Aspect-oriented business process modeling: analyzing open issues

Purpose - The aspect-oriented paradigm provides mechanisms to modularize crosscutting concerns. Applying aspect-oriented concepts in business process modeling raises the possibilities of modularization, but brings out several concerns related both to process and to product. This paper aims to provid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business process management journal 2012-01, Vol.18 (6), p.964-991
Main Authors: Jack Nogueira Santos, Fabiana, Cappelli, Claudia, Santoro, Flávia Maria, Cesar Sampaio do Prado Leite, Julio, Vasconcelos Batista, Thaís
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business
Business process management
Business process reengineering
Focusing
Heuristic
Mathematical models
Modularity
Modularization
Natural gas
Research projects
Software
Software engineering
Studies
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Summary:Purpose - The aspect-oriented paradigm provides mechanisms to modularize crosscutting concerns. Applying aspect-oriented concepts in business process modeling raises the possibilities of modularization, but brings out several concerns related both to process and to product. This paper aims to provide an overview of the aspect-oriented business process modeling area, point out the open issues and analyze possible solutions to such issues.Design methodology approach - This paper is based on a research project, where real business process models from a large oil and gas organization were analyzed, re-modeled and re-analyzed to put the AO-BPM approach in practice.Findings - The paper indicates the need for more research on aspect-orientation applied to business process models, backed by open issues that are faced in this research. The authors categorized the open issues as: aspects identification, elements used in the models, levels used to modularize business process models, assignment of aspects to organizational actors, and ways that an aspectized model can be generated or visualized. The authors listed initial thoughts on possible solutions that they foresee based on previous work in software engineering.Originality value - This paper is the first one in analyzing research questions facing AO-BPM. By now there have just been papers focusing on presenting its understanding on how to apply the aspect-orientation approach to solve business process models modularity issues as can be seen in the related works section. The paper's main contribution is making explicit the roadblocks that are faced and opening up new avenues of research on BPM modularization, in particular with respect to AO-BPM.
ISSN:1463-7154
1758-4116
DOI:10.1108/14637151211283375