Transaction based business process modeling

A term of transaction which has its origin in database processing, representing a set of operations that must be performed all or none of them. The notion of transaction is also used in some business process modeling approaches such as the DEMO (Design & Engineering Methodology for Organizations) and the REA (resource-event-agent) value modeling approach. The DEMO's transaction forms a basic building block from which a business process is composed. The REA value modeling approach utilizes transactions in an REA model representing a business process. In general, both methodologies utilize the notion of transaction, which has, however, a different meaning in these approaches. The aim of the paper is to describe the basic models of both approaches and to show, with the `rent-a-car' example, the principal differences between the notions of transaction between them. The paper also reflects on possible mutual collaboration between both approaches.