An ontology for the Business Process Modelling Notation

The main advantages and lessons learned (which were obtained both from the current work and from previous works carried out in relation to the formal definition of other measures) are also summarized. This has motivated us to provide the formal definition of the proposed measures using OCL (Object Constraint Language) upon the BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) metamodel presented in this paper.

As is well known, natural language is ambiguous and may lead to misunderstandings and a misinterpretation of the concepts captured by a measure and the way in which the measure value is obtained. These measures were originally informally defined in natural language.

Many works have studied OBPM and are clear on the potential amenities, such as eliminating ambiguities or enabling advanced reasoning over company processes. We focus on understandability since a model must be well understood before any changes are made to it. In theory, ontology-based process modelling (OBPM) bares great potential to extend business process management. This situation led us to define a set of measures for the understandability of BPMN models, which is shown in a previous work. Business process models are currently attaining more relevance, and more attention is therefore being paid to their quality.

An ontology for the Business Process Modelling Notation