Goals for an IoT context-based process modelling language regarding logistics

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims at bridging the gap between real-world business processes and information systems. When attached to physical items, the IoT technologies such as sensor networks transform objects of the supply chain into smart items. These items have the ability to capture context data and provide business process management systems (BPMSs) with a representation of things. To adequately describe a business process, process engineers commonly use Business Process Modelling Languages (BPMLs). However, in a larger scope, BPMLs differ according to the application area they are used in, and there is no current language solution to represent IoT context data within a process model. In this paper we introduce the goals for a BPML to represent these data. The language will enable process engineers to model business process behaviour taking into account IoT context data. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.