UBPMN: A BPMN extension for modeling ubiquitous business processes

Abstract

Context: Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is the de facto standard for business process modeling. It was developed by the Object Management Group with support of the major organizations in the fields of software engineering and information systems. Despite its wide use, when it comes to representing ubiquitous business processes, this business process modeling language is lacking. Objective: To address BPMN's deficiency in representing ubiquitous business processes, we extend it and present uBPMN (or ubiquitous BPMN). Method: First, we analyze the modeling requirements for representing ubiquitous business processes. Based on the requirements, we conservatively extend the Meta-Object Facility meta-model and the XML Schema Definition of BPMN as well as extend the notation. The extension, that we call uBPMN follows the same outline as set by the Object Management Group for BPMN. Results: The proposed uBPMN not only allows for modeling ubiquitous business processes but also lays the groundwork for potentially deploying a variety of ubiquitous computing technologies. We illustrate all of uBPMN's capabilities and benefits with real-life examples. Conclusion: uBPMN extends BPMN v2.0 with new capabilities to deal with ubiquitous computing technologies.