All Fictitious Corp. (AFC) has decided to evaluate a Business Process Management System (BPMS). Paul, a business manager, is tasked with managing the evaluation process.

Since all employees have already been assigned other tasks and Paul was given a date as to when results are expected, he realizes that there is no way getting the task done without external assistance. He has two options:

• He can try to find an evaluation specification, which could be used as a template and customized to meet actual demands.
  
• He can outsource the creation of an evaluation specification to a service provider, which would typically be a consulting firm.

Either way, an entity that assumes a content provider role comes into the play. If Paul succeeds in finding a ready-for-use evaluation specification, he effectively gets in touch with someone who provides content (i.e. a content provider). The same holds in the outsourcing case: a service provider assumes the content provider role.

An evaluation specification from an external source needs customization. Due to a delay in a project, Paul can assign this task to a person in his team.

Once an evaluation specification has been customized, it is ready for inclusion in a Request for Proposal (RFP). This step takes not so much time, which is why Paul performs this task himself.

As the next step, the RFP is made available to software vendors that are expected to have suitable products in their portfolios. Paul distributes the RFP via e-mail (as file attachment) to a number of vendors. However, there is an open source product that might meet the requirements detailed in the RFP.

Paul knows that open source software development teams normally do not have the resources to provide an RFP Response. He remembers that a consulting firm has recently gained practical experience with the open source software, and, as a consequence, he contracts the consulting firm to provide an evaluation profile (an evaluation profile is the equivalent of an RFP Response).

When the due date has been reached, all RFP Responses received so far can be taken to the next step: the actual evaluation. Paul knows that software vendors are sometimes a bit broadminded when it comes to making claims about product features and to what extent requirements are met. 

As is common practice, Paul sets up an evaluation team, which is commissioned with providing a product shortlist. Paul asks Anne to be the head of the evaluation team. A scoring scheme is defined and applied to find out which products form the group of "finalists", which are then examined further. Anne and the other team members assume an evaluator role.

This brief scenario indicates that multiple parties and roles may be involved in an evaluation process:

• the content provider role,
• the evaluation specification author role,
• the RFP author role,
• the RFP Response author role,
• the evaluator role.
  

Roles may be assumed by persons (or groups of persons) who work for different organizations, which, in turn, might be geographically dispersed around the globe.

The EAS supports a scenario as outlined above in that applications are aligned with process activities, and files are used as document containers. Thus, process participants can work independently from each other.