On the Automatic Labeling of Process Models - Advanced Information Systems Engineering - page 513

labels. As a final step, we inspected each model manually. Based on this proce-
dure, we were able to develop a classification of naming strategies. Five different
approaches were observed including Dominating Element, Main Activity, Start or
End Events, Conjunction of Activities, and Semantic Naming. Figure 1 illustrates
some of these strategies, which we now aim to describe.
1. Dominating Element: If one particular business object or action is men-
tioned more often in activity labels than any other business object or action,
this element is considered to be a dominating element. In the analyzed pro-
cess model collections dominating elements were often used for naming the
process model if such a dominating element existed. The example in Figure 1
has Material Price as such a dominating element.
2. Main Activity: Some of the analyzed processes contain one particular ac-
tivity that is of central importance. The remaining activities have the char-
acter of side activities supporting, preparing or evaluating the result of this
activity. Figure 1 is a good example since Change in Material Price has such
characteristics. The process also contains an activity which is concerned with
activating the future material price. However, from the choice of the mod-
eler we can assume that this activity only plays a subordinate role, while the
focus is on the activity of changing the material price.
3. Start or End Events: Especially when the state at the beginning or at the
end of process define the overall goal of the process, the name of the whole
model may be closely related to them. In Figure 1 this is visible in the start
event Future Material Price must be activated and the end event Material
price has been changed .
4. Conjunction of Activities: If the same action is performed on different
business objects or different actions are applied on the same business object,
these activities can be easily described in terms of a conjunction. Even whole
activity labels may be connected if the resulting name is not too complex.
For Figure 1, this would yield Activate and Change Material Price .
5. Semantic Naming: The previously introduced concepts always explicitly
refer to the textual description of at least one element in the process model.
By contrast, the concept of semantic naming does not refer to one or more
model elements, but uses the broader context of the activities for naming
the process model. This can be appropriate if there is a part-of relationship
between the activities and the name of the process [8]. Hence, the process
name, which is itself representing an activity, subsumes the given activities
in the model. As an example, consider the SAP Process Shipping . It consists
of five events and the two activities Delivery for Returns and Goods Receipt
Processing for Returns . Apparently, the action shipping is not mentioned
in any of the process elements. Nevertheless, shipping can be considered
as a more general concept in semantic terms, which implies delivery and
goods receipt. Clearly, the derivation of semantic names requires external
knowledge, e.g. in terms of an ontology, and cannot be directly derived from
the activity names.