A framework for the collaborative specification of semantically annotated business processes

• Published in: Journal of software maintenance and evolution Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 261 - 295
• Main Authors: Francescomarino, Chiara Di, Ghidini, Chiara, Rospocher, Marco, Serafini, Luciano, Tonella, Paolo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.06.2011
• Subjects: Annotations; Business; Computer programs; Evolution; Formalism; notations and methods; process metadata and semantic reasoning; process modeling languages; Semantics; Specifications
• ISSN: 1532-060X; 1532-0618; 1532-0618
• DOI: 10.1002/smr.525

Semantic annotations are a way to provide a precise meaning to business process elements, which supports reasoning on properties and constraints. Among the obstacles preventing widespread adoption of semantic annotations are the technical skills required to manage the formalization of the semantics and the difficulty of reconciling the different viewpoints of different analysts working on the same business process. In this paper, we support business analysts in the collaborative annotation of business processes by means of a tool inspired to the Wiki pages model. Using this tool, analysts can concurrently work on process elements, ontology concepts, process annotation or constraint specification. The underlying formalism is not exposed in the Wiki pages, where natural language templates are used. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Semantic annotations provide precise meaning to business process elements, enabling reasoning on properties and constraints. Among the obstacles preventing widespread adoption of semantic annotations are the technical skills required for the semantics formalization and the difficulty of reconciling different analysts viewpoints.We support business analysts in the collaborative annotation of processes with a tool based on aWiki‐pages model. Hiding the underlying formalism, it allows analysts to concurrently work on process elements, ontology concepts, process annotation or constraint specification. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.