An empirical investigation of intuitive understandability of process diagrams

Jošt, Gregor; Huber, Jernej; Heričko, Marjan; Polančič, Gregor

doi:10.1016/j.csi.2016.04.006

Cited by 29 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Sandkuhl and Wiebring (2015) award eEPC -that is, extended EPC using additional symbols -the highest absolute score in subjective perception of notation and the second-highest score in comprehension, following UML AD; however, Weitlaner et al (2013) find that eEPC is less well understood than either UML AD or BPMN. Two additional studies offer moderate evidence of the lower comprehension accuracy of EPC in comparison to other notations: In the study by Jošt et al (2016) UML AD statistically significantly outperformed both EPC and BPMN in some cases, although results were not consistent and notations were not presented in consistent flow directions, compromising the study's validity. This result is in line with Figl et al (2013a), who show that semiotic clarity deficiencies in EPC reduce comprehension accuracy below that of UML AD and BPMN.…”

Section: Primary Notationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehension of Procedural Visual Business Process Models

Figl

2017

Bus Inf Syst Eng

111

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Visual process models are meant to facilitate comprehension of business processes. However, in practice, process models can be difficult to understand. The main goal of this article is to clarify the sources of cognitive effort in comprehending process models. The article undertakes a comprehensive descriptive review of empirical and theoretical work in order to categorize and summarize systematically existing findings on the factors that influence comprehension of visual process models. Methodologically, the article builds on a review of forty empirical studies that measure objective comprehension of process models, seven studies that measure subjective comprehension and user preferences, and thirty-two articles that discuss the factors that influence the comprehension of process models. The article provides information systems researchers with an overview of the empirical state of the art of process model comprehension and provides recommendations for new research questions to be addressed and methods to be used in future experiments.

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Section: Primary Notationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehension of Procedural Visual Business Process Models

Figl

2017

Bus Inf Syst Eng

111

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“…However, we expect differences with other modeling notations. Jost et al [24] have already compared BPMN, UML Activity Diagrams and Event-driven Process Chains for business processes of different complexity. They found that depending on the complexity different notations were more comprehensible than others.…”

Section: Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of diagram layout and scrolling on understandability of BPMN processes: an eye tracking experiment with BPMN diagrams

2021

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Business process modeling is an important activity for developing software systems—especially within digitization projects and when realizing digital business models. Specifying requirements and building executable workflows is often done by using BPMN 2.0 process models. Although there are several style guides available for BPMN, e.g., by Silver and Richard (BPMN method and style, vol 2, Cody-Cassidy Press, Aptos, 2009), there has not been much empirical research done into the consequences of the diagram layout. In particular, layouts that require scrolling have not been investigated yet. The aim of this research is to establish layout guidelines for business process modeling that help business process modelers to create more understandable business process diagrams. For establishing benefits and penalties of different layouts, a controlled eye tracking experiment was conducted, in which data of 21 professional software developers was used. Our results show that horizontal layouts are less demanding and that as many diagram elements as possible should be put on the initially visible screen area because such diagram elements are viewed more often and longer. Additionally, diagram elements related to the reader’s task are read more often than those not relevant to the task. BPMN modelers should favor a horizontal layout and use a more complex snake or multi-line layout whenever the diagrams are too large to fit on one page in order to support BPMN model comprehension.

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“…A reference model using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) was created in advance to serve as the basis for the subsequent simulation model. BPMN is a standardized modeling language, which has decisive advantages over other reference models, like a high degree of automation and suitability to model complex processes (Jošt et al 2016). The simulation model and the underlying BPMN model were validated with experts from the case company.…”

Section: Model Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation-Based Evaluation of Lot Release Policies in a Power Semiconductor Facility – a Case Study

Henriette

Flechsig

Lohmer

et al. 2020

2020 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC)

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Lot release policies, i.e., the decision which lots to start in production, in what quantity and at what time, have a significant influence on fab performance. Recent research focused on closed-loop policies. However, most studies only demonstrated the feasibility in settings with low-mix or low-volume simulation testbeds. In this paper, we focus on a real-world pre-assembly facility in a high-volume and high-mix semiconductor wafer fab. We conduct an in-depth, deterministic discrete-event simulation in two stages, using real production data and demands. First, we test two existing open-loop lot release policies (random and constant release) against a simple closed-loop release policy. Significant improvements in on-time delivery, bottleneck utilization, and throughput are notable. Second, we compare three closed-loop release policies and indicate which policy provides the best results for certain KPIs like enhanced on-time delivery or reduced tardiness.

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An empirical investigation of intuitive understandability of process diagrams

Cited by 29 publications

References 28 publications

Comprehension of Procedural Visual Business Process Models

Comprehension of Procedural Visual Business Process Models

Influence of diagram layout and scrolling on understandability of BPMN processes: an eye tracking experiment with BPMN diagrams

Simulation-Based Evaluation of Lot Release Policies in a Power Semiconductor Facility – a Case Study

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