The Influence of Using Collapsed Sub-processes and Groups on the Understandability of Business Process Models

Abstract

Many factors influence the creation of business process models which are understandable for a target audience. Understandability of process models becomes more critical when size and complexity of the models increase. Using vertical modularization to decompose such models hierarchically into modules is considered to improve their understandability. To investigate this assumption, two experiments were conducted. The experiments involved 2 large-scale real-life business process models that were modeled using BPMN v2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) in the form of collaboration diagrams. Each process was modeled in 3 modularity forms: fully-flattened, flattened where activities are clustered using BPMN groups, and modularized using separately viewed BPMN sub-processes. The objective was to investigate if and how different forms of modularity representation (used for vertical modularization) in BPMN collaboration diagrams influence the understandability of process models. In addition to the forms of modularity representation, the presentation medium (paper vs. computer) and model reader's level of business process modeling competency were investigated as factors that potentially influence model comprehension. 60 business practitioners from a large organization and 140 graduate students participated in our experiments. The results indicate that, when these three modularity representations are considered, it is best to present the model in a 'flattened' form (with or without the use of groups) and in the 'paper' format in order to optimally understand a BPMN model. The results also show that the model reader's business process modeling competency is an important factor of process model comprehension.

Measuring the Cognitive Complexity in the Comprehension of Modular Process Models

“…In this work, it was shown that process models can be comprehended better in a modularized design due to the reduction of the process model size and complexity respectively. The results obtained in a study presented from the authors in [24] confirmed prior results related to modularized process models in general. Interestingly, the work [24] revealed that especially for business practitioners, it is advisable to present the process models in a non-modularized instead of a modularized representation.…”

“…The results obtained in a study presented from the authors in [24] confirmed prior results related to modularized process models in general. Interestingly, the work [24] revealed that especially for business practitioners, it is advisable to present the process models in a non-modularized instead of a modularized representation. A reason may be that the presentation of smaller process models impairs the comprehension of process models.…”

“…Thereby, many research applied and investigated the effects of a vertical modularization (i.e., collapsed subprocesses) [28], [23], [24] on the comprehension of process models. However, other modularization types were also the subject of research (i.e., horizontal [25], vertical [24], orthogonal [27]). Therefore, the work at hand extends the vast body of research about the effects of modularization during the comprehension of process models.…”

“…Therefore, it is frequently used in complex process models (e.g., reduction of model size) for the purpose of reuse and a better comprehension of such models [23]. In general, for the start of the exploration, three different modularization types (i.e., horizontal [38], vertical [24], orthogonal [39]) that have become established in the context of process models, are introduced in the following and, furthermore, were used in the reported two studies. Note that the work at hand considered only process models expressed in terms of the BPMN 2.0 and modularization was applied activity-based in all three modularization types (see Section III-B).…”

Towards the Applicability of Measuring the Electrodermal Activity in the Context of Process Model Comprehension: Feasibility Study

“…Therefore, the influence of subjective factors and their influence on model comprehension was addressed in recent works. Examples are the modeling expertise [18], model reader preferences [19], learning strategies [20], perceptual discrimination [21], or perceived usefulness [22].…”