Activity patterns in process-aware information systems: basic concepts and empirical evidence
by Lucineia Heloisa Thom, Manfred Reichert, Cirano Iochpe
International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management (IJBPIM), Vol. 4, No. 2, 2009

Abstract: Recently, a variety of workflow patterns have been suggested for capturing different aspects in process-aware information systems (PAISs), including control and data flow, resources, process change and exception handling. All these patterns are highly relevant for implementing PAISs and for designing process modelling languages. However, current patterns provide only a partial answer to the question of which business functions a designer might want to reuse when modelling processes. This paper presents a revised version of a collection of activity patterns to deal with this challenge. Each of them is related to a recurrent business function as it can be frequently found in process models (e.g., task execution request, notification, approval). We describe the identified activity patterns and their variants in detail. The main purpose of our paper is to discuss results from empirical studies in which we analysed more than 200 process models in order to evidence the practical relevance of the patterns. This includes a detailed analysis of the context in which activity patterns occur as well as the frequency of this occurrence. These empirical findings can be used for the design of more intelligent, pattern-based process modelling tools.

Online publication date: Mon, 10-Aug-2009

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management (IJBPIM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com