An exploratory study on role-based collaborative business process modeling approaches

Abstract

Role-based business process modeling allows roles to focus on modeling their own parts of work and requires them to negotiate with each other in order to form a consistent and integrated process. Due to the collaborative nature of role-based modeling, negotiations among roles have a crucial impact on the overall process. Role-based modeling approaches differ from each other based on the differences in their negotiation way. In this study we analyzed three current role-based collaborative business process modeling approaches in the literature, namely ex-ante, ex-post and ongoing communication negotiation approaches and presented their benefits and the drawbacks by conducting an exploratory research. By modeling a sample process using current approaches with S-BPM notation, we identified the weaknesses and strengths of each approach. We also discuss possible solutions to these drawbacks and suggested an ideal role-based collaborative business process modeling approach that combines the advantages of these approaches with our proposed solutions.