A Knowledge-based Approach to Business Process Analysis: from Informal to Formal

Business Process Analysis (BPA) is a strategic activity, nec-essary for enterprises to model their business operations. It is a centralactivity in information system development, but also for business pro-cess design and reengineering. Despite several decades of research, theeffectiveness of available BPA methods is still questionable. The major-ity of methodologies adopted by enterprises are rather qualitative andlack a formal basis, often yielding inadequate specifications. On the otherhand, there are methodologies with a solid theoretical background, butthey appear too cumbersome for the majority of enterprises. This paperproposes a knowledge framework, referred to as BPA Canvas, conceivedto be easily mastered by business people and, at the same time, basedon a sound formal theory. The methodology starts with the constructionof natural language knowledge artifacts and, then, progressively guidesthe user toward more rigorous structures. The formal approach of themethodology allows us to prove the correctness of the resulting knowl-edge base while maintaining the centrality of business people in the wholeknowledge construction process