Social Software for Modeling Business Processes

The aim of this paper is to show how the use of social networks may help users to behave as modelers they trust. Users are guided in this respect within the context of an existing Recommendation-Based Process Modeling Support System to which “social” features are added. Two kinds of social networks are used to this end: (1) a social network from a process model repository and (2) a social network from a recommendation history. The social network from process models provides an organizational view of business processes. An example of the information that could be derived from such a network is the average distance between performers who belong to part of business process that is already modeled and the ones who belong to a candidate process. A user can apply this result to complete a process model in a way that is similar to earlier selected solutions. The social network from recommendation history shows the relationship among modelers who use the recommendation system. From its usage history, social networks can be generated that express the similarity between its nodes (users). Both approaches are presented as effective ways to exploit social relationships in capturing business processes in conceptual models, one of the key activities in the BPM domain.