A visual analysis of the process of process modeling
Jan Claes, Irene Vanderfeesten, Jakob Pinggera, Hajo A. Reijers, Barbara Weber, Geert PoelsInformation Systems and e-Business Management, Vol 13 (1), p. 147-190, 2015 (WoS IF '15: 0,953 (Q3, Q2 in 2016)) (Scopus CS '15: 0,96 (Q3, Q2 in 2016))
The final publication is available via https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10257-014-0245-4
Abstract. The construction of business process models has become an important requisite in the analysis and optimization of processes. The success of the analysis and optimization efforts heavily depends on the quality of the models. Therefore, a research domain emerged that studies the process of process modeling. This paper contributes to this research by presenting a way of visualizing the different steps a modeler undertakes to construct a process model, in a so-called PPMChart. The graphical representation lowers the cognitive efforts to discover properties of the modeling process, which facilitates the research and the development of theory, training and tool support for improving model quality. The paper contains an extensive overview of applications of the tool that demonstrate its usefulness for research and practice and discusses the observations from the visualization in relation to other work. The visualization was evaluated through a qualitative study that confirmed its usefulness and added value compared to the Dotted Chart on which the visualization was inspired.
Additional material.
- The evolving PPMChart:
PowerPoint presentation
- The figures:
Figure 1a: Full event log: multiple PPM instances
Figure 1b: Transformed partial event log: only one PPM instance
Figure 2. The process of process modeling and the attributes of the captured data
Figure 3. Visualization of the events in the construction of one model by one modeler
Figure 4. rocess model in BPMN notation as result of the modeling process in Fig. 3
Figure 5. Screenshot of the PPMChart window in ProM. (Model 2012-184)
Figure 6. Additional sort order options in the PPMChart implementation
Figure 6a: Distance from start
Figure 6b: Create order from start
Figure 7. Scattered or simultaneous delete operations
Figure 7a: Model 2010-318
Figure 7b: Model 2010-213
Figure 8. Timing of movement operations: few (a), close to creation (b), at the end (c), scattered (d)
Figure 8a: Model 2010-312
Figure 8b: Model 2010-210
Figure 8c: Model 2010-170
Figure 8d: Model 2010-228
Figure 9. Order of creation of activities, gateways and edges
Figure 9a: Model 2010-367
Figure 9b: Model 2010-237
Figure 10. Order of creation of gateways and activities
Figure 10a: Model 2010-106
Figure 10b: Model 2010-361
Figure 11. Chunked modeling Figure 11a: Model 2010-201
Figure 11b: Model 2010-189
Figure 12. Chaotic process of process modeling Figure 12a: Model 2010-258
Figure 12b: Model 2010-270
Figure 13. Similar patterns of creation of elements in simple (a, c) and extensive cases (b, d) Figure 13a: Model 2010-354
Figure 13b: Model 2010-156
Figure 13c: Model 2010-140
Figure 13d: Model 2010-136
Figure 14. Similar patterns of element creation in a first (a, c) and second (b, d) modeling effort of the same modeler Figure 14a: Model 2010-354
Figure 14b: Model 2010-355
Figure 14c: Model 2010-140
Figure 14d: Model 2010-141
Figure 15. Patterns of creation of elements (a, c) and corresponding process models (b, d) Figure 15a: Model 2010-354
Figure 15b: Model 2010-354
Figure 15c: Model 2010-140
Figure 15d: Model 2010-140
Figure 16. Example of a Modeling Phase Diagram and PPMChart for the same PPM instance Figure 16a: Modeling Phase Diagram
Figure 16b: PPMChart
Figure 17. Examples of process visualizations that are not considered to be traditional process models Figure 17a: TreeMap
Figure 17b: Timeline tree
Figure 17c: Gantt chart
Figure 17d: E.J. Marey"s train schedule
