On the Notion of Goal in Business Process Models

Business process modelling languages allow to capture business processes by embracing different paradigms, emphasising different business process elements or characteristics and exploiting different graphical notations. In the literature, several definitions of business process have been proposed which define business processes in terms of (some of) their components and participants. While some of these components, for instance activities or data objects, have been analysed from different perspectives and play a relevant part in the graphical design of a business process model, other relevant components remain in a shadowy area as they do not typically appear in the graphical design of a business process model nor in the annexed documentation. Typical examples of these shadowy elements are business process goals. As a result, while it is extremely clear and well agreed that business processes realise a business goal, it is somehow more difficult to state exactly what this business goal is, or if this business goal is unique. In this paper, we carry on an analysis of business process goals tailored to propose a classification of different types of goals that pertain to a business process.