Business Processes to Touch: Engaging Domain Experts in Process Modelling

This demo paper presents an interactive tabletop interface with tangi- ble building blocks to engage business domain experts in process modelling. This interface, called Metasonic Touch, is a commercial product based on results of the European research project IANES (Interactive Acquisition, Negotiation and Enactment of Subject-Oriented Business Process Knowledge). BPM conference attendees will be able to use Metasonic Touch and experience the ease and play- fulness with which it allows collaboratively modelling, understanding and dis- cussing a process. The target audience includes BPM researchers and practition- ers interested in agile and stakeholder-oriented approaches to process modelling. Business process modelling is generally most effective when it can draw on the do- main knowledge of those directly involved in the process. This can be achieved in var- ious ways. Many BPM projects use process modelling experts that perform one-on-one interviews with the domain experts or facilitate a series of modelling sessions in which several domain experts come together to negotiate a common view of the global process model. In both cases, it is the process modelling experts who ultimately produce the model based on their interpretation of the domain experts' views. One disadvantage of this approach is that the modelling expert becomes a filter and bottleneck for the capture of process knowledge from the stakeholders. The tool presented in this demo departs from this traditional way of process model- ling. It aims to improve stakeholder involvement by lowering the barrier for domain experts without formal training in process modelling. It is based on a combination of two innovative approaches: