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

Abstract

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.

The composite approach as a hybrid approach to business process modeling: proposition and empirical evaluation

“…From a research standpoint, it contributes a novel process modeling approach in which the focal innovation is integrating and aligning BPMN models and process stories. While existing studies have adopted either BPMN models (Lübke et al ., 2021) or process stories for representing business processes (Bauer, 2019; Haggège and Vernay, 2019), this study combines the two structures. The evaluation shows that the composite approach improves process understandability.…”

“…The experiment concerns users making decisions about the process in two conditions: one using formal and informal structures, and another using formal structures. As understandability is a crucial attribute to assess the value of process models (Adamo et al ., 2021; Lübke et al ., 2021; Zugal et al ., 2015), we use this attribute to evaluate the composite approach. Two aspects related to understandability are assessed: model understandability and situation understandability.…”

Supporting the Conservation and Restoration OpenLab of the Acropolis of Ancient Tiryns through Data Modelling and Exploitation of Digital Media

“…Understandability is a key quality feature of BPMN diagrams, particularly during the requirements phase of software projects; technical and non-technical stakeholders must read, validate, and review complex business processes to guide further software development [23].…”

On the Semantic Transparency of Declarative Process Models: The Case of Constraints

“…overview in [14]). This research delves into various aspects associated with the representation of process models and process data (e.g., [2,3,4,7,15,17,33]), users' background and expertise (e.g., [29,35]), the tasks in which the models are used (e.g., [38,27]) and the tools supporting these tasks (e.g., [37,1,26]). Many of these aspects have been shown to have a significant impact on the comprehension of process models [14].…”