Ontology-based Studies of Process Modelling

This research initiative forms part of the activities in QUT's Business Process Management Group at the Faculty of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland.

Research team

Dr Michael Rosemann, Professor
Dr Jan Recker, Senior Lecturer
Dr Peter Green, Professor (UQ Business School, University of Queensland)
Dr Marta Indulska, Senior Lecturer (UQ Business School, University of Queensland)

Overview

This research initiative addresses the use of business process modelling as an organizational practice to describe, analyse and design business processes within or across organizations, be it as part of an effort to understand current procedures (“as-is” modelling) or to design blueprints for improved operational procedures (“to-be” modelling).

Organisations use a variety of mostly graphical process modelling grammars to develop semi-formal diagrammatic representations of their business processes. The focus of this research initiative is to study these grammars, motivated by the belief that process modelling grammars can be important means to help individuals and organizations in their efforts to understand and design organizational practices, but in order to do so, the grammars must be designed and used effectively.

Based on this belief, we identify three main research streams within the initiative:

• Research Stream 1 aims to reach a deeper understanding of the development and characteristics of process modelling grammars.
• Research Stream 2 aims to reach a deeper understanding of how process modelling grammars are used in organizational practice, and the consequences that stem from their use.
• Research Stream 3 aims to extend and enhance the research method of ontological analysis to support current and future research on process modelling.

To study process modelling and the grammars used for this purpose, this research initiative builds upon the use of ontology as a theoretical lens to gain insights into process modelling grammar development and use. Specifically, we use an a ontological model of representation, which specifies a set of rigorously defined ontological constructs to describe all types of real-world phenomena that a process modelling grammar user may desire to have represented in a process model that is complete and clear. The main contributions informing our choice of theory are:

• Weber, R. Ontological Foundations of Information Systems, Coopers & Lybrand and Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, 1997.
• Wand, Y., and Weber, R. "On the Ontological Expressiveness of Information Systems Analysis and Design Grammars," Journal of Information Systems (3:4) 1993, pp 217-237.
• Wand, Y., and Weber, R. "An Ontological Model of an Information System," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (16:11) 1990, pp 1282-1292.

Publications

Findings from this research have been presented at various top tier conference outlets in Information Systems, including ICIS, ECIS, AMCIS, ACIS, CAiSE, ER, BPM and others. Presentations about this research have also been given at various research institutes, including the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, the Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, the University of Melbourne, Australia, the University of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein, the Hasso Plattner-Institute for Software Systems Engineering, Potsdam Germany, and others.

Findings from this research initiative have been published in the following articles and proceedings, most of which are available through QUT’s ePrint archive.

Publications from research stream I: Process Modelling Grammar Development

Journal papers published

• Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Indulska, M., and Green, P. "Business Process Modeling: A Comparative Analysis," Journal of the Association for Information Systems (10:4) 2009, pp 333-363.
• Recker, J., Rosemann, M., and Krogstie, J. "Ontology- versus Pattern-based Evaluation of Process Modeling Languages: A Comparison," Communications of the Association for Information Systems (20:48) 2007, pp 774-799.
• Recker, J., and Indulska, M. "An Ontology-Based Evaluation of Process Modeling with Petri Nets," Journal of Interoperability in Business Information Systems (2:1) 2007, pp 45-64.
• Green, P., Rosemann, M., Indulska, M., and Manning, C. "Candidate Interoperability Standards: An Ontological Overlap Analysis," Data & Knowledge Engineering (62:2) 2007, pp 274-291.
• Green, P., Rosemann, M., and Indulska, M. "Ontological Evaluation of Enterprise Systems Interoperability Using ebXML," IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (17:5) 2005, pp 713-725.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Integrated Process Modeling. An Ontological Evaluation," Information Systems (25:2) 2000, pp 73-87.

Journal papers in development

• Coming soon.

Edited Books

• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. (eds.) Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies. IDEA Group, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 2005.

Conference papers published

• Indulska, M., Recker, J., Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Representational Deficiency of Process Modelling Languages: Measures and Implications," 16th European Conference on Information Systems, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland, 2008, pp. 1632-1643.
• Indulska, M., Recker, J., Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Are We There Yet? Seamless Mapping of BPMN to BPEL4WS," 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, Keystone, Colorado, 2007.
• Rosemann, M., Recker, J., Indulska, M., and Green, P. "A Study of the Evolution of the Representational Capabilities of Process Modeling Grammars," in: Advanced Information Systems Engineering - CAiSE 2006, E. Dubois and K. Pohl (eds.), Springer, Luxembourg, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, 2006, pp. 447-461.
• Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Green, P., and Indulska, M. "Extending the Scope of Representation Theory: A Review and a Proposed Research Model," 3rd Biannual ANU Workshop on Information Systems Foundations, ANU E Press, Canberra, Australia, 2006, pp. 126-140.
• Recker, J., and Mendling, J. "On the Translation between BPMN and BPEL: Conceptual Mismatch between Process Modeling Languages," in: The 18th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering. Proceedings of Workshops and Doctoral Consortium, T. Latour and M. Petit (eds.), Namur University Press, Luxembourg, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, 2006, pp. 521-532.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "An Ontological Analysis of Integrated Process Modelling," in: Advanced Information Systems Engineering - CAiSE 1999, M. Jarke and A. Oberweis (eds.), Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, 1999, pp. 225-240.
• Green, P., Wand, Y., and Weber, R. "Ontological Analysis of Information Systems Analysis and Design (ISAD) Grammars - Experiences and Results to Date," 5th European Conference on Information Systems, Cork Publishing Ltd, Cork, Ireland, 1997, pp. 1539-1541.
• Green, P. "Use of Information Systems Analysis and Design (ISAD) Grammars in Combination in Upper CASE Tools - An Ontological Evaluation," 2nd CAiSE/ IFIP8.1 International Workshop on Evaluation of Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Barcelona, Spain, 1997, pp. 1-12.

Publications from research stream II: Process Modelling Grammars in Practice

Journal papers published

• Recker, J. "Opportunities and Constraints: The Current Struggle with BPMN," Business Process Management Journal (16:1) 2010, In Press.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Ontological Analysis of Integrated Process Models: Testing Hypotheses," Australasian Journal of Information Systems (9:1) 2001, pp 30-38.

Journal papers in development

• Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Green, P., Indulska, M. (initial submission April 2009): Do Ontological Deficiencies in Modeling Grammars Matter? To be re-submitted for 3rd round review to: MIS Quarterly.
• Recker, J., Indulska, M., Rosemann, M., Green, P. (initial submission March 2009): An Exploratory Study of Process Modeling Practice – The BPMN Example. Under 2nd round review at: European Journal of Information Systems.
• Recker, J. (initial submission November 2009): Ontological Clarity and Process Model Interpretability: Examining the Role of Gateway Constructs. Under 1st round review at: Journal of Database Management.
• Green, P., Rosemann, M., Indulska, M., Recker, J. (initial submission March 2009): Complementary Use of Modeling Techniques: Insights from Representation Theory and Practice. To be re-submitted for 2nd round review to: Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems.
• Indulska, M., Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Green, P. (planned submission March 2010): Issues, Benefits and Challenges of Process Modeling: Results from a Global Delphi Study. To be submitted to: Information Systems Journal.

Conference papers published

• Indulska, M., Green, P., Recker, J., and Rosemann, M. "Business Process Modeling: Perceived Benefits," in: Conceptual Modeling - ER 2009, S. Castano, U. Dayal and A.H.F. Laender (eds.), Springer, Gramado, Brazil, 2009, pp. 458-471.
• Indulska, M., Recker, J., Rosemann, M., and Green, P. "Process Modeling: Current Issues and Future Challenges," in: Advanced Information Systems Engineering - CAiSE 2009, P. van Eck, J. Gordijn and R. Wieringa (eds.), Springer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009, pp. 501-514.
• Recker, J., Indulska, M., and Green, P. "Extending Representational Analysis: BPMN User and Developer Perspectives," in: Business Process Management - BPM 2007, G. Alonso, P. Dadam and M. Rosemann (eds.), Springer, Brisbane, Australia, 2007, pp. 384-399.
• Recker, J., Indulska, M., Rosemann, M., and Green, P. "How Good is BPMN Really? Insights from Theory and Practice," 14th European Conference on Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, Goeteborg, Sweden, 2006, pp. 1582-1593.
• Recker, J., Indulska, M., Rosemann, M., and Green, P. "Do Process Modelling Techniques Get Better? A Comparative Ontological Analysis of BPMN," 16th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Australasian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems, Sydney, Australia, 2005.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Perceived Ontological Weaknesses of Process Modelling Techniques: Further Evidence," 10th European Conference on Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, Gdansk, Poland, 2002, pp. 312-321.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Ontological Analysis of Integrated Process Modeling: Some Initial Insights," 11th Australian Conference on Information Systems, Brisbane, Australia, 2000.

Doctoral Theses

• Recker, J. "Understanding Process Modelling Grammar Continuance: A Study of the Consequences of Representational Capabilities," Unpublished PhD Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, 2008.
• Green, P. "An Ontological Analysis of ISAD Grammars in Upper CASE Tools," Unpublished PhD Thesis, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 1996.

Publications from research stream III: Methodological Aspects of Ontological Research

Journal papers published

• Recker, J., Rosemann, M. (in press): The Measurement of Perceived Ontological Deficiencies of Conceptual Modeling Grammars. Data & Knowledge Engineering, accepted for publication.
• Rosemann, M., Green, P., Indulska, M., and Recker, J. "Using Ontology for the Representational Analysis of Process Modeling Techniques," International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management (4:4) 2009.
• Recker, J., and Niehaves, B. "Epistemological Perspectives on Ontology-based Theories for Conceptual Modeling," Applied Ontology (3:1-2) 2008, pp 111-130.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Applying Ontologies to Business and Systems Modeling Techniques and Perspectives: Lessons Learned," Journal of Database Management (15:2) 2004, pp 105-117.
• Rosemann, M., and Green, P. "Developing a Meta Model for the Bunge-Wand-Weber Ontological Constructs," Information Systems (27:2) 2002, pp 75-91.

Journal papers in development

• Coming soon.

Conference papers published

• Recker, J., and Rosemann, M. "Measuring Perceived Representational Deficiencies in Conceptual Modeling: Instrument Development and Test," 29th International Conference on Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, Paris, France, 2008.
• Green, P., Rosemann, M., Indulska, M., and Recker, J. "Improving Representational Analysis: An Example from the Enterprise Interoperability Domain," 17th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Australasian Association for Information Systems, Adelaide, Australia, 2006.
• Recker, J., Rosemann, M., Green, P., and Indulska, M. "Extending the Scope of Representation Theory: A Review and a Proposed Research Model," 3rd Biannual ANU Workshop on Information Systems Foundations, ANU E Press, Canberra, Australia, 2006, pp. 126-140.
• Rosemann, M., Green, P., and Indulska, M. "A Procedural Model for Ontological Analyses," in: Information Systems Foundations: Constructing and Criticising, D. Hart and S. Gregor (eds.), ANU E Press, Canberra, Australia, 2005, pp. 153-163.
• Rosemann, M., Green, P., and Indulska, M. "A Reference Methodology for Conducting Ontological Analyses," in: Conceptual Modeling – ER 2004, H. Lu, W. Chu, P. Atzeni, S. Zhou and T.W. Ling (eds.), Springer, Shanghai, China, 2004, pp. 110-121.
• Rosemann, M., Green, P., and Indulska, M. "Towards an Enhanced Methodology for Ontological Analyses," 16th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Riga, 2004, pp. 122-131.
• Green, P., and Rosemann, M. "Usefulness of the BWW Ontological Models as a "Core" Theory of Information Systems," in: Information Systems Foundations: Building the Theoretical Base, S. Gregor and D. Hart (eds.), Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 2002, pp. 147-164.
• Rosemann, M., and Green, P. "Integrating Multi-Perspective Views Into Ontological Analysis," 21st International Conference on Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, Brisbane, Australia, 2000, pp. 618-627.
• Rosemann, M., and Green, P. "Enhancing the Process of Ontological Analysis - The "Who cares" Dimension," Information Systems Foundations Workshop - Ontology, Semiotics and Practice, Lighthouse Press, Sydney, Australia, 1999, pp. 39-54.