Experimental Evaluation of Collaborative Design Features for Process Modelling

Dr. Jan Recker, for their backup in various aspects. First of all, for raising my interest in business process management and giving me the possibility to write my master thesis in-for me-such an interesting topic. Second, for supporting and enabling my research stay abroad at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Third, offering me the freedom to explore this topic in my way. This also includes the support given in times when I began to doubt the chosen approach. Your encouragement and trust in me meant very much to me. And not to forget, all the valuable input, ideas and feedback as well as the time for meetings and calls you invested. I know that this is not the normal case and I do not want to take this for granted! Second, I want to thank all people that supported me on my way up until now and made this work possible. In particular, my friends and colleagues for feedback, proofreading and their support. Additionally, thanks to all who participated in the experiments or related pre-studies. Of course, I want to thank my family for being as appreciative and supporting as they were in the last couple of months. At last, I want to thank Julia for her support and appreciation although the time has not been easy for us lately.ABSTRACT Abstract Process modeling is an important design practice in intra-but also in inter-organizational process improvement projects. Inter-organizational process modeling often requires collaboration support for distributed participants. We present the results of seven quasi-experiments of process modeling on basis of collaborative technology. Particularly, we examine a group of process modelers that rely on a collaborative modeling editor to complete a process modeling task in a simulated remote setting. Thereby, we can observe the key phases and tasks of collaborative process modeling, the breakdowns encountered and workarounds employed by the participants. Furthermore, we gather data subject to participants perceptions in order to identify factors influencing the continued usage of collaboration technology support. With our study, we provide a first understanding of the IT-enabled process of process modeling, and detail a set of guidelines and implications for the research and design of collaborative process modeling.