Using an IT design paradigm for business process design

This isn’t a new thought I know, but I still have never seen the techniques we use for machine-to-machine communication used in the design of a business process. Sometimes the business process design comes out right anyway because it is all just common sense. But there is a good engineering reason why TCP/IP protocols work the way they do and there is no reason why the transmission of a physical message shouldn’t be governed by the same smtp principles that attempt to ensure the safe delivery of an email. Here is a paper that uses HELO/ACK techniques in the design of part of an issue tracking system (they call it a complaints procedure): Agreement & Organization: Protocol Architecture for B2B