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Meta Model Extensibility of BPMN: Current Limitations and Proposed Improvements

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  • First Online:
Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development (MODELSWARD 2015)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 580))

Abstract

The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is the prevalent conceptual modeling language for business process modeling and process analysis. BPMN benefits from its expressiveness and the well-defined meta model, which is defined by the Meta Object Facility (MOF). The emergence of BPMN entails an increasing demand for language extensions in order to both benefit from the dissemination and apposite concepts. Although BPMN is one of very few languages that explicitly provides capabilities for its extension, the proposed mechanism reveals some shortcomings and inaccuracies concerning model abstractions, specificity and semantical clarity. A list of improvable aspects is hence provided based on an in-depth analysis of the extension mechanism. The analysis has a special focus on the abstract syntax (BPMN meta model). Several techniques for enhanced BPMN extension design are proclaimed by adapting alternative mechanisms for language extensibility: Profiling, under specification (hooking) and annotation (plug-ins and add-ons). The stated mechanisms are partly adapted from other modeling languages (profiling) or the field of Software Engineering (hooking, plug-ins, add-ons). Each approach is described by its core concepts, its application and by some examples. The approaches are finally compared regarding several criteria.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hooking is similar the instantiation and specification technique from reference modeling [23, 24].

  2. 2.

    In contrast to the previous work in [8], only extensibility of the abstract syntax is considered. Neither the concrete syntax, procedural aspects or issues regarding extension exchangeability are considered due to space limitations.

  3. 3.

    Hooks are alternatively referred as extension points [22] or hot spots [31].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Wirtschaftsinformatik, esp. Systems Development, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    Richard Braun

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  1. Richard Braun
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Correspondence to Richard Braun .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. SOFTEAM, Paris, France

    Philippe Desfray

  2. Department of Systems and Informatics, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Setúbal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

  3. MODESTE/ESEO, Angers, France

    Slimane Hammoudi

  4. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Luís Ferreira Pires

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Braun, R. (2015). Meta Model Extensibility of BPMN: Current Limitations and Proposed Improvements. In: Desfray, P., Filipe, J., Hammoudi, S., Pires, L. (eds) Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development. MODELSWARD 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 580. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27869-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27869-8_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27869-8

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