In recent years, organizations have been standardizing their business processes. This is often harder than expected or yields ineffective results. It is useful to obtain more insight into how differences between similar processes depend on contextual circumstances, and how the effort needed for adequate change depends on the context specificity of process knowledge. This exploratory research examines seven change projects in a large organization. Our research goal is to offer insight into the way business processes are rooted in the contextual knowledge patterns of the individuals that execute them. A preliminary framework has emerged of the features that make work practices contextual, the effects of context specificity on standardization efforts and the effects of standardization on process knowledge.