Semantics and analysis of business process models in BPMN

  • Authors:

  • Remco M. Dijkman;Marlon Dumas;Chun Ouyang

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB, The Netherlands;Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, J Liivi 2, Tartu 50409, Estonia and Faculty of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology, G.P.O. Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld 4001, ...;Faculty of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology, G.P.O. Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia

  • Venue:
  • Information and Software Technology
  • Year:
  • 2008

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) is a standard for capturing business processes in the early phases of systems development. The mix of constructs found in BPMN makes it possible to create models with semantic errors. Such errors are especially serious, because errors in the early phases of systems development are among the most costly and hardest to correct. The ability to statically check the semantic correctness of models is thus a desirable feature for modelling tools based on BPMN. Accordingly, this paper proposes a mapping from BPMN to a formal language, namely Petri nets, for which efficient analysis techniques are available. The proposed mapping has been implemented as a tool that, in conjunction with existing Petri net-based tools, enables the static analysis of BPMN models. The formalisation also led to the identification of deficiencies in the BPMN standard specification.