Sensitive Business Processes: Characteristics, Representation, and Evaluation of Modeling Approaches

Abstract

This article presents a set of sensitive business process (SBP) modeling requirements and proposes a multi-criteria evaluation framework to appraise the expressiveness of currently widely used business process modelling formalisms to select the most suitable for SBP representation. The modelling of SBPs, be they process oriented or knowledge oriented, presents special requirements dictated by several factors: the highly dynamic complexity and flexibility of the processes; the high number of critical activities requiring intensive acquisition, sharing, storage and (re)use of very specific crucial knowledge; the specificity and diversity of information and knowledge sources; and the high degree of collaboration and interaction (intra/inter-organizational) among participants (who apply, create and share a great amount of very important tacit organizational knowledge, in order to achieve collective objectives and create value). As SBP models get more complex, the selection of the appropriate modeling formalism gains in importance to improve the identification of crucial knowledge that is mobilized and created by these processes. Furthermore, the result of the evaluation led us to justify the choice of the better one positioned nowadays, the standard BPMN 2.0. Besides, the authors have illustrated the practical applicability of this specification on a medical process in the context of the organization of protection of the motor disabled people of Sfax-Tunisia.