Business Process and Business Rule Modeling: A Representational Analysis

Process modeling and rule modeling languages are both used to document organizational policies and procedures. However, little work has been done to understand their synergies and overlap. Understanding the relationship between the two modeling types would allow organizations to maximize synergies and reduce their modeling effort. In this paper we use the well-established Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) representation theory to compare the representation capabilities of both types of languages. We perform a representational analysis of two rule modeling languages, viz., SRML and SBVR. We compare their representation capabilities with those of four popular conceptual business process modeling languages, and focus on the aspects of maximum ontological completeness and minimum ontological overlap. The outcome of this study shows that no single language is internally complete with respect to the BWW representation model and that a combination of two languages, viz. SRML and BPMN, is better suited for process modeling than any single modeling language.