]). A defining property of [[concepts/agentic-bpm|APM]] agents.

An **APM system** is, conceptually, a system that **explicitly realises process awareness in some concrete manner**. Without process-awareness, an agentic system is merely a collection of interoperating agents (a generic socio-technical system) but not an APM.

## How process awareness is realised
Through the **framing mechanism** — see [[concepts/framed-autonomy]]. Frames may be enforced via:
- Assigning collective responsibility to one or more agents
- Orchestration
- Shared memory (e.g., part of the frame) enabling progress along a mutual plan

## Degrees of process awareness
Different agents within the same APM may possess **varying degrees** of process awareness and autonomy. An APM may even include agents that are *not* process-aware (e.g., a dedicated legal agent ensuring contract diligence without knowing the operational process).

## Related
[[concepts/agentic-bpm]] · [[concepts/framed-autonomy]] · [[concepts/perceive-reason-act]]