Conclusions and Future Work

Conclusions and Future Work

At this moment in time the software is at the  level of being able to animate a workflow.  It is
assumed that the Second Life account has inventory with process resources that contain the
appropriate animations to be executed as scripts.  So this tool can be used to provide 3D avatar
centered visualizations, showing an avatar executing a workflow process in a 3D virtual
environment.  Thus, a workflow in principle can be designed within a standard 2D tool, such as
the YAWL workflow editor, and then be visualized in a 3D environment for communication and
validation processes.

The major work to be performed in the future is to generalize the interface to show avatars
making choices (programmed as instances of workflows), avatars interfacing with each other (to
show the exchange of work between people in process models), and to develop representations
of the internal IT infrastructure represented  in the visualization (e.g., representations of
transaction status).  In addition, deeper theoretical questions need to be answered about the data
models required for such visualizations, what visualizations are required for different roles within
the process development lifecycle, and how these 3D visualizations of process models can be
rigorously used in validation and communication processes for the benefit of all process
stakeholders.

We welcome any feedback on this work, and the  intended direction of our Business Process
Visualization research program.
Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Jan Recker, for proof reading this article.
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Author
Ross Brown is a Senior Lecturer within the  Faculty of Science and Technology, Queensland
University of Technology, Brisbane, where he is the Software Technologies Coordinator for the
Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment. He is also a member of the Business Process
Management (BPM) Research Cluster at QUT.  He can be reached at: r.brown@qut.edu.au