DA-Abschlussvortrag, Florian Fröhler, Ort: O27/545, Zeit: 16:00 Uhr, Datum: 13.10.2010

Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow Management are well known and long-used term in both the business and the computer science world. A lot of technical issues have been investigated so far, and some of them have been extensively discussed in literature (e.g. modeling languages, semantics of the OR construct etc.). However one critical aspect has emerged recently: the quality of business processes in connection with human abilities and literal action of modeling.
The research done by Mendling et al. led to seven guidelines, proposing solutions of error prevention and better model understandability. Also considering similar work (e.g. Guidelines of Modeling, Becker et al.) there is an emerging trend towards user-centered research inside the BPM community. These approaches do not only focus on modeling experts but also on people working in companies, department- and project-leaders responsible for real-life processes. In order to support them as best as possible it becomes necessary to apply new modeling styles: supporting the action, especially for less or untrained users, and reducing visual and cognitive overload.
In this diploma thesis a framework is introduced specifying approaches considering these issues. Starting with user identification, followed by applying an easy to implement and to comprehend process, and finally getting the whole package rounded up in an environment with all required aspects (control- and data-flow, organizational model, etc) is the challenge. For each of these aspects evaluation criteria are identified and the concepts are evaluated against these criteria. Finally an overall evaluation will be done to identify the best combination of the concepts to improve model quality.
As the modeler is a human person and has abilities well examined in other field of research an interdisciplinary approach will be taken.