Semantic Annotation for Process Models: - Department of Computer ...

8 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
semantics specifies how to derive its logical consequences, i.e. facts not literally present
in the ontology, but entailed by the semantics [195]. As a result of this research, the
management of distributed process models can be operated through the Web within
or across applications and systems. It is reasonable and feasible in that Internet and
Intranet are so pervasive in enterprises and the Web provides a good platform to share
distributed information. Moreover, the Semantic Web technology is already applied
in cooperative business and industries for the interoperability as a technical standard.
OWL is consequently chosen in this thesis to define ontologies and annotation models
in order to make use of the Semantic Web technology.
Semantics of different models are reconciled through annotation. The annotation
information is represented in a machine-interpretable way for a common platform – the
Semantic Web. Process knowledge is exposed by annotation and it is organized in a
semantic annotation model. Then the process knowledge can be inferred based on the
definitions of ontologies. Such knowledge will enable applications to better understand
process models and to use them more intelligently, which is also the goal of the Semantic
Web research [52]. The applicability of the proposal is validated through a walkthrough
scenario of a process management application.
1.5 Research Method
The research methods applied in this work consist of a descriptive analysis phase, a
normative development, an implementation phase and an evaluation phase. All together
the phases include the following steps.
1. The survey of the state-of-the-art step includes investigation and analysis of the
semantic representations of process models, semantic interoperability and process
ontologies, semantic annotation methods, and knowledge management.
2. The analysis of requirements step includes an inventory of the problems about
the semantic heterogeneity of process models with regard to process knowledge
management and an analysis of raised requirements on semantic annotation tool.
3. The development of the approach step includes the specification of the semantic
annotation framework, the design of the annotation approach, the efforts to generalize
the ontological specifications for process modeling and goal modeling, and
the definitions of mapping rules involved in the annotation process.
4. The prototype application step includes development and implementation of the
prototypical environment for the process models and knowledge management
based on the results of the previous steps.
5. The quality evaluation and applicability analysis step includes the evaluation of
the proposed framework and approach using a quality framework based on the
observations from a walkthrough scenario of a process knowledge management
application.