Towards the Definition and Analysis of Resource Assignments in BPMN 2.0 Introducing RAL

Resources and, specially, human resources are an important element in business process execution and should be considered also at design time (when modelling the processes). However, the resourcerelated support most business process modelling languages provide is quite vague, and the connection between business process models and organizational models is limited. In this paper we walk in this direction by defining the textual language RAL (Resource Assignment Language) to assign resources to the activities of a business process model, specifically as an extension of BPMN 2.0. We prove the expressiveness of this language using well-known Workflow Resource Patterns. Furthermore, we have developed an ontology-based approach to analyse resource assignments to obtain information useful for the organization that implements the process by means of description logic. Finally, the concept of consistency between a business process model and an organizational model is defined and applied.