cognise@caise2013

Ghent university, Economics and Business Administration [email protected] - www.janclaes.info

COGNISE@CAiSE 201310 April 2023

FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Cognitive Aspects of Structured Process Modeling

Jan Claes, Frederik Gailly and Geert Poels


COGNISE@CAiSE 20132/14

Outline

Process models, process model qualityProcess of Process Modeling, data collectionVisualization with PPMChartsObservations, Structured Process ModelingTheoretical explanation, hypothesesMethodology



Business Process Modeling (BPM)

Business process model Graphical, abstract representation of process Important tool for analysis and improvement

Business process model in BPMN notation



Process model quality

Execution

Communication

Simulation

Analysis

Completeness

Understandability

Correctness

Maintainability

Quality dimension Purpose

PRIM

ARY

RES

EARC

H F

OCU

S



Process of Process Modeling (PPM)

Properties of textual description

Properties of modeler

Properties of modeling process

Properties of resulting model

PRIMARY RESEARCH FOCUSProperties of real process

Properties of observation process

Properties of softwareand modeling language

Properties of model reader

Properties of reading process




Observational modeling sessions People construct models Every action on modeling canvas is logged Modeler information is collected through survey Different datasets

• 120 students in Eindhoven 2010• 14 experts in Berlin 2010• 14 experts in Eindhoven 2011• 118 students in Eindhoven 2012




Properties of the modeling processActivity Timestamp Attributes

Create start event 10:00 Id = 1; x = 10; y = 10

Create activity 10:04 Id = 2; x = 40; y = 10; name = “Receive order”

Create edge 10:05 Id = 3; from = 1, to = 2

Move activity 10:07 Id = 2; x = 15; y = 10

Create gateway 10:08 Id = 4; x = 65; y = 10; type = “XOR”

Create edge 10:09 Id = 5; from = 2, to = 4

Create activity 10:24 Id = 6; x = 80; y = 0; name = “Reject order”

Create activity 10:25 Id = 7; x = 80; y = 20; name = “Prepare order”

Create gateway 10:27 Id = 8; x = 105; y = 10; type = “XOR”



CREATE_ACTIVITY CREATE_START_EVENT CREATE_END_EVENT CREATE_AND CREATE_XOR CREATE_EDGE MOVE_ACTIVITY MOVE_START_EVENT MOVE_END_EVENT MOVE_AND MOVE_XOR DELETE_ACTIVITYDELETE_START_EVENT DELETE-END_EVENT DELETE_AND DELETE_XOR DELETE_EDGE NAME_ACTIVITY RENAME_ACTIVITY NAME_EDGE RENAME_EDGE


Visualization in PPMChart

time

mod

el e

lem

ents



Observations

Chunked modeling

Structured process modelingModeling pauses

Delayed start

PRIMARY RESEARCH FOCUS



Structured Process Modeling (SPM)

Structured process modeling Creating blocks ‘as a whole’ (before moving on to

the creation of the rest of the model)

ACT

ACT

X XACT

Process model block



Theoretical explanation

Cognitive aspects Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)

limited capacity of working memory

Cognitive Fit Theory (CFT)effect increase if task representation/modeler fits



Hypotheses

H1: Structured process modeling relates to process model quality improvement

H2: The quality improvement will be higher for novices than for experts (expertise in the case domain, in modeling, and/or in the modeling language)

H3: The quality improvement will be higher if the task representation fits with the technique (i.e. a “breadth-first” ordering of the task description)



Methodology

Controlled experiment Pre-test Treatment Experiment Compare correctness

and understandability

Cognitive Fit Theory Repeat with experts 3 different task

description orders



Contact information

Jan [email protected]

http://www.janclaes.infoTwitter: @janclaesbelgium

Thanks for your attention!Do you know a better cognitive explanation for

the observed effect of structured processmodeling on process model quality?