Abstract. The state-of-the-art of the theory of business processes is analyzed, and its main directions are classified. For each direction, main models and methods are briefly overviewed, their gaps and shortcomings are identified, and basic directions of their development are formulated. In particular, the following basic directions to develop this theory are distinguished: the transition from business process modeling languages to enterprise modeling languages, the creation and development of formal modeling languages, the creation and analysis of formal descriptive methods for the syntax and semantics of modeling languages, and the standardization and unification of modeling languages. It is proposed to adapt some methods and models of the theory with orientation towards the general theory of activity processes. The latter theory provides a systematic foundation for solving numerous problems: process modeling, engineering and reengineering of processes, analysis and verification of processes, automation of processes, etc.
Keywords: business process model, visual language, semantics, pragmatics, process engineering, verification, parallelism.
Theory of Business Processes: Problems and Development Prospects