Instances over Algorithms: A Different Approach to Business Process Modeling

Most of today's approaches to business process modeling interpret processes as algorithms. As a result, modelers often try to cover every possible outcome of a process. This algorithmic view increases the amount of information that has to be captured and reviewed. As an alternative, we propose to focus on exemplary process instances instead. We call this concept Exemplary Modeling and have built a modeling method around it. In this paper we explain its merits and illustrate its feasibility by reporting on our practical experience.