Enterprise-specific ontology-driven process modelling

Abstract

Different process models are created within an enterprise by different modelers who use different enterprise terms. This hinders model interoperability and integration. A possible solution is formalizing the vocabulary used within the enterprise in an ontology and put this ontology as bases for constructing process models. Given that an enterprise is an evolving entity, the ontology needs to evolve to properly reflect the domain of the enterprise. This paper proposes an enterprise-specific ontology-driven process modelling method which tackles the two aforementioned issues by assisting the modeller in creating process models using terminology from the ontology and simultaneously supporting ontology enrichment with feedback from those models. When the modeller creates a model, matching mechanisms incorporated in the method are working together to suggest a list of ontological concepts that have a high potential to be useful for a particular modelling element. When the model is created, its quality is first evaluated from different perspectives to make sure that it can be used within the enterprise, and second to discover whether its feedback can be useful for the ontology. When the feedback is extracted, the proposed method incorporates guidelines on how to use this feedback.