A precise style for business process modelling: results from two controlled experiments

Authors:
Gianna Reggio;Filippo Ricca;Giuseppe Scanniello;Francesco Di Cerbo;Gabriella Dodero
Affiliations:
DISI, Università di Genova, Italy;DISI, Università di Genova, Italy;Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università della Basilicata, Italy;CASE, Libera Università di Bolzano-Bozen, Italy;CASE, Libera Università di Bolzano-Bozen, Italy
Venue:
Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Model driven engineering languages and systems
Year:
2011

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Abstract

We present a precise style for the modelling of business processes based on the UML activity diagrams and two controlled experiments to compare this style with a lighter variant. The comparison has been performed with respect to the comprehensibility of business processes and the effort to comprehend them. The first experiment has been conducted at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen, while the second experiment (i.e., a differentiated replication) at the University of Genova. The participants to the first experiment were Master students and so more experienced than the participants to the replication, who were Bachelor students. The results indicate that: (a) all the participants achieved a significantly better comprehension level with the precise style; (b) the used style did not have any significant impact on the effort; and (c) more experienced participants benefited more from the precise style.