Zusammen mit Forschungspartnern der 
Universitäten Valencia (Clara Ayora, Victoria Torres und Vicente Pelechano) und Innsbruck (Barbara Weber), hat 
Manfred Reichert das VIVACE Rahmenwerk für den Umgang mit Variabilität in Prozessorientierten Informationssystemen entwickelt. VIVACE bietet ein empirisch fundiertes Rahmenwerk für Prozessingenieure, das sie erstmals in die Lage versetzt, bestehende Ansätze für die Modellierung, Ausführung, Überwachung und Analyse von Prozessvarianten systematisch zu bewerten sowie bei einer gegebenen Aufgabenstellung denjenigen Ansatz zu wählen, der die jeweiligen Anforderungen am besten erfüllt. Darüber hinaus können auf Basis von VIVACE prozessorientierte Informationssysteme derart implementiert werden, dass Prozessvarianten entlang des gesamten Prozesslebenszyklus unterstützt werden.
Ein fundierter wissenschaftlicher Artikel zum VIVACE Rahmenwerk sowie konkrete Beispiele für dessen Anwendung zur Evaluation existierender Prozessvariabilitätsansätze (z. B. C-EPC, PESOA und Provop) ist vor kurzem in der Fachzeitschrift Information and Software Technology erschienen:
Hintergründe (in englischer Sprache):
The increasing adoption of process-aware information systems, together with the high variability in business processes (e.g., sales processes may vary depending on the respective products and countries), has resulted in large industrial process model repositories. To cope with this business process variability, the proper management of process variants along the entire process lifecycle becomes crucial. In this context, a variety of approaches and techniques dealing with business process variability in different phases of the process life cycle have been developed. DBIS itself has been involved in projects like Provop and SOPHINA.
The major contribution of the researchers from Valencia, Innsbruck and Ulm is twofold:
First, they present results from a systematic literature review of approaches enabling process variability along the process lifecycle. Besides elaborating the state of the art, they systematically analyze and assess existing process variability approaches regarding their expressiveness with respect to process variability modeling as well as their support for managing variability along the process lifecycle. In this context, they identify the strengths and shortcomings of these process variability approaches and discuss research opportunities. Overall, their analysis provides a profound understanding of business process variability and approaches supporting it.
Second, based on the empirical evidence provided by the systematic literature review, the researchers from Valencia, Innsbruck and Ulm derive the VIVACE framework, which enables the systematic assessment and comparison of existing process variability approaches for the first time. In addition, VIVACE enables process engineers to select that variability approach meeting their requirements best. Furthermore, it helps them in implementing process-aware information systems supporting process variability.
In detail, VIVACE comprises a core set of variability-specific language constructs as well as a core set of features fostering process variability along the process lifecycle. In particular, these language constructs (e.g., configurable process region, configuration alternative) allow assessing the expressiveness of existing process variability approaches regarding the modeling of process variability, whereas variability support features shall ensure that process variability can be effectively handled along the process lifecycle. In addition, it should be possible to efficiently execute as well as to dynamically reconfigure the instances of a process variant if required.
This joint work by the Universities of Valencia, Innsbruck and Ulm can be considered as a first reference for implementing process-aware information systems that are able to effectively cope with process variability along the entire process lifecycle. In addition, the VIVACE framework is expected to be applied to various process variability approaches as well as related tools in order to assess their suitability with respect to process variability management. In this vein, the framework will support enterprises and process engineers
in deciding which process variability approach suits best to their needs.