Extending the Adaptability of Reference Models

Reference models are an important aid for business process modeling and design. Their aim is to capture domain knowledge and assist in the design of enterprise-specific business processes. The application of reference models for process design requires guidance in reusing these models and flexibility in adapting them to specific enterprises. One popular modeling language for specifying reference models is event-driven process chain (EPC), which has been extended to express configurable reference models, i.e., configurable EPC (C–EPC). These models provide explicit reuse guidance but allow a limited level of flexibility following a reuse by configuration approach. To increase the level of adaptability of reference models, in this paper, we propose to utilize the application-based domain modeling (ADOM) approach to specify and apply reference models by using EPC. ADOM supports the enforcement of reference model constraints while allowing high levels of flexibility, adaptability, and variability in the business processes of particular enterprises. This paper presents the syntax and semantics of the proposed approach, called ADOM–EPC, and its specialization and configuration capabilities. ADOM–EPC is evaluated by comparing it to C–EPC, a leading approach for reference modeling and reuse, in terms of expressiveness and comprehensibility. Although the expressiveness of ADOM–EPC, i.e., its set of specified reuse operations, exceeds that of C–EPC, the understandability of the two types of reference models is similar.