A Generic Structure for Business Process Modeling

This article discusses the importance of business process modeling and proposes a generic structure for modeling business processes. The structure includes informational, behavioral, organizational, and functional parts. The article also compares different business process modeling techniques and emphasizes the need for formal and simple modeling methods. The generic structure is designed to facilitate the analysis, verification, and validation of business process models. The article concludes by highlighting the role of business process modeling in business process re-engineering.

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A generic structure for business process modeling
Introduction
From the article ‘a generic structure for business process modeling,' the authors, Fu-Ren et al.
(2002), describe business process modeling as the integration of the effective practices in the
industry. Research carried out by Fu-Ren et al. (2002) proposed a generic structure to be used in
modeling the business processes to capture the concepts which were essential in the process of
business modeling. This involved the informational, behavioral, organizational, and the
functional parts for modeling of the business processes which were identified and used in
constructing of a more generic structure of the business models (Fu-Ren et al. 2002, p. 46).
Romero-Hernández et al. similarly has researched the business process model with it involving
transparency, handling of information, time settlement, and also enhanced security. The
methodology carried in the research comprised of the incorporation of different improvements
strategies for the attributes achieved through the incorporation of an excellent continuous
processing model with a new account structure, an effective pre-settlement process, and also
transparency in the whole process of Business Process Modeling.
The author has also described ways through which the business process modeling approach may
be helpful to enhance the operations, security and also the reliability of the operations of business
processes. The business model is described to depend on the inside knowledge and may be case
specific. The paper has thrown light on how to make the business process model having one
entry and a one exit channel to be easier to control and at the same time reducing the errors and
the risks involved. The article has also described how the business process re-engineering
technique consists in capturing the processes which exist and presents the new methods

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appropriately. In this way, business process modeling has played an essential role in this way.
Fu-Ren et al. have also discussed the generic structure which is appropriate for the modeling of
the business processes. One of the significant issues involves representing the business processes
indifferent layers of its abstraction, whereas the other minimizes the barrier that is between the
representation of the analysis of the models through the verification and the embedding and
validation of the model (Fu-Ren et al. 2002, p. 78). The basic modeling technique is portrayed in
the order process of supply chain networks.
The Business Process Modeling methods have also been described to have a great impact on the
result of the improvement process initiative. They have been described to facilitate the
understanding of the business processes and helped in analyzing and improving of the existing
processes and the management monitoring of the business processes. The method used for
modeling is supposed to be formal and simple which will greatly benefit in the analysis modeling
of the ambiguous processes and the informal methods which are used (Fu-Ren et al. 2002, p.
120). Modeling is also described to be supportive in supporting automated inactions and the
process of manipulation. Business process modeling should have the additional features such as
completeness, efficacy, coherence, and comprehensibility. This also will involve the users who
need models permitting more interactions. In presentation of the business processes it is also
important to understand the accurate analysis and communication analysis. The business process
modeling methods also possess capabilities for facilitating the processes of alternative selection
and evaluation. Business process modeling also ensures there are effective guidelines for their
prospective users and the developers for the simulation process models. The business process
model methods have also been described in the article to view the processes of the businesses
from different perspectives and have different capabilities and features.

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The article has compared the different business process modeling methods which were
employed to bring about the emphases on the generic features used and that which utilizes the
crucial elements for the process presentation and also incorporate other process functions. It also
shows the order implementation process for the supply chain network which demonstrates the
features and the capabilities for the generic business process modeling method. The techniques
for the business process modeling are to consider different perspective to give out the complete
view of the process. Research carried out by Jimenez and Guillermo, the main perspectives from
the business process modeling techniques described are functional, behavioral, and
informational. The Functional involves the activities which are carried out and what entities of
information are essential for the effectiveness of the process (Jimenez and Guillermo, p. 366).
The article also describes the behavioral perspective to as the process activities which are
sequenced and the aspects of which they are carried out. The organizational focus majorly on the
main actions where and by whom they are performed in the process. Finally, the informational
perspective has been described to be focusing on the information entities of the process
manipulation and their relationships.
According to Kueng et al. (1996), the process modeling techniques can be well grouped
into four main areas; this includes; the activity-oriented ones which describe the business process
being a specific activity ordering, this offers general support in the refining of the process
models. The mechanistic, however, fails to represent the complexity of the work and fails to
signify how a particular work is and the implementation of the new business processes.
Secondly, the object-oriented techniques have been described to be based on the inheritance,
specialization, and encapsulation (Kueng et al. 1996, p.177). The principles which are object-
oriented apply to the modeling of the business processes. The role-oriented approaches suggest

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roles involved in a given range of activities and carry certain responsibilities. A set of the first
activities may be assigned to specific purposes, but they are not suitable in expressing the
complex sequence logic. Another approach described is the speech-act oriented activities which
are based on the speech act theory in the perspective of the language or action performed,
viewing of the process of communication in four ways that is performance, satisfaction,
agreement, and proposal. Even though the business process may also be considered as
communication between the performers and the customers, the modeling approach has not
provided entirely to help analyze the existing processes and the creation of new processes.
Similarly, research carried out by Krogstie, (2016), has also shown different process
modeling techniques by the eight perspectives of modeling. This includes; the behavioral,
communication, object-oriented, goal and rule, topological, functional, structural, and the actor
and rule. The behavioral Perspective often focuses on the states such as the entities, systems and
processes and the transformation between the states such as the Petri Net model. The structural
perspective then differs from the modeling function for it is based on the static aspects and the
functional modeling of the dynamics (Krogstie and John 2016, p.233). Object-oriented
perspectives often focus on the object tracking the events during the existence of the object such
as in the UML model. The communication perspective bases its concern on the language that
people use in coordinating of the actions and also commitments negotiation. The role and act
perspective focus on what is responsible for the practices performed. The activities which are
carried out by a certain role are placed together in a particular diagram such as the role-activity
diagram. Finally, the topological perspective deals with the behavior of certain settings rather
than the physical ones.

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The article also describes the comparisons of the business process models and show how
the methods used can be improved. The efforts which are needed in the synthesis of the various
emphases in developing more viable approaches capture the existing processes and come up with
the new processes which are required. The business processes models extensively discussed
include the IDEF0, IDEF1X, MAIS, REAL, Object- Oriented Modeling, Dynamic Modeling,
and AI. The author has described why the study of the process models is essential. Firstly, the
process models will help in identifying problematic areas within the whole process. Information
in it helps in the redesign process (Fu-Ren et al. 2002, p. 106). Secondly, it gives out the
database required in making of informed decisions about the incremental and the changes which
are radical. This helps in identifying the impact changes not only on certain activities but also on
the whole processes and the departments which are involved. In the whole process of setting an
improvement on the targets used in evaluating results, analysis of the business processes is
described as important to ensure there are more mechanisms which are sophisticated than the
static model's analysis, which is present in both the functional and the dynamic business process
models.
Based on the perspectives which are identified in the article, the transformation of the
qualitative estimates of the Business Process Management is based on the mentioned six
perspectives. As per the analysis of the business process models in the article, there is the
obtaining of the generic structure for the business process modeling. The structure has the
components which are mentioned in the perspectives. At least two different ways to view the
generic method of process modeling, this includes a meta-model which subsumes the existing
and the new business processing models that helps in the identification of different competencies
in the business processing model methods to make use of the strengths and also facilitate new

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Business Process Methods according to the essential concepts and the perspectives of the
process. The next step involves coming up with a generic Business Process Model method that
demonstrates its generality. The generic method of modeling ensures the features which are
suitable for the business process modeling such as the business process may be presented in
separate concerns and the multiple layers for abstraction and analyze them through verification
and validation of the Business Process Models that lower the barriers which exist between the
process representation and the analysis of the model.
The author has also noted that the business process modeling is essential within the life
cycle of business process re-engineering. The business process modeling which exists within the
business process remodeling plays a vital role in capturing of the existing processes through a
structural representation of the activities and the elements which are related. Additionally, it also
involves the representation of the new processes in a manner to evaluate their performances.
Business process re-engineering may also involve the analysis and capability of facilitating of
the process evaluation. To perform the processes, computer simulation has been regarded as
most applicable to know the progress of information technology (Fu-Ren et al. 2002, p. 86).
Business process modeling methods have also been emphasized on different perspectives by
different researchers in this field.
Conclusion
Generally, there are many Business Process Modeling techniques which are present each having
different features and limitations. This article addressed the various methods which are used in
the Business Process Modeling. The paper also provided different perspectives which are usually
incorporated in the techniques of modeling and comprehensive research for the different business
process modeling techniques. It’s therefore important for the designers to come with appropriate

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techniques of modeling. Even though the Business Process Reengineering methods have
advocated for different approaches in the process of modeling, most of them share the same task
and represents the processes (Fu-Ren et al. 2002, p. 466). In the representation of the processes,
the different methods used in modeling have been proposed by many researchers, however, to
make good use of the business process modeling techniques this article suggests a structure that
is generic to use in the modeling of the business processes and support of the business process
re-engineering. The generic Business Process Modeling have some features such as the
representation of the business processes and separating of the concerns and the several layers for
abstraction and also the lowering of barriers which exists between the representation of the
process model analysis through the embedding validation and the verification of the model. In
elaboration of the features, using an order accomplishment process in the supply chain networks
helps demonstrate how the generic Business Process Modeling works.

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References
Fu‐Ren Lin, Meng‐Chyn, Yang, Yu‐Hua, Pai, (2002) "A generic structure for business process
modeling", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 8 Issue: 1, pp.19-41,
https://doi.org/10.1108/14637150210418610
Jimenez, Guillermo. “Business Process Engineering.” Handbook of Research on Business
Process Modeling, pp. 366–383., doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-288-6.ch017.
Krogstie, John. “Quality of Business Process Models.” Quality in Business Process Modeling,
2016, pp. 53–102., doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42512-2_2.
Romero-Hernández, O., Miguel de Lascurain, M., Negron, D. M., Hernández, S. R., Medina, D.
G., Brun, A. A., . . . Silveira, J. E. (2008). Business process modelling for a central securities
depository. Business Process Management Journal, 14(3), 419-431.