TY - GEN
T1 - Sometimes less is more
T2 - 2007 11th International IEEE EDOC Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshop, EDOCW'07
AU - Muehlen, Michael Zur
AU - Recker, Jan
AU - Indulska, Marta
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Modern business process modeling languages such as BPMN or EPC provide users with more constructs to represent real world situations than their predecessors such as IDEF or Petri Nets. But this apparent increase in expressiveness is accompanied by an increase in language complexity. In practice many organizations choose to only use a subset of the available modeling constructs. Using a well-established ontology-based theory of representation, we analyze how this voluntary restriction affects the expressiveness and complexity of the resulting modeling vocabulary. We compare our empirical findings with two notation sets of the popular language BPMN - the core and full set. Our findings indicate that users are willing to accept ambiguity among modeling constructs and that the full element set of BPMN adds little expressiveness at the expense of considerably decreased ontological clarity. The findings are a first step towards an understanding of an optimal cost-effectiveness ratio for process modeling languages- both in theory and practice.
AB - Modern business process modeling languages such as BPMN or EPC provide users with more constructs to represent real world situations than their predecessors such as IDEF or Petri Nets. But this apparent increase in expressiveness is accompanied by an increase in language complexity. In practice many organizations choose to only use a subset of the available modeling constructs. Using a well-established ontology-based theory of representation, we analyze how this voluntary restriction affects the expressiveness and complexity of the resulting modeling vocabulary. We compare our empirical findings with two notation sets of the popular language BPMN - the core and full set. Our findings indicate that users are willing to accept ambiguity among modeling constructs and that the full element set of BPMN adds little expressiveness at the expense of considerably decreased ontological clarity. The findings are a first step towards an understanding of an optimal cost-effectiveness ratio for process modeling languages- both in theory and practice.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/52049114414
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/52049114414#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1109/EDOCW.2007.30
DO - 10.1109/EDOCW.2007.30
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9780769533384
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop, EDOC
SP - 197
EP - 204
BT - 2007 11th International IEEE EDOC Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshop, EDOCW'07
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 15 October 2007 through 16 October 2007
ER -