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Modeling processes is difficult [Leopold et al., 2015]. It takes expertise and experience in modeling processes to create a flawless model that represents reality as accurately as possible [Mendling et al., 2010], but is low enough in complexity to still allow for efficient communication and quick understanding of the process [Weske, 2007]. Especially the modeling of flexible processes and Knowledge-intensive Processes (KiPs) is much more complex since their models usually do not cover all details in their basic structure. Therefore, guidance during design time is fundamental [Leopold et al., 2015] to ensure not only the quality of the model but also to improve the user experience.

Fragment-based Case Management (fCM) is a hybrid approach to support KiPs [Hewelt and Weske, 2016]. A case model in fCM consists of the four artifacts Fragments, Object Lifecycles (OLCs), Data Model, and Goal State each of them being modeled using different languages and elements. This as well as consistency constraints between these artifacts makes modeling with fCM extremely challenging even for experts in this field.

Guidelines help to ensure consistency and integrity of process models [Dumas et al., 2013]. They are ''simple rules formulating desired properties of a model'' [Avila et al., 2020] and can be seen as recommendations and suggestions for modeling tasks. Integrated into a software tool with automated checks, guidelines can be used more efficiently, and users can adapt best practices in modeling quickly through a trial-and-error learning process [Corradini et al., 2018].

This wiki presents an overview and introduction of a guideline integration into the modeling tool fcm-js providing valuable design time support for fCM. Based on 36 modeling guidelines specifically designed for fCM, fcm-js supports designers in terms of automated verification, visual modeling, and real-time modeling support. Moreover, it offers various modeling approaches and helps in individual learning journeys reading modeling with fCM.

Besides the concrete guidelines defining a high model quality, this wiki also includes background information regarding general characteristics of fCM. For a given business process, these characteristics allow designers to first check whether fCM is a suitable modeling language for the process. If this is the case, the guidelines provide assistance for modeling in the form of suggestions. Moreover, the theoretical foundation for the guideline integration into fcm-js is explained on page Guideline Integration.

Related Work

Modeling business processes can be essentially simplified by so-called guidelines. Formulated as simple suggestions, they support the designer especially in terms of consistency and integrity of the process model [Avila et al., 2020] while focusing on high quality of the model [Moreno-Montes de Oca and Snoeck, 2014]. There are several approaches to defining guidelines. Independent of modeling languages, Mendling et al. [Mendling et al., 2010] provide seven general guidelines to improve "the quality of [process] models, in the sense that these are likely (1) to become comprehensible to various stakeholders and (2) to contain few syntactical errors." In contrast, [Moreno-Montes de Oca and Snoeck, 2014] first identify problems encountered in BPMN models, which then lead to guidelines and recommendations, and Avila et al. [Avila et al., 2020] provide a more comprehensive list of guidelines for BPMN modeling based on a systematic literature review. [Corradini et al., 2018] introduce a very structured approach and define a guideline by an ID, a name, an example and references. Furthermore, the authors emphasize the necessity of guidelines with regard to an automated verification of models with the help of a tool.

With regard to fCM, such guidelines are missing. Although several works describe the way of modeling [Hewelt and Weske, 2016; Haarmann, 2020], a compact and practicable overview of guidelines is missing. Our work provides such an overview, which serves as foundation for the design support tool that we are developing.

References

[Avila et al., 2020] Avila, D. T., dos Santos, R. I., Mendling, J., & Thom, L. H. (2020). A systematic literature review of process modeling guidelines and their empirical support. Business Process Management Journal.
[Corradini et al., 2018] Corradini, F., Ferrari, A., Fornari, F., Gnesi, S., Polini, A., Re, B., & Spagnolo, G. O. (2018). A guidelines framework for understandable BPMN models. Data & Knowledge Engineering, 113, 129-154.
[Dumas et al., 2013] Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., & Reijers, H. A. (2013). Fundamentals of business process management (Vol. 1, p. 2). Heidelberg: Springer.
[Haarmann, 2020] Haarmann, S. (2020). Fragment-Based Case Management Models: Metamodel, Consistency, and Correctness. Central-European Workshop on Services and their Composition (ZEUS 2020), 1, 1.
[Hewelt and Weske, 2016] Hewelt, M., & Weske, M. (2016, September). A hybrid approach for flexible case modeling and execution. In International Conference on Business Process Management (pp. 38-54). Springer, Cham.
[Leopold et al., 2015] Leopold, H., Mendling, J., & Günther, O. (2015). Learning from quality issues of BPMN models from industry. IEEE software, 33(4), 26-33.
[Mendling et al., 2010] Mendling, J., Reijers, H. A., & van der Aalst, W. M. (2010). Seven process modeling guidelines (7PMG). Information and Software Technology, 52(2), 127-136.
[Moreno-Montes de Oca and Snoeck, 2014] Moreno-Montes de Oca, I., & Snoeck, M. (2014). Pragmatic guidelines for business process modeling. Available at SSRN 2592983.
[Weske, 2007] Mathias Weske. Business process management architectures. Springer, 2007