CogBPMN: Representing Human-computer Symbiosis in the Cognitive Era

The human-computer symbiosis is a core principle of Cognitive Computing where humans and computers are coupled very tightly, and the resulting partnership presents new ways for the human brain to think and computers to process data. Business Process Management (BPM) provides methods and tools to represent, review, and discuss business domains, considering their knowledge, context, people, computer systems, and so on. Such methods and tools will be affected by advances in Cognitive Computing. Business Process Modeling notations need to support discussion and representation of human-computer symbiosis in any given organizational context. We propose CogBPMN, a set of cognitive recommendation subprocesses types that can be used to represent human-computer symbiosis in business process models. With CogBPMN, business stakeholders and Cognitive Computing specialists can understand how business processes can thrive by considering cognitive empowerment in organizations’ core processes. We discuss the proposed cognitive subprocesses in a medical domain use case.