Modelling the Process of Process Execution: A Process Model-Driven Approach to Customising User Interfaces for Business Process Support Systems

This paper presents a process-driven approach for developing the user interfaces (UIs) of business process execution frontends. It allows customising the UIs to the needs of individual users and processes. The approach is based on viewing UI behaviour as a process that can be modelled and executed in the same way as the core process: as a sequence of steps, each of which is associated with a business object that describes the UI content in terms of the information displayed to the user. As both the UI process and the core process are run on the same business process engine, the two processes can interact smoothly using existing backend functionalities. The approach is demonstrated using a manufacturing scenario where shopfloor workers are provided with simple UIs on mobile devices to support the execution of a production process.