An approach implementing template-based process development on BPMN

Abstract

Process development and maintenance are fundamental jobs in process-centered engineering, e.g., software process improvement. A IoT of methods have been proposed for process modeling, and many of them have dedicated to improve process reuse by means of pattern or template techniques. In this paper, we propose an approach implementing the definition of Process Template Models and Template Customization Models, as well as automated transformation from these two kinds of models to Process Instance Models, therefore facilitating the reuse-based process development. All the models are defined based on the well-accepted Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) modeling language. The generated process instances are standard BPMN models that can be manipulated and executed by all BPMN-compatible mechanisms. We have applied the proposed approach for process development and maintenance in our company, and the working efficiency is improved markedly.