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66-429: Meta-process modeling supports the effort of creating flexible process models . The purpose of process models is to document and communicate processes and to enhance the reuse of processes. Thus, processes can be better taught and executed. Results of using meta-process models are an increased productivity of process engineers and an improved quality of the models they produce. Meta-process modeling focuses on and supports

132-449: A map as well as its associated guidelines . Together, map (process model) and the guidelines form the method. The main source of this explanation is the elaboration of Rolland. The map is "a navigational structure which supports the dynamic selection of the intention to be achieved next and the appropriate strategy to achieve it"; it is "a process model in which a nondeterministic ordering of intentions and strategies has been included. It

198-423: A business processes in the context of the rest of the enterprise systems, data, organizational structure, strategies, etc. create greater capabilities in analyzing and planning a change. One real-world example is in corporate mergers and acquisitions ; understanding the processes in both companies in detail, allowing management to identify redundancies resulting in a smoother merger. Process modeling has always been

264-504: A facilitator for changing the domain. Also, the framework's definition of pragmatic quality is quite narrow, focusing on understanding, in line with the semiotics of Morris, while newer research in linguistics and semiotics has focused beyond mere understanding, on how the model is used and affects its interpreters. The need for a more dynamic view in the semiotic quality framework is particularly evident when considering process models, which themselves often prescribe or even enact actions in

330-474: A fine-grained process model where the details of the model can provide them with instructions and important execution dependencies such as the dependencies between people. While notations for fine-grained models exist, most traditional process models are coarse-grained descriptions. Process models should, ideally, provide a wide range of granularity (e.g. Process Weaver). It was found that while process models were prescriptive, in actual practice departures from

396-502: A given situation are of great convenience. The map is associated to such guidelines". A guideline "helps in the operationalisation of the selected intention"; it is "a set of indications on how to proceed to achieve an objective or perform an activity." The description of the guidelines is based on the NATURE project's contextual approach and its corresponding enactment mechanism. Three types of guidelines can be distinguished: In our case,

462-463: A key aspect of business process reengineering , and continuous improvement approaches seen in Six Sigma . There are five types of coverage where the term process model has been defined differently: Processes can be of different kinds. These definitions "correspond to the various ways in which a process can be modelled". Granularity refers to the level of detail of a process model and affects

528-502: A meta-process model which utilizes the instantiation and assembly technique. In the paper the approach is called "Multi-model view" and was applied on the CREWS-L'Ecritoire method. The CREWS-L'Ecritoire method represents a methodical approach for Requirements Engineering , "the part of the IS development that involves investigating problems and requirements of the users community and developing

594-552: A process by selecting a section in the method map which has map intention Start as source. The Choose Section meta-intention results in the selection of a method map section. The Enact Section meta-intention causes the execution of the method map section resulting from Choose Section . Finally, the Stop meta-intention stops the construction of the application process. This happens when the Enact Section meta-intention leads to

660-411: A specification of the future system, the so-called conceptual schema.". Besides the CREWS-L'Ecritoire approach, the multi-model view has served as a basis for representing: Furthermore, the CREWS-L'Ecritoire utilizes process models and meta-process models in order to achieve flexibility for the situation at hand. The approach is based on the notion of a labelled graph of intentions and strategies called

726-437: Is Guidelines of Modeling (GoM) based on general accounting principles include the six principles: Correctness, Clarity deals with the comprehensibility and explicitness (System description) of model systems. Comprehensibility relates to graphical arrangement of the information objects and, therefore, supports the understand ability of a model. Relevance relates to the model and the situation being presented. Comparability involves

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792-422: Is Quality based modeling evaluation framework or known as Q-Me framework which argued to provide set of well defined quality properties and procedures to make an objective assessment of this properties possible. This framework also has advantages of providing uniform and formal description of the model element within one or different model types using one modeling techniques In short this can make assessment of both

858-407: Is a labelled directed graph with intentions as nodes and strategies as edges between intentions. The directed nature of the graph shows which intentions can follow which one." The map of the CREWS-L'Ecritoire method looks as follow: The map consists of goals / intentions (marked with ovals) which are connected by strategies (symbolized through arrows). An intention is a goal, an objective that

924-417: Is a process model. Therefore the map is a multi-model. It embodies several process models, providing a multi-model view for modeling a class of processes. None of the finite set of models included in the map is recommended 'a priori'. Instead the approach suggests a dynamic construction of the actual path by navigating in the map. In this sense the approach is sensitive to the specific situations as they arise in

990-483: Is at the meta-type level with respect to a process." There exist standards for several domains: There are different techniques for constructing process models. "Construction techniques used in the information systems area have developed independently of those in software engineering . In information systems, construction techniques exploit the notion of a meta-model and the two principal techniques used are those of instantiation and assembly . In software engineering

1056-475: Is currently Professor Emeritus of Computer Science in the department of Mathematics and Informatics. Rolland serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of Information Systems , Journal on Information and Software Technology , Requirements Engineering Journal , Journal of Networking and Information Systems , Data and Knowledge Engineering Journal , Journal of Data Base Management and Journal of Intelligent Information Systems . She

1122-431: Is difficult to provide an exhaustive account of such guidelines from practice. Most of the guidelines are not easily put to practice but "label activities verb–noun" rule has been suggested by other practitioners before and analyzed empirically. From the research. value of process models is not only dependent on the choice of graphical constructs but also on their annotation with textual labels which need to be analyzed. It

1188-424: Is necessary that process models are modular. If the assembly technique is combined with the instantiation technique then the meta-model must itself be modular. For reusing processes a meta-process model identifies "the common, generic features of process models and represents them in a system of concepts. Such a representation has the potential to 'generate' all process models that share these features. This potential

1254-447: Is obtained through instantiation of the meta-process model on the process model. The following table displays the stepwise trace of the process to elicit requirements for the recycling machine (from ): Process model The term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the business process model . Process models are processes of

1320-401: Is often supported through software tools, called CAME tools (Computer Aided Method Engineering) or MetaCASE tools (Meta-level Computer Assisted Software Engineering tools). Often the instantiation technique "has been utilised to build the repository of Computer Aided Method Engineering environments". Example tools for meta-process modeling are: Colette Rolland (1999) provides an example of

1386-419: Is realised when a generation technique is defined whose application results in the desired process model." Process models are then derived from the process meta-models through instantiation . Rolland associates a number of advantages with the instantiation approach: "The instantiation technique has been used, for example, in NATURE, Rolland 1993, Rolland 1994, and Rolland 1996. The process engineer must define

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1452-598: Is stated that the evaluation of the Q-ME framework to the DEMO modeling techniques has revealed the shortcomings of Q-ME. One particular is that it does not include quantifiable metric to express the quality of business modeling technique which makes it hard to compare quality of different techniques in an overall rating. There is also a systematic approach for quality measurement of modeling techniques known as complexity metrics suggested by Rossi et al. (1996). Techniques of Meta model

1518-995: Is the French representative in IFIP TC8 on Information Systems and has been the co chair and chairperson of the IFIP WG8.1 during nine years. Rolland received numerous awards including the IFIP Silver Core, IFIP service award, the Belgium prize ‘de la Fondation Franqui’ and the European prize of ‘Information Systems’. Roland's research interests are in the areas of information modeling , databases , temporal data modeling , object-oriented analysis and design, requirements engineering and specially change engineering, method engineering , CASE and CAME tools, change management and enterprise knowledge development. Rolland

1584-457: Is the set of all statements that are relevant and correct for describing a problem domain, Language Extension is the set of all statements that are possible given the grammar and vocabulary of the modeling languages used. Model Externalization is the conceptual representation of the problem domain. It is defined as the set of statements about the problem domain that are actually made. Social Actor Interpretation and Technical Actor Interpretation are

1650-441: Is used as a basis for computation of these complexity metrics. In comparison to quality framework proposed by Krogstie , quality measurement focus more on technical level instead of individual model level. Authors (Cardoso, Mendling, Neuman and Reijers, 2006) used complexity metrics to measure the simplicity and understandability of a design. This is supported by later research done by Mendling et al. who argued that without using

1716-425: The 'high' end there are modular method construction. Rigid methods are completely pre-defined and leave little scope for adapting them to the situation at hand. On the other hand, modular methods can be modified and augmented to fit a given situation. Selecting a rigid methods allows each project to choose its method from a panel of rigid, pre-defined methods, whereas selecting a path within a method consists of choosing

1782-461: The IAG to support its enactment must be retrieved; this is represented in [the graph] by associating the meta-strategy automated support with the meta-intention, Enact Section ." The sample process "Eliciting requirements of a Recycling Machine" is about a method for designing the requirements of recycling facilities. The recycling facilities are meant for customers of a supermarket. The adequate method

1848-575: The ability to compare models that is semantic comparison between two models, Economic efficiency; the produced cost of the design process need at least to be covered by the proposed use of cost cuttings and revenue increases. Since the purpose of organizations in most cases is the maximization of profit, the principle defines the borderline for the modeling process. The last principle is Systematic design defines that there should be an accepted differentiation between diverse views within modeling. Correctness, relevance and economic efficiency are prerequisites in

1914-415: The application at hand." While the meta-process model can be represented in many different ways, a map was chosen again as a means to do so. It is not to be mixed up with the map for the process model as presented above. Colette Rolland describes the meta-model as follows: (Meta-intentions are in bold, meta-strategies in italic – in green in the map.) "The Start meta-intention starts the construction of

1980-412: The application engineer has in mind at a given point of time. A strategy is an approach, a manner to achieve an intention. The connection of two goals with a strategy is also called section . A map "allows the application engineer to determine a path from Start intention to Stop intention. The map contains a finite number of paths, each of them prescribing a way to develop the product, i.e. each of them

2046-428: The appropriate path for the situation at hand. Finally, selecting and tuning a method allows each project to select methods from different approaches and tune them to the project's needs." As the quality of process models is being discussed in this paper, there is a need to elaborate quality of modeling techniques as an important essence in quality of process models. In most existing frameworks created for understanding

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2112-716: The area of information and knowledge systems, known for her work on meta-modeling , particularly goal modelling and situational method engineering. In 1966 she studied applied mathematics at the University of Nancy , where she received her PhD in 1971. In 1973, she was appointed Professor at the University of Nancy, Department of Computer Science. In 1979 she became professor at University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne Department of Mathematics and Informatics. She has been involved in numerous European research projects and has led cooperative research projects with companies. She

2178-748: The broader approach is to be based on semiotics rather than linguistic as was done by Krogstie using the top-down quality framework known as SEQUAL. It defines several quality aspects based on relationships between a model, knowledge Externalisation, domain, a modeling language, and the activities of learning, taking action, and modeling. The framework does not however provide ways to determine various degrees of quality but has been used extensively for business process modeling in empirical tests carried out According to previous research done by Moody et al. with use of conceptual model quality framework proposed by Lindland et al. (1994) to evaluate quality of process model, three levels of quality were identified: From

2244-524: The connection between metrics and understanding and While some metrics are confirmed regarding their effect, also personal factors of the modeler – like competence – are revealed as important for understanding about the models. Several empirical surveys carried out still do not give clear guidelines or ways of evaluating the quality of process models but it is necessary to have clear set of guidelines to guide modelers in this task. Pragmatic guidelines have been proposed by different practitioners even though it

2310-691: The dynamics of the process with a practical process obtained by instantiation in terms of relevant concepts, available technologies, specific implementation environments, process constraints and so on. Enormous number of research has been done on quality of models but less focus has been shifted towards the quality of process models. Quality issues of process models cannot be evaluated exhaustively however there are four main guidelines and frameworks in practice for such. These are: top-down quality frameworks, bottom-up metrics related to quality aspects, empirical surveys related to modeling techniques, and pragmatic guidelines. Hommes quoted Wang et al. (1994) that all

2376-457: The enactment of the method map section having Stop as the target. As already explained in the previous sections, there are two ways in which a section of a method map can be selected, namely by selecting an intention or by selecting a strategy. Therefore, the meta-intention Choose Section has two meta-strategies associated with it, select intention and select strategy respectively. Once a method map section has been selected by Choose Section ,

2442-492: The following guidelines – which correspond with the map displayed above – need to be defined: The following graph displays the details for the Intention Achievement Guideline 8 (IAG-8). In the multi-model view as presented in the paper of C. Rolland, the meta-process (the instance of the meta-process model) is "a process for the generation of a path from the map and its instantaneous enactment for

2508-404: The gap of use of the other two frameworks by non-experts in modeling but it is mostly theoretical and no empirical tests have been carried out to support their use. Most experiments carried out relate to the relationship between metrics and quality aspects and these works have been done individually by different authors: Canfora et al. study the connection mainly between count metrics (for example,

2574-411: The instances of contexts and relationships that comprise the process model of interest." Rolland (1998) lists numerous languages for expressing process models used by the software engineering community: as well as further computational paradigms: Languages are typically related to process programs whereas instantiation techniques have been used to construct process scripts. The meta-modeling process

2640-603: The kind of guidance, explanation and trace that can be provided. Coarse granularity restricts these to a rather limited level of detail whereas fine granularity provides more detailed capability. The nature of granularity needed is dependent on the situation at hand. Project manager, customer representatives, the general, top-level, or middle management require rather coarse-grained process description as they want to gain an overview of time, budget, and resource planning for their decisions. In contrast, software engineers, users, testers, analysts, or software system architects will prefer

2706-404: The level of formality of process models in order to make possible their enactment in process-centred software environments". A process meta-model is a meta model , "a description at the type level of a process model. A process model is, thus, an instantiation of a process meta-model. [..] A meta-model can be instantiated several times in order to define various process models. A process meta-model

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2772-404: The main characteristic of quality of models can all be grouped under 2 groups namely correctness and usefulness of a model, correctness ranges from the model correspondence to the phenomenon that is modeled to its correspondence to syntactical rules of the modeling and also it is independent of the purpose to which the model is used. Whereas the usefulness can be seen as the model being helpful for

2838-464: The main construction technique used today is language-based. However, early techniques in both, information systems and software engineering were based on the experience of process engineers and were, therefore, ad hoc in nature." "Traditional process models are expressions of the experiences of their developers. Since this experience is not formalised and is, consequently, not available as a fund of knowledge, it can be said that these process models are

2904-420: The meta-process modeling is aimed at providing guidance for method engineers and application developers. The activity of modeling a business process usually predicates a need to change processes or identify issues to be corrected. This transformation may or may not require IT involvement, although that is a common driver for the need to model a business process. Change management programmes are desired to put

2970-455: The model. In later work, Krogstie et al. stated that while the extension of the SEQUAL framework has fixed some of the limitation of the initial framework, however other limitation remain . In particular, the framework is too static in its view upon semantic quality, mainly considering models, not modeling activities, and comparing these models to a static domain rather than seeing the model as

3036-429: The number of tasks or splits -and maintainability of software process models); Cardoso validates the correlation between control flow complexity and perceived complexity; and Mendling et al. use metrics to predict control flow errors such as deadlocks in process models. The results reveal that an increase in size of a model appears to reduce its quality and comprehensibility. Further work by Mendling et al. investigates

3102-452: The prescription can occur. Thus, frameworks for adopting methods evolved so that systems development methods match specific organizational situations and thereby improve their usefulness. The development of such frameworks is also called situational method engineering . Method construction approaches can be organized in a flexibility spectrum ranging from 'low' to 'high'. Lying at the 'low' end of this spectrum are rigid methods, whereas at

3168-459: The problem domain, hence a change to the model may also change the problem domain directly. This paper discusses the quality framework in relation to active process models and suggests a revised framework based on this. Further work by Krogstie et al. (2006) to revise SEQUAL framework to be more appropriate for active process models by redefining physical quality with a more narrow interpretation than previous research. The other framework in use

3234-469: The process itself which is really what happens. A process model is roughly an anticipation of what the process will look like. What the process shall be will be determined during actual system development. The goals of a process model are to be: From a theoretical point of view, the meta-process modeling explains the key concepts needed to describe what happens in the development process, on what, when it happens, and why. From an operational point of view,

3300-420: The process management policy adopted (see Usage World). Instantiation and assembly, by promoting modularization, facilitate the capitalisation of good practice and the improvement of given process models." The assembly technique is based on the idea of a process repository from which process components can be selected. Rolland (1998) lists two selection strategies: For the assembly technique to be successful, it

3366-423: The process model while the content is kept intact but the pragmatic issue of what must be included in the model is still left out. The second limitation relates to the prioritizing guideline the derived ranking has a small empirical basis as it relies on the involvement of 21 process modelers only. This could be seen on the one hand as a need for a wider involvement of process modelers' experience, but it also raises

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3432-400: The process of constructing process models . Its main concern is to improve process models and to make them evolve, which in turn, will support the development of systems. This is important due to the fact that " processes change with time and so do the process models underlying them. Thus, new processes and models may have to be built and existing ones improved". "The focus has been to increase

3498-406: The process. The next intention and strategy to achieve it are selected dynamically by the application engineer among the several possible ones offered by the map. Furthermore, the approach is meant to allow the dynamic adjunction of a path in the map, i.e. adding a new strategy or a new section in the actual course of the process. In such a case guidelines that make available all choices open to handle

3564-539: The processes into practice. With advances in technology from larger platform vendors, the vision of business process models (BPM) becoming fully executable (and capable of round-trip engineering) is coming closer to reality every day. Supporting technologies include Unified Modeling Language (UML), model-driven architecture , and service-oriented architecture . Process modeling addresses the process aspects of an enterprise business architecture , leading to an all encompassing enterprise architecture . The relationships of

3630-404: The product quality and the process quality of modeling techniques with regard to a set of properties that have been defined before. Quality properties that relate to business process modeling techniques discussed in are: To assess the quality of Q-ME framework; it is used to illustrate the quality of the dynamic essentials modeling of the organisation (DEMO) business modeling techniques. It

3696-453: The quality metrics to help question quality properties of a model, simple process can be modeled in a complex and unsuitable way. This in turn can lead to a lower understandability, higher maintenance cost and perhaps inefficient execution of the process in question. The quality of modeling technique is important in creating models that are of quality and contribute to the correctness and usefulness of models. Earliest process models reflected

3762-415: The quality of models and must be fulfilled while the remaining guidelines are optional but necessary. The two frameworks SEQUAL and GOM have a limitation of use in that they cannot be used by people who are not competent with modeling. They provide major quality metrics but are not easily applicable by non-experts. The use of bottom-up metrics related to quality aspects of process models is trying to bridge

3828-412: The quality, the line between quality of modeling techniques and the quality of models as a result of the application of those techniques are not clearly drawn. This report will concentrate both on quality of process modeling techniques and quality of process models to clearly differentiate the two. Various frameworks were developed to help in understanding quality of process modeling techniques, one example

3894-460: The question, what alternative approaches may be available to arrive at a prioritizing guideline? Colette Rolland Colette Rolland (born 1943, in Dieupentale , Tarn-et-Garonne , France ) is a French computer scientist and Professor of Computer Science in the department of Mathematics and Informatics at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne . She is a leading researcher in

3960-556: The research it was noticed that the quality framework was found to be both easy to use and useful in evaluating the quality of process models however it had limitations in regards to reliability and difficult to identify defects. These limitations led to refinement of the framework through subsequent research done by Krogstie . This framework is called SEQUEL framework by Krogstie et al. 1995 (Refined further by Krogstie & Jørgensen, 2002) which included three more quality aspects. Dimensions of Conceptual Quality framework Modeling Domain

4026-428: The result of an ad hoc construction technique. This has two major consequences: it is not possible to know how these process models were generated, and they become dependent on the domain of experience. If process models are to be domain independent and if they are to be rapidly generable and modifiable, then we need to go away from experience based process model construction. Clearly, generation and modifiability relate to

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4092-434: The same nature that are classified together into a model. Thus, a process model is a description of a process at the type level. Since the process model is at the type level, a process is an instantiation of it. The same process model is used repeatedly for the development of many applications and thus, has many instantiations. One possible use of a process model is to prescribe how things must/should/could be done in contrast to

4158-465: The sets of statements that actors both human model users and the tools that interact with the model, respectively 'think' the conceptual representation of the problem domain contains. Finally, Participant Knowledge is the set of statements that human actors, who are involved in the modeling process, believe should be made to represent the problem domain. These quality dimensions were later divided into two groups that deal with physical and social aspects of

4224-429: The specific purpose at hand for which the model is constructed at first place. Hommes also makes a further distinction between internal correctness (empirical, syntactical and semantic quality) and external correctness (validity). A common starting point for defining the quality of conceptual model is to look at the linguistic properties of the modeling language of which syntax and semantics are most often applied. Also

4290-440: The verb-object style, as well as guidelines on the number of elements in a model, the application of structured modeling, and the decomposition of a process model. The guidelines are as follows: 7PMG still though has limitations with its use: Validity problem 7PMG does not relate to the content of a process model, but only to the way this content is organized and represented. It does suggest ways of organizing different structures of

4356-420: Was found that it results in better models in terms of understanding than alternative labelling styles. From the earlier research and ways to evaluate process model quality it has been seen that the process model's size, structure, expertise of the modeler and modularity affect its overall comprehensibility. Based on these a set of guidelines was presented 7 Process Modeling Guidelines (7PMG). This guideline uses

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