Use of a Grounding Ontology to Address Ambiguities in Business Process Modeling
Abstract
Process models are used, among other things, to improve the operation and support of information systems development in organizations. In this context, the quality of the business process models is essential. Process models which are ambiguous and poorly formed can lead to problems of understanding and jeopardize their use. An important aspect for model quality regards the clarity and expressivity of the adopted modeling language. This paper explores the use of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) to add real-world semantics to some model elements present in UML activity diagrams. As a result, we developed E-OntoUML, a UML profile for process modeling using activity diagrams that are semantically founded on UFO.
Keywords:
Ontology, Settle ambiguities, Process modeling
References
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Santos Jr., P.S., Almeida, J.P.A., Guizzardi, G. (2010) “An Ontology-based Semantic Foundation for ARIS EPCs”, In: Proceedings of the 25th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (Enterprise Engineering Track), 2010, Sierre, Switzerland.
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Almeida, J.P.A., Guizzardi, G., Santos Jr., P.S. (2009). “Applying and Extending a Semantic Foundation for Role-Related Concepts in Enterprise Modelling”. Enterprise Information Systems, v. 3, p. 253-277, 2009.
Eshuis, H. (2002) Semantics and Verification of UML Activity Diagrams for Workflow Modelling. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
Frye, D. W., Gulledge, T. R. (2007) “End-to-end Business Process Scenarios”. Industrial, Management & Data Systems, v. 107, n. 6, pp.749–761.
Green, P.F., Rosemann, M. (2005) Ontological Analysis of Business Systems Analysis Techniques: Experiences and Proposals for and Enhanced Methodology. In Business Systems Analysis with Ontologies, IGI Global, pp 1-27.
Guizzardi, G. (2005) Ontological Foundations for Structural Conceptual Models, Universal Press, The Netherlands.
Guizzardi, G. (2007) “On Ontology, ontologies, Conceptualizations, Modeling Languages, and (Meta)Models”, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Databases and Information Systems IV, Olegas Vasilecas, Johan Edler, Albertas Caplinskas (Editors), IOS Press, Amsterdam.
Guizzardi, G., Falbo, R.A. Guizzardi, R.S.S. (2008) “A importância de Ontologias de Fundamentação para a Engenharia de Ontologias de Domínio: o caso do domínio de Processos de Software”, IEEE Latin America Transactions, v. 6, no. 3, p. 244-251.
Ko, R.K., Lee, S.S., Lee, E.W. (2009) “Business process management (BPM) standards: A survey”, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 15, Issue 5, pp.744 – 791.
Lu, R., Sadiq, S. (2007) “A survey of comparative business process modeling approaches”, In: Abramowicz, W., editor, Business Information Systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4439, p. 82–94, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg.
OMG (2006) Business Process Modeling Notation Specification, Final Adopted Specification, February.
OMG (2007) OMG Unified Modeling Language (OMG UML), Superstructure V2.1.2, formal/2007-11-02, November.
Russell, N., Van der Aalst, W.M.P., Ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Wohed, P. (2006) “On the suitability of UML 2.0 activity diagrams for business process modeling”, Proceedings of the 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Hobart, Australia, pp. 95-104.
Santos Jr., P.S., Almeida, J.P.A., Guizzardi, G. (2010) “An Ontology-based Semantic Foundation for ARIS EPCs”, In: Proceedings of the 25th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (Enterprise Engineering Track), 2010, Sierre, Switzerland.
Wand, Y., Weber, R. (1989) “An ontological evaluation of systems analysis and design methods”. In: Information System Concepts: An In-Depth Analysis. Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North-Holland.
Weske, M. (2007) Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures. Springer, 1st edition.
Weske, M., Van der Aalst, W.M.P., Verbeek, H.M.W. (2004) “Advances in business process management”. Data & Knowledge Engineering, 50(1):1–8.
White, S.A. (2004) Process Modeling Notations and Workflow Patterns, BPTrends.
Published
2011-05-23
How to Cite
MARTINS, Aline F.; FALBO, Ricardo A.; GUIZZARDI, Giancarlo; A. ALMEIDA, João Paulo.
Use of a Grounding Ontology to Address Ambiguities in Business Process Modeling. In: BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS (SBSI), 7. , 2011, Salvador.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2011
.
p. 129-140.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbsi.2011.14571.
