The Representation of Human Choices in Business Process Models

Tasks and artifacts are recognized as first-class citizens in business processes but there is still no consensus on how to represent them. This paper proposes a notation, named ENTA, which allows both task-centric models and artifact-centric ones to be defined. The major contribution is the emphasis placed on human-centric processes and, in particular, on the choices under the responsibility of the participants. The consequences are a strong connection between tasks and business entities and the introduction of structures of work encompassing all the tasks that have some common input entities. An example related to an order handling business process is used to present the major features of the notation.