Language and User Requirements for Business Process Simulation – A Systematic Literature Review

Simulating a business process aims at analyzing the process’s dynamic behavior without having to execute the process. In research and practice of Business Process Management, simulating business processes has been a continuing focus since the 1990s – widely acknowledged as essential technique for quantitative process analysis. Despite its relevance, a differentiated understanding of requirements towards process modeling languages for creating simulation models and user requirements for simulation approaches and tools is missing at present. Based on a systematic and purposeful sampling of prior work combining different search strategies, the present study compiles and synthesizes 113 prior research contributions on business process simulation. Categorizing 56 language and user requirements results in an organizing overview that informs future design research on simulation approaches and tools that benefit (prospective) users of BPS