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New Research Proposes 'Process Harness' to Uplift Legacy Workflows to Agentic BPM
A new arXiv paper introduces the 'process harness' mechanism, enabling legacy workflows to be upgraded to Agentic Business Process Management (Agentic BPM) without replacing the underlying workflow engine.
A research paper published on arXiv (ID: 2606.27188) introduces the 'process harness,' a novel mechanism for uplifting legacy workflows into Agentic Business Process Management (Agentic BPM) without requiring replacement of the underlying workflow engine. The system has been designed and realized within the CUGA FLO framework.
The process harness places a policy-governed agentic layer around a deterministic workflow engine, intercepting designated control points to inject reasoning, adaptation, and oversight capabilities while the engine retains structural authority over the process. This design enables enterprises to progressively introduce AI agent capabilities without overhauling existing infrastructure.
The paper provides a formal definition of the process harness and demonstrates its concrete implementation in the CUGA FLO system. For organizations with substantial legacy workflow investments looking to embrace AI agents, this mechanism offers a practical, incremental migration path rather than a rip-and-replace approach.
Why it matters
The process harness offers enterprises a practical path to introduce AI agents into existing systems without replacement, positioning Agentic BPM as a key paradigm for enterprise AI adoption.