Generating Natural-language Process Descriptions from Formal Process Definitions

Process models are often used to support the understanding and analysis of complex systems. The accuracy of such process models usually requires that domain experts carefully review, evaluate, correct, and propose improvements to these models. Domain experts, however, are often not experts in process modeling and may not even have any programming experience. Consequently, domain experts may not have the skills to understand the process models except at a relatively supercial level. To address this issue, we have developed an approach for automatically generating natural-language process descriptions based on formal process models. Unlike natural language process descriptions in existing electronic process guides, these process descriptions are generated completely automatically and can describe complex process features, such as exception handling, concurrency, and non-determinisitc choice. The generated process descriptions have been well-received by domain experts from several dierent elds, and they have also proven useful to process programmers.