Exploring the Understandability of a Hybrid Process Design Artifact Based on DCR Graphs

Abstract

Process design artifacts (e.g., process models, textual process descriptions and simulations) are increasingly used to provide input for requirements elicitation and to facilitate the design of business processes. To support the understandability of process models and make them accessible for end-users with different backgrounds, several hybrid representations combining different design artifacts have been proposed in the literature. This paper investigates the understandability of DCR-HR, a new hybrid process design artifact based on DCR graphs. Using eye-tracking and think-aloud techniques, this paper explores the benefits and challenges associated with the use of different design artifacts and investigates the way end-users engage with them. The results motivate the use of DCR-HR and provide insights about the support it provides to end-users with different backgrounds.

Exploring the Modeling of Declarative Processes Using a Hybrid Approach

“…Hybrid process representations are introduced in the literature in two contexts: (a) to designate hybrid languages (e.g., [14]) or (b) to describe hybrid process artifacts. While hybrid languages combine existing languages to enable a concise and precise representation of business processes, hybrid process artifacts combine two or more process artifacts overlapping in the description of some aspects of the business process [1]. The emergence of hybrid process artifacts is driven by three main motivations: (1) supporting the understandability of process models (cf., [1,2]), (2) enhancing the maintainability of process models (cf., [16]), and (3) improving the modeling of business processes.…”

Exploring how users engage with hybrid process artifacts based on declarative process models: a behavioral analysis based on eye-tracking and think-aloud

“…Over the years, process artifacts have been more and more integrated in the development of PAIS, leading to hybrid solutions that loosely combine different artifacts with the aim to support the design and comprehension of process models [2,3], especially those lying under the umbrella of the declarative paradigm [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Such hybrid solutions combine (graphical) process models with textual process specifications [6,8] and interactive simulations [4,10].…”

The Impact of Modularization on the Understandability of Declarative Process Models: A Research Model

“…The use of declarative languages results often in complex models, which are hard to interpret and maintain by humans. Comprehending the human cognitive processes impacting the understandability of process models, paves the way toward the adoption of modeling practices, enhancing the comprehension of declarative models and thus supporting their use for management purposes [4,5]. In the field of cognitive psychology, existing research has shown the limited capacity of the human working memory [6].…”

“…We design questions to reflect the use of process models in practice. Similar to [5,16,44], we formulate questions addressing: the presence and absence of constraints in the model, order of activities and validity of process executions. We make dichotomous questions.…”

“…Additionally, we rely on the recommendations of experts in DCR graphs to provide models covering a large subset of constraint patterns which are frequently used in practice. As for the tasks, we build upon existing literature [5,16,44] and use different types of questions reflecting different scenarios where process models are used in practice. Similar to [44], the variety of our questions is not meant to predict differences between different types of questions, but rather to ensure that our findings could be generalized.…”