Business process model abstraction : theory and practice

• Main Authors: Smirnov, Sergey, Reijers, Hajo A., Nugteren, Thijs, Weske, Mathias
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Universität Potsdam 2010
• Subjects: Data processing Computer science
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-41782; http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4178/

Business process management aims at capturing, understanding, and improving work in organizations. The central artifacts are process models, which serve different purposes. Detailed process models are used to analyze concrete working procedures, while high-level models show, for instance, handovers between departments. To provide different views on process models, business process model abstraction has emerged. While several approaches have been proposed, a number of abstraction use case that are both relevant for industry and scientifically challenging are yet to be addressed. In this paper we systematically develop, classify, and consolidate different use cases for business process model abstraction. The reported work is based on a study with BPM users in the health insurance sector and validated with a BPM consultancy company and a large BPM vendor. The identified fifteen abstraction use cases reflect the industry demand. The related work on business process model abstraction is evaluated against the use cases, which leads to a research agenda.