TY - JOUR SN - 0306-4379 AU - Leopold, Henrik AU - Mendling, Jan AU - Reijers, Hajo A. AU - La Rosa, Marcello T1 - Simplifying process model abstraction: Techniques for generating model names JF - Information Systems SP - 134 EP - 151 VL - 39 PY - 2014 KW - Business process model KW - Model abstraction KW - Model name KW - Process model repository KW - Refactoring AB - The increased adoption of business process management approaches, tools, and practices has led organizations to accumulate large collections of business process models. These collections can easily include from a hundred to a thousand models, especially in the context of multinational corporations or as a result of organizational mergers and acquisitions. A concrete problem is thus how to maintain these large repositories in such a way that their complexity does not hamper their practical usefulness as a means to describe and communicate business operations. This paper proposes a technique to automatically infer suitable names for business process models and fragments thereof. This technique is useful for model abstraction scenarios, as for instance when user-specific views of a repository are required, or as part of a refactoring initiative aimed to simplify the repository’s complexity. The technique is grounded in an adaptation of the theory of meaning to the realm of business process models. We implemented the technique in a prototype tool and conducted an extensive evaluation using three process model collections from practice and a case study involving process modelers with different experience. TS - BibTeX DO - 10.1016/j.is.2013.06.007 M4 - Citavi ER -