Semantic Business Process Representation to Enhance the Degree of BPM Mechanization - An Ontology

Business process management is still characterized by a low degree of mechanization. One of the main causes is a lack of an appropriate semantic representation for business process models and execution data unified in a single ontology. Many researchers addressed this problem but the ontologies proposed so far define a proprietary property called "occurrence Of" to link a process model to its execution data. In this paper we we propose an alternative approach based on a multilayer representation using an is-a relation instead. This is cognitively more adequate and allows to use standard reasoning mechanisms. We show how OWL-FA enables a semantic representation of the metamodel in an ontology, providing decidable reasoners. We present a case study and we address the semantic issue with a detailed analysis. We show how it is possible to answer some queries with the support of this ontology, demonstrating how our ontology can be a suitable tool to enhance the mechanization of business process management.