The ontological deficiencies of process modeling in practice

Abstract

Business process modeling is widely regarded as one of the most popular forms of conceptual modeling. However, little is known about the capabilities and deficiencies of process modeling grammars and how existing deficiencies impact actual process modeling practice. This paper is a first contribution towards a theory-driven, exploratory empirical investigation of the ontological deficiencies of process modeling with the industry standard Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). We perform an analysis of BPMN using a theory of ontological expressiveness. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with BPMN adopters we explore empirically the actual use of this grammar. Nine ontological deficiencies related to the practice of modeling with BPMN are identified, for example, the capture of business rules and the specification of process decompositions. We also uncover five contextual factors that impact on the use of process modeling grammars, such as tool support and modeling conventions. We discuss implications for research and practice, highlighting the need for consideration of representational issues and contextual factors in decisions relating to BPMN adoption in organizations.

Keywords:

• process modeling
• usage behavior
• ontology
• BPMN

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan Recker

About the authors

Jan Recker is a senior lecturer in the Information Systems discipline and leader of the Process Design research program at Queensland University of Technology. His main areas of research include methods and extensions for business process design and the usage of process design in organizational practice. His work has appeared in the MIS Quarterly, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the Information Systems, the European Journal of Information Systems, the Information & Management, and others. He is a member of the editorial board of two international journals and serves on the program committee of various information systems conferences.

Marta Indulska

Marta Indulska is a senior lecturer at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland. Her main research interests are conceptual modeling, business rule modeling and compliance management. Marta's work has been published by journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Knowledge & Data Engineering, the Information Systems, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the MIS Quarterly, and presented at numerous international conferences. She is on the editorial board of two international journals, a program committee member for numerous international conferences and workshops in the Information Systems and Information Technology area, and an organizing chair for several academic events.

Michael Rosemann

Michael Rosemann is a professor and head of the Information Systems discipline at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Michael is the author/editor of seven books, and published more than 150 refereed papers (e.g., the MIS Quarterly, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the Communications of the Association for Information Systems, the European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, the Information Systems, and others). He is Editorial Board member of nine international journals.

Peter Green

Peter F. Green is a professor of Electronic Commerce and Business Information Systems Cluster Leader in the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland. He has researched, presented, and published widely on systems analysis and design, conceptual modeling, information systems auditing, and e-commerce. His publications have appeared in such internationally refereed journals as the MIS Quarterly, the Information Systems, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the Communications of the Association for Information Systems, the IEEE Transactions on Knowledge & Data Engineering, the Data & Knowledge Engineering, and Journal of Database Management.