A Methodology to Manage Organizational Procedures Through Ontologies

Abstract

Organizations today need to maintain relationships with actors who intervene in the execution of key processes. This creates problems for the correct administration of the organization’s procedures and in administrating a shared jargon, increasing costs related to the procedures. The objective of this paper is to present the MONPRO methodology, which supports the management of organizational procedures through the creation of specific ontologies of the organizational domain (including employee jargon and natural language), allowing any person with knowledge in computer science to create ontologies, without needing to be an expert. MONPRO is composed of five phases. The activities in each of them define a series of forms and diagrams that lead the ontology developer to break down the procedure and obtain the necessary resources to build the ontology. To test the methodology, the Presentation and Defense of the Doctoral Thesis at UC3M procedure for the Carlos III University of Madrid, Leganes Campus, Spain was used. The results can, in general, have a positive impact, reducing costs for a company through their no longer requiring to hire experts to develop procedure ontologies, also reducing by approximately 43.8% the consultation time on procedures and establishing a common organizational language regardless of the jargon of a particular employee. In general, this research offers organizations the opportunity to improve operational procedures, giving their employees access to the standards of the organization using a natural language and its own jargon, increasing the quality of procedures.