Process modeling is useful during the analysis and design of systems. Prior research acknowledges both impediments to process modeling that limits its use as well as customizations that can be employed to help improve the creation of process models. However, no research to date has provided a rich examination of the linkages between perceived process modeling impediments and process modeling customizations. In order to help address this gap, we first conceptualized perceived impediments to using process models as a “lack of fit” between process modeling and another factor: 1) the role the process model is intended for; and 2) the task at hand. We conducted a case study at two large health insurance carriers to understand why the lack of fit existed and then show different types of process modeling customizations used to address the lack of fit and found a variety of “physical” and “process” customizations employed to overcome the lack of fits. We generalize our findings into propositions for future research that examinethe dynamic interaction between process models and their need to be understood by individuals during systems analysis and design.

Time provides context for all our experiences, cognition, and coordinated collective action. Prior research in linguistics, artificial intelligence, and temporal databases suggests the need to differentiate between temporal facts with goal-related semantics (i.e., telic) from those are intrinsically devoid of culmination (i.e., atelic). To differentiate between telic and atelic data semantics in conceptual database design, we propose an annotation-based temporal conceptual model that generalizes the semantics of a conventional conceptual model. Our temporal conceptual design approach involves: 1) capturing "what" semantics using a conventional conceptual model; 2) employing annotations to differentiate between telic and atelic data semantics that help capture "when" semantics; 3) specifying temporal constraints, specifically nonsequenced semantics, in the temporal data dictionary as metadata. Our proposed approach provides a mechanism to represent telic/atelic temporal semantics using temporal annotations. We also show how these semantics can be formally defined using constructs of the conventional conceptual model and axioms in first-order logic. Via what we refer to as the "semantics of composition," i.e., semantics implied by the interaction of annotations, we illustrate the logical consequences of representing telic/atelic data semantics during temporal conceptual design.

While many real-world applications need to organize data based on space (e.g., geology, geomarketing, environmental modeling) and/or time (e.g., accounting, inventory management, personnel management), existing conventional conceptual models do not provide a straightforward mechanism to explicitly capture the associated spatial and temporal semantics. As a result, it is left to database designers to discover, design, and implement - on an ad hoc basis - the temporal and spatial concepts that they need. We propose an annotation-based approach that allows a database designer to focus first on nontemporal and nongeospatial aspects (i.e., "what") of the application and, subsequently, augment the conceptual schema with geospatiotemporal annotations (i.e., "when" and "where"). Via annotations, we enable a supplementary level of abstraction that succinctly encapsulates the geospatiotemporal data semantics and naturally extends the semantics of a conventional conceptual model. An overarching assumption in conceptual modeling has always been that expressiveness and formality need to be balanced with simplicity. We posit that our formally defined annotation-based approach is net only expressive, but also straightforward to understand and implement.