BPMN model and text instructions automatic synchronization

Abstract

The proper representation of business processes is important for its execution and understanding. BPMN is the de facto standard notation for business process modeling. However, domain specialists, which are experts in the business, do not have necessarily the modeling skills to easily read a BPMN model. Natural language is easier to read for them. So, both model and text are necessary artifacts for a broad communication. However, unilateral manual editions of them may result in inconsistencies. This research proposes a framework for synchronizing BPMN model artifacts and its natural language text representation. It generates textual work instructions from the model, and it updates the original model if the textual instructions are edited. The framework was implemented using Java standard technology and evaluated through experiments. In the first experiment, we showed the knowledge represented by the textual work instructions and the correspondent process models are equivalent. Furthermore, in a second experiment, we showed our approach for maintaining the texts and models consistent performed satisfactory, where we verified the equivalence of the two artifacts.