Process and Process-Oriented Conceptual Modeling

This study has an interdisciplinary perspective that touches upon several fields of studies including software requirements, systems theory, ontology, process philosophy, and process techniques (e.g., a workflow). The purpose involves building a foundation for conceptual modeling as a high-level representation of a targeted domain in reality, focusing on key elements without delving into implementation details. The conceptual model is used to understand, communicate, and design systems in fields such as software engineering, database design, and business process management. Specifically, we focus on process-based conceptual modeling where, currently, a process is defined as a sequencing of tasks, actions, or operations that transform inputs into outputs to achieve a specific outcome. The aim of this paper is to provide a more general application of the notion of process with precise definitions based on the conceptual representation called thinging machine (TM) modeling. In the TM model, the world is abstracted as a composition of thimacs. A thimac is an assemblage of generic processes (of the doings) and generic things (of substance). It is an all-inclusive whole of five actions that encompass static and dynamic representational modes. The dynamic mode is constituted of five generic events and their multiplicity of constructs. We propose to define the notion of process in terms of TM events because these events form a generalized apparatus of the idea of sequencing actions that transform inputs into outputs. Such an understanding of processes is applied to a business process modeling and notation (BPMN) samples. The result seems to indicate the viability of developing a pure process modeling notation.