DACH Thesis: Comparing Modeling & Modularization Approaches: BPMN vs. Petri Nets

Broadpin is an international consulting company for Oracle solutions, formed through the merger of PROMATIS, Project Partners, Quistor, and PITSS, supporting clients across a wide range of industries with business process excellence and digital transformation programs. In our Platforms & Development business unit, we develop Horus® products for business process management. The new, web-based Horus® enables collaborative modeling as well as efficient browsing and presentation of modeled content. 

Business operations within companies are becoming increasingly complex and must be able to adapt to constantly changing conditions. This complexity is also reflected in companies' process models and can, in part, be captured using Digital Twins of the Organization (DTO). Various notations are fundamentally suitable for modeling such a DTO, often based on Petri nets, EPCs, or BPMN 2.0. All these notations offer concepts for modularization¹. Based on an eye-tracking study conducted in cooperation with the University of St. Gallen, a previous thesis specifically examined the comprehensibility of models based on BPMN 2.0 with artifacts. The study examined model comprehensibility with more than 40 participants. 

As part of a thesis project, the comprehensibility of hierarchical modeling approaches is to be examined based on an eye-tracking study. BPMN and Petri nets will be compared as the two approaches. 

Tasks

• Creating a representative BPMN model and a content-equivalent hierarchical Petri net as the basis for comparison 
• Defining measurement and evaluation criteria to examine the comprehensibility of the modeling notations in an empirical study 
• Developing the technical means to carry out such a comparison practically with reasonable effort 
• Conducting empirical comparison with representative user groups 
• Evaluating the results and providing an assessment and interpretation of findings 

• You are studying Computer Science or a related field 
• You have experience with HTML and JavaScript; knowledge of Angular and TypeScript is a plus 
• You have already worked with Java 
• Experience with JPA, the Spring Framework, and client-server architecture is a plus 
• You have experience with larger software projects and version control (SVN, Git, etc.) 
• The thesis can be written in German or English 

Context 

The new, web-based Horus enables collaborative modeling and communication between users and supports the search for and efficient presentation of modeled content. The web interface is implemented based on Angular, while the backend is implemented in Java and the Spring Framework, with data stored in a database. 

• Close collaboration with various local universities (we can help you find an academic supervisor at KIT/HSKA) 

• Flexible working hours 
• Close collaboration with our experienced team members 
• Frequent team events 
• Opportunities for a student position or internship 
• Excellent prospects for a permanent position after graduatio

1 Reijers, H. A., Mendling, J., & Dijkman, R. M. (2011). Human and automatic modularizations of process models to enhance their comprehension. Information Systems, 36(5), 881-897.