Change Patterns in Use: A Critical Evaluation

TL;DR

This paper explores how process designers use change patterns in process modeling, revealing challenges with complex models and suggesting improvements for tool support to enhance usability.

Contribution

It provides an exploratory analysis of the challenges faced by designers when applying change patterns, especially in complex modeling scenarios.

Findings

Designers face few problems with simple control-flow models.

Complex, nested models pose significant challenges for change pattern application.

Effective tool support can mitigate usability issues in change pattern-based modeling.

Abstract

Process model quality has been an area of considerable research efforts. In this context, the correctness-by-construction principle of change patterns provides promising perspectives. However, using change patterns for model creation imposes a more structured way of modeling. While the process of process modeling (PPM) based on change primitives has been investigated, little is known about this process based on change patterns. To obtain a better understanding of the PPM when using change patterns, the arising challenges, and the subjective perceptions of process designers, we conduct an exploratory study. The results indicate that process designers face little problems as long as control-flow is simple, but have considerable problems with the usage of change patterns when complex, nested models have to be created. Finally, we outline how effective tool support for change patterns should be realized.