On the usability of business process modelling tools - a review and future research directions

Abstract

The choice of a business process modelling (BPM) tool in combination with the selection of a modelling language is one of the crucial steps in BPM project preparation. Different aspects influence the decision: tool functionality, price, modelling language support, etc. In this paper we discuss the aspect of usability, which has already been recognized as an important topic in software engineering and web design. We conduct a literature review to find out the current state of research on the usability in the BPM field. The results of the literature review show, that although a number of research papers mention the importance of usability for BPM tools, real usability evaluation studies have rarely been undertaken. Based on the results of the literature analysis, the possible research directions in the field of usability of BPM tools are suggested.