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Abstract : |
Recently many process modelling approaches have been developed. However, in most of these approaches, it is often assumed that the processes in an organisation are clearly defined, and therefore the emphasis of process modelling is often put on the final representation of the organisational process. However, in reality, processes are often not clearly defined. It is important to provide mechanisms to capture the processes. In this paper, we present an approach, called OBM, which provides a means to gradually identify the details of the processes in an organisation and develops the detailled representation of the organisational process by refinement. OBM is a method for developing models of organisational process. In OBM, a process model is developed at different levels. Each level may be composed of several components. Each component at level i may be refined in a subsequent level. The consistency between the level i component and its level i+1 refinement is checked. OBM provides constructs which can be used to model abstract behaviour and detailled behaviour including an agent's behaviour and activities. For refinement purposes, OBM also provides composition and hiding facilities. The semantics of the OBM constructs are defined in a linear time temporal logic. In this paper, we will use an example to explain how a process model may be gradually refined in OBM. 1.1 Introduction and Background, |
