McGoveran postulated an analogy between data management and process management. Just as the relational data model proposed separating the logical model of the data from the physical storage model, it seemed that a logical process model (i.e., the business process model) should be separated from its physical implementation (e.g., as messaging, remote invocation, services, etc.). As with the relational model, this would permit business process design via models that were logically separated from specifics of process implementation, process scheduling, and process optimization. By introducing process measurement and analytics into the proposed process management system, closed loop process control became theoretically possible. The result was a set of requirements and a canonical architecture for the then largely unknown business process management system (BPMS).