PD Dr. Patrick Delfmann
DEPARTMENT FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CENTER FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS (ERCIS)
UNIVERSITY OF MÜNSTER (WWU)
_____________________________________________________________________
Information Modelling
Exercise: Semantic Standardisation of Conceptual Models
Please analyse the following currency control process model of a payment business process,
which originates from a real-world modelling project of the SAP Company. The construction
process of this model was only accompanied by weak modelling conventions. This means that
the underlying domain vocabulary was not explicated, and there existed only implicit phrase
structure conventions for the captions of model elements.
Task 1: Phrase Structures
Analyse the process model regarding the phrase structures used in functions and events. Extract the phrase structures used in the model and derive phrase structure categories, differentiated in function and event categories. In a second step, try to cluster the phrase structure categories according to their ability to express similar statements. For instance, the phrase structure types <verb><noun><noun> and <verb><noun> could be subsumed in the same cluster. As a third step, propose a restricted set of standardised phrase structure types that could
serve as modelling conventions.
Task 2: Domain Vocabulary
Analyse the given process model according to the domain terms used within it. Are there redundancies or synonyms respectively? Propose a domain thesaurus that contains verbs, nouns
and adjectives and – if necessary – mark dominant synonyms. Are there terms that can be
omitted? Hint: You can take the abbreviations for granted.
Task 3: Semantically Standardized Process Model
Create a new process model using the phrase structures and the domain vocabulary from Task
1 and Task 2.
The results should be sent as a PDF file to [email protected]
until Thursday, 2012-06-21, 24h. You can use the EPC template from former exercises for
Task 3.
1/3
Document was
send to currency
control
Check on
accordance with
SettleDoc
Checking of
BaseDoc passed
Checking of
BaseDoc failed
Check on
accordance with
legislation orded
of PD execution
Checking of
execution order
passed
Checking of
execution order
failed
Check
completeness &
validity of
requisites
Checking of
requisites passed
CCT was
absent/invalid
Checking of
requisites failed
Put CCT
manually
Change
operation status
to "Authorization
passed"
Change
operation status
to "Authorization
failed"
Operation
passed
authorization
Failed currency
control
Select operations
to DBCT
Necessary
operations were
selected
Survey
operations in
DBCT
Figure 1: Process Model Part 1
2/3
Some operations
need to be edited
Operations don't
need to be edited
Edit operations in
DBCO
Operations were
edited
Check: all
necessary
operations were
selected
Not all needed
operations
selected
All needed
operations
selected
Manually add
operations to
DBCO
Operations were
added to DBCO
Check: odd
operations
selected
Some odd
operations
selected
No odd
operations
selected
Manually delete
odd operations
from DBCO
Odd operations
were deleted
Send document
back with
autorithasion
passed
Passed currency
control
Figure 2: Process Model Part 2
3/3