Meta-process modeling

Meta-process modeling is a type of metamodeling used in software engineering and systems engineering for the analysis and construction of models applicable and useful to some predefined problems.

Meta-process modeling supports the effort of creating flexible process models. The purpose of process models is to document and communicate processes and to enhance the reuse of processes. Thus, processes can be better taught and executed. Results of using meta-process models are an increased productivity of process engineers and an improved quality of the models they produce.

Meta-process modeling focuses on and supports the process of constructing process models. Its main concern is to improve process models and to make them evolve, which in turn, will support the development of systems. This is important due to the fact that "processes change with time and so do the process models underlying them. Thus, new processes and models may have to be built and existing ones improved". "The focus has been to increase the level of formality of process models in order to make possible their enactment in process-centred software environments".

A process meta-model is a meta model, "a description at the type level of a process model. A process model is, thus, an instantiation of a process meta-model. [..] A meta-model can be instantiated several times in order to define various process models. A process meta-model is at the meta-type level with respect to a process."

There exist standards for several domains:

There are different techniques for constructing process models. "Construction techniques used in the information systems area have developed independently of those in software engineering. In information systems, construction techniques exploit the notion of a meta-model and the two principal techniques used are those of instantiation and assembly. In software engineering the main construction technique used today is language-based. However, early techniques in both, information systems and software engineering were based on the experience of process engineers and were, therefore, ad hoc in nature."

"Traditional process models are expressions of the experiences of their developers. Since this experience is not formalised and is, consequently, not available as a fund of knowledge, it can be said that these process models are the result of an ad hoc construction technique. This has two major consequences: it is not possible to know how these process models were generated, and they become dependent on the domain of experience. If process models are to be domain independent and if they are to be rapidly generable and modifiable, then we need to go away from experience based process model construction. Clearly, generation and modifiability relate to the process management policy adopted (see Usage World). Instantiation and assembly, by promoting modularization, facilitate the capitalisation of good practice and the improvement of given process models."

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