The recognition
A major research manifesto on object-centric process management was recently published in Information Systems, one of the most respected journals in the field. Authored by over 60 researchers from leading universities and institutions worldwide, the paper sets out a common foundation for the future of business process management — and it specifically highlights Petriflow and Netgrif as one of the few existing practical implementations of a process engine in the object-centric BPM space.
About the manifesto
This is not a typical conference paper. It is a manifesto, a collective statement of direction. It is written by more than 60 researchers from leading universities and institutions, including RWTH Aachen, TU Munich, TU Wien, Eindhoven University of Technology, and many others.
Its goal is to lay down a shared foundation for object-centric process management: a way of modelling business processes around interconnected objects rather than isolated cases. The fact that a community of this size has aligned on the paradigm signals that object-centricity is no longer a niche idea — it is becoming the direction the field is moving toward.
A rare working engine in a largely theoretical field
The manifesto emphasises that most approaches in object-centric BPM do not yet have a functional engine implementation — and Petriflow is among those that fill that gap. While the majority of modelling approaches discussed in the paper remain theoretical or lack a practical execution environment, Petriflow is a concrete, deployable solution.
The paper explicitly notes that comparable engines for other recently established object-centric modelling approaches are still missing. In other words, much of the field has the theory but not the running software. Netgrif already has both — which positions it ahead of the curve.
From the manifesto
“Comparable process engines for other recently established object-centric modelling approaches are still missing.”
Where most approaches remain theory, Petriflow is a concrete, deployable engine — already running in production.
Why this matters for our AI-native direction
This recognition is particularly meaningful given Netgrif’s direction as an AI-native platform built around object-centric processes. The research community is now converging on exactly the paradigm that Petriflow and Netgrif have been built around — processes modelled around interconnected objects rather than isolated cases, enabling a far more realistic and comprehensive view of how work actually happens in organisations.
That alignment is not a coincidence. Object-centric processes are also what make the platform AI-native: when process, data, UI, and roles live in a single object, an AI model can reason about the whole application at once instead of fragmenting it across layers. The paradigm the academic world is now formalising is the same one that lets us generate executable enterprise apps reliably.
As the field moves from theory to practice, Netgrif is already there.
Read the paper
You can read the full manifesto here:
- Object-Centric Process Management — the manifesto (PDF)
- Explore Petriflow on github.com/netgrif — the language is open-source
Want to see object-centric processes in action?
Open the Builder, describe a process, and watch the AI generate a full, executable Petriflow app — the same object-centric paradigm the research community is converging on.