Quality Marks, Metrics, and Measurement Procedures for Business Process Models − The 3QM-Framework

Sven Overhage, Dominik Q. Birkmeier, Sebastian Schlauderer

Business & Information System Engineering (2012) 4(5)

Appendix (available online via

3QM-Framework – Questioning Guideline

Part 1 – GeneralInformation

Before we start the study, please answer some questions about your experiences with conceptual models in general as well as business process models in particular and the quality determination of models. Please answer the questions as precisely as possible – if you are unsure, please make anestimate.

1)Which best characterizes your current profession?

Student

Academic

Professional Practitioner

2)What is your gender?

Female

Male

3)What is your age?

20 or younger

21 – 30

31 – 40

41 – 50

51 – 60

61 or older

4)What is the highest level of education you have completed?

High School (or equivalent)

Bachelor's Degree (or equivalent)

Master's Degree (or equivalent)

Doctoral Degree (or equivalent)

Other: ______

5)How many years of professional experience do you have?

less than 1 year

more than 1 year

more than 2 years

more than 5 years

more than 10 years

6)How many years of academic experience do you have?

less than 1 year

more than 1 year

more than 2 years

more than 5 years

more than 10 years

7)Since how many years do you work with conceptual models in general (data models, process models etc.)?

less than 1 year

more than 1 year

more than 2 years

more than 5 years

more than 10 years

8)Since how many years do you work with business process models in particular?

less than 1 year

more than 1 year

more than 2 years

more than 5 years

more than 10 years

9)Which activities did you participate in?

Model creation

Model validation / quality assurance

Model application (e.g. for software design, roll-out)

10)How complex were your models on average?

more than 10 elements

more than 20 elements

more than 50 elements

more than 100 elements

more than 500 elements

11)How familiar are you with conceptual modeling in general?

strongly familiar

familiar

somewhat familiar

neutral

somewhat non-familiar

non-familiar

strongly non-familiar

12)How familiar are you with business process modeling in particular?

strongly familiar

familiar

somewhat familiar

neutral

somewhat non-familiar

non-familiar

strongly non-familiar

13)How familiar are you with the quality assurance / assessment of models?

strongly familiar

familiar

somewhat familiar

neutral

somewhat non-familiar

non-familiar

strongly non-familiar

14)How many approaches to assess the quality of conceptual models in general do you know?

none

less than 2

less than 5

less than 10

less than 20

more than 20

15)How many approaches to assess the quality of business process models do you know?

none

less than 2

less than 5

less than 10

less than 20

more than 20

16)Which best characterizes these approaches?

Scientific Approach

Industry Standard

Proposal in Literature

Corporate-specific Approach (Consultancy / Inhouse)

Other: ______

Part 2 – Importance of 3QM Quality Marks

Consider the quality marks of the 3QM-Framework. Please judge the importance of every quality mark based on your experiences on quality assessment.

17)Which of the following do you perceive to be important marks to describe the general quality of a conceptual model?

Syntactics

Semantics

Pragmatics

18)Which of the following do you perceive to be important marks to describe the syntactic quality of a conceptual model?

Word syntax

Sentence-level syntax

Text syntax

19)Do you have any additional suggestions to documentthe syntax of a conceptual model?

______

20)Which of the following do you perceive to be important marks to describe the semantic quality of a conceptual model / business process model?

Completeness

Correctness

Relevance

Flexibility

21)Do you have any additional suggestions to documentthe semantics of a conceptual model?

______

22)Which of the following do you perceive to be important marks to describe the pragmatic quality of a conceptual model?

Unambiguousness

Understandability

23)Do you have any additional suggestions to documentthe pragmatics of a conceptual model?

______

Part 3 – Importance of 3QM Quality Metrics

Consider the quality metrics of the 3QM-Framework. Based on your experiences, do you need anything else to judge the quality of a model? Please comment on possible improvements and extensions.

24)Besides thecounting of originalandrepeatedviolations: do you have any additional suggestions to document the word/sentence-level/text syntax of a conceptual model?

______

25)Besides the counting of activities, events, flowconditions, organizationalunits, dataobjects, data objectstates, dataflows, and controlflows: do you have any additional suggestions to document the completeness, correctness, and relevance of a business process model?

______

26)Besides the counting of constraints: do you have any additional suggestions to document the flexibility of a business process model?

______

27)Besides the counting of redundanciesandcontradictions: do you have any additional suggestions to document the unambiguousness of a conceptual model?

______

28)Besides the counting of non-normalized andinconsistent labels: do you have any additional suggestions to document the understandability of a conceptual model?

______

3QM-Framework – AHP Guideline

Please use the following AHP scale for all pairwise comparisons:

1)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality mark to describe the general quality of a conceptual model?

2)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality markto describe the syntactic quality of a conceptual model?

3)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality markto describe the semantic quality of a conceptual model / business process model?

4)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality markto describe the pragmatic quality of a conceptual model?


5)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality metricto document the syntax of words/sentences/text of a conceptual model?

6)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality metricto document the completeness, correctness, and relevance of a business process model?

7)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality metricto document the clearness of a conceptual model?

8)Compared to criterion A, how important is criterion B as a quality metricto document the understandability of a conceptual model?