Spreadsheets as Interoperability Solution for Business Process Representation

Abstract

Business process models help to visualize processes of an organization. In enterprises, these processes are often specified in internal regulations, resolutions or other law acts of a company. Such descriptions, like task lists, have mostly form of enumerated lists or spreadsheets. In this paper, we present a mapping of process model elements into a spreadsheet representation. As a process model can be represented in various notations, this can be seen as an interoperability solution for process knowledge interchange between different representations. In presenting the details of the solution, we focus on the popular BPMN representation, which is a de facto standard for business process modeling. We present a method how to generate a BPMN process model from a spreadsheet-based representation. In contrast to the other existing approaches concerning spreadsheets, our method does not require explicit specification of gateways in the spreadsheet, but it takes advantage of nested list form. Such a spreadsheet can be created either manually or merged from the task list specifications provided by users.

Characteristic and comparison of UML, BPMN and EPC based on process models of a training company

“…The conversions between the selected three notations can be dome through some other standard such as BPEL [44] or spreadsheets [45]. Workflow patterns constitute another effective way of transformation.…”

A Coding-Free Software Framework for Developing Lightweight Web Data Management Systems

“…Honkisz, Kluza, and Wisniewski [9] proposed a presentation approach using spreadsheets as middleware for transforming natural language text into business process models. In similar vein, Wisniewski et al [23] proposed a way to describe business processes through spreadsheets. They model BPMN processes through spreadsheets, mapping process model elements to a spreadsheet representation.…”