Ontology-Based Business Processes Gap Analysis

Business processes are subject to change for quality reasons (i.e., efficiency). However, the gap analysis process is a preliminary and essential step in discovering the gap between the to-be and as-is business processes. It usually resorts to a nonstandard and manual analysis process, making it unpredictable and complex. This paper proposes a standard method based on ontology principles and the business process design methodology (DEMO). The ontology unifies the shared vocabulary among worlds of source and target business process to enable this sort of interoperability. Building an essential model is a core concept behind DEMO that provides an ontological view independent of realization and implementation issues and enables understanding of the enterprises' behavior. Moreover, this paper provides heuristics for detecting gaps, based on the premise that producing similar institutional facts reflects similar behavior between the to-be and as-is business processes. Since the domains of the source and target are the same, it is also possible to compare the inputs of corresponding actions. The paper proposes a UML activity model for modeling business processes, enriched with DEMO concepts, to provide a foundational and informative ontology for reasoning about gaps. The expected outcome is a contribution to the broader community of business process management, ERP, and strategic planning, enabling more informed decision-making.

@article{Ali2025,
  title     = {Ontology-Based Business Processes Gap Analysis},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {16},
  number    = {4},
  year      = {2025},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Abdelgaffar Hamed Ahmed Ali},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2025.0160488},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2025.0160488}
}