User Guidance in Business Process Modelling

Business process modelling is referred to as a complex, time consuming, and error prone task. The correction and improvement of badly designed process models becomes increasingly expensive in the later phases of the process management life cycle. This thesis develops the principles of guided process modelling and provides a contribution towards simplifying process modelling activities. The general research question this thesis answers is what are the difficulties in the usage of process modelling tools and which methods, techniques, and tools can guide users in modelling processes to target the existing problems. The question is addressed by following a research methodology of design sciences. Amongst others, it includes a detailed analysis of the research problem, a definition of the objective, the design and development of solutions, and an evaluation of the developed concepts. In summary, the thesis presents innovative concepts to support modellers and provides a step towards end-user enablement in process modelling.