Searching business process repositories using operational similarity

Abstract

Effective retrieval of relevant know-how segments from business process repositories can save precious employee time and support non-expert users in locating and reusing process data. We present a methodology for searching repositories and retrieving relevant process segments, using business logic that is extracted from real-life process models. The analysis of a process repository enables the construction of three taxonomies with which it is possible to process the search intention in operational terms. We tested the method on the Oracle ERP Business Process Model (OBM), showing the approach to be effective in enabling the search of business process repositories. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.