16 research outputs found
How Advanced Change Patterns Impact the Process of Process Modeling
Process model quality has been an area of considerable research efforts. In
this context, correctness-by-construction as enabled by change patterns
provides promising perspectives. While the process of process modeling (PPM)
based on change primitives has been thoroughly investigated, only little is
known about the PPM based on change patterns. In particular, it is unclear what
set of change patterns should be provided and how the available change pattern
set impacts the PPM. To obtain a better understanding of the latter as well as
the (subjective) perceptions of process modelers, the arising challenges, and
the pros and cons of different change pattern sets we conduct a controlled
experiment. Our results indicate that process modelers face similar challenges
irrespective of the used change pattern set (core pattern set versus extended
pattern set, which adds two advanced change patterns to the core patterns set).
An extended change pattern set, however, is perceived as more difficult to use,
yielding a higher mental effort. Moreover, our results indicate that more
advanced patterns were only used to a limited extent and frequently applied
incorrectly, thus, lowering the potential benefits of an extended pattern set
Cognitive aspects of structured process modeling
After visualizing data of various observational experiments on the way in which modelers construct process models, a promising process modeling style (i.e., structured process modeling) was discovered that is expected to cause process model quality to increase. A modeler constructs process models in a structured way if she/he is working on few parts of the model simultaneously. This paper describes cognitive theories that can explain this causal relation. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests that the amount of errors increases when the limited capacity of our working memory is overloaded. Cognitive Fit Theory (CFT) states that performance is improved when task material representation matches with the task to be executed. Three hypotheses are formulated and the experimental set-up to evaluate these hypotheses is described
Making Sense of Declarative Process Models: Common Strategies and Typical Pitfalls
Declarative approaches to process modeling are regarded as well suited for highly volatile environments as they provide a high degree of flexibility. However, problems in understanding and maintaining declarative business process models impede often their usage. In particular, how declarative models are understood has not been investigated yet. This paper takes a first step toward addressing this question and reports on an exploratory study investigating how analysts make sense of declarative process models. We have handed out real-world declarative process models to subjects and asked them to describe the illustrated process. Our qualitative analysis shows that subjects tried to describe the processes in a sequential way although the models represent circumstantial information, namely, conditions that produce an outcome, rather than a sequence of activities. Finally, we observed difficulties with single building blocks and combinations of relations between activities
Cognitive Aspects of Structured Process Modeling
After visualizing data of various observational experiments on the way in which modelers construct process models, a promising process modeling style (i.e., structured process modeling) was discovered that is expected to cause process model quality to increase. A modeler constructs process models in a structured way if she/he is working on few parts of the model simultaneously. This paper describes cognitive theories that can explain this causal relation. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests that the amount of errors increases when the limited capacity of our working memory is overloaded. Cognitive Fit Theory (CFT) states that performance is improved when task material representation matches with the task to be executed. Three hypotheses are formulated and the experimental set-up to evaluate these hypotheses is described
The Use of Eye-tracking in Information Systems Research: A Literature Review of the Last Decade
Eye-trackers provide continuous information on individualsā gaze behavior. Due to the increasing popularity of eye- tracking in the information systems (IS) field, we reviewed how past research has used eye-tracking to inform future research. Accordingly, we conducted a literature review to describe the use of eye-tracking in IS research based on a sample of 113 empirical papers published since 2008 in IS journals and conference proceedings. Specifically, we examined the methodologies and experimental settings used in eye-tracking IS research and how eye-tracking can be used to inform the IS field. We found that IS research that used eye-tracking varies in its methodological and theoretical complexity. Research on pattern analysis shows promise since such research develops a broader range of analysis methodologies. The potential of eye-tracking remains unfulfilled in the IS field since past research has mostly focused on attention-related constructs and used fixation count metrics on desktop computers. We call for researchers to utilize eye-tracking more broadly in IS research by extending the type of metrics they use, the analyses they perform, and the constructs they investigate
Investigating expressiveness and understandability of hierarchy in declarative business process models
Hierarchy has widely been recognized as a viable approach to deal with the complexity of conceptual models. For instance, in declarative business process models, hierarchy is realized by sub-processes. While technical implementations of declarative sub-processes exist, their application, semantics, and the resulting impact on understandability are less understood yetāthis research gap is addressed in this work. More specifically, we discuss the semantics and the application of hierarchy and show how subprocesses enhance the expressiveness of declarative modeling languages. Then, we turn to the influence of hierarchy on the understandability of declarative process models. In particular, we present a cognitive-psychology-based framework that allows to assess the impact of hierarchy on the understandability of a declarative process model. To empirically test the proposed framework, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods is followed. While statistical tests provide numerical evidence, think-aloud protocols give insights into the reasoning processes taking place when reading declarative process models
A visual analysis of the process of process modeling
The construction of business process models has become an important requisite
in the analysis and optimization of processes. The success of the analysis and
optimization efforts heavily depends on the quality of the models. Therefore, a
research domain emerged that studies the process of process modeling. This
paper contributes to this research by presenting a way of visualizing the
different steps a modeler undertakes to construct a process model, in a
so-called process of process modeling Chart. The graphical representation
lowers the cognitive efforts to discover properties of the modeling process,
which facilitates the research and the development of theory, training and tool
support for improving model quality. The paper contains an extensive overview
of applications of the tool that demonstrate its usefulness for research and
practice and discusses the observations from the visualization in relation to
other work. The visualization was evaluated through a qualitative study that
confirmed its usefulness and added value compared to the Dotted Chart on which
the visualization was inspired