A knowledge-based consulting system for process modeling in systems analysis

When developing information systems, data modeling and process modeling are two the major tasks involved. These two tasks are quite knowledge- and exp erience-intensive, thus requiring the expertise of skilled professionals. I n data modeling, there have been some efforts in building knowledge-based s ystems in the literature. Yet, little attention has been paid to process mo deling in the academic literature as well as in industry. In this paper, a heuristic model is developed for process modeling as conceptual specificati ons. This model is composed of various tasks in process modeling. Each conc eptualization of a task provides a building block for implementing a system for process modeling. The model consists of three major tasks: goal analys is, process analysis, and goal and process interaction analysis. This heuri stic model is characterized in terms of generic tasks and their structures. These three major tasks are further decomposed into smaller generic tasks. Protocol analysis of human experts was extensively used for identifying an d conceptualizing the generic tasks in process modeling. Once the model was conceptualized, a computer system, process consulting system (PCS), was im plemented using Lisp. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.