Supporting BPMN Model Creation with Routing Patterns

Abstract

Business process modelers often struggle with appropriately representing routing situations in a model. In particular, difficulties may be encountered when using BPMN, due to its large number of constructs and the lack of ontological clarity of this language. The paper proposes routing patterns combined with a decision guidance tool to support BPMN model creation. The use of patterns is proposed based on cognitive considerations, which are explained to provide justification to the proposed support. The set of patterns builds on an existing set of routing behaviors and operationalizes these behaviors by providing their BPMN representations. The effect of this support is tested in a study, whose findings indicate a significant effect on the quality of the produced models. The findings also indicate that the use of the guided routing patterns leads to a longer time required for modeling as compared to unsupported modeling. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.