Process Modeling – A Maturing Discipline?

A plethora of process modeling techniques has been proposed since Petri nets were introduced in 1962. One way of evaluating and comparing the scope and completeness of these techniques is by way of ontological analysis, a method which has gained popularity in the last decade. The purpose of this paper is to gauge the level of maturity of process modeling techniques over the last four decades of development. The basis of the comparison is the BungeWand-Weber set of models, a popular benchmark used for the analysis of grammars that purport to model the real world and the interactions within it. This paper presents the outcomes of a comparison of ontological analyses of the most popular process modeling techniques. This research has two main outcomes. First, it provides insights, within the boundaries of an ontological analysis, into the extent to which process modeling techniques are maturing over time. Second, the findings also indicate areas in which the underlying reference ontology seems to be over-engineered. These latter findings will be the basis of the development of a Business Process Modeling-specific ontology that is the core of our future research in this area.