Chapter 14. Modeling IoT-enhanced business processes

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables us to connect the physical world to digital business processes (BP). By using the IoT, a BP can, for example, (1) take into account real-world data to take more informed business decisions, (2) automate and/or improve BP tasks, and (3) adapt itself to the physical execution environment. To achieve these benefits, the integration of IoT and BPs needs to be successful. The first step to this end is to support the modeling of IoT-enhanced BPs. Although numerous researchers have studied this subject, it is unclear what is the current state of the art in terms of current modeling solutions and gaps. In this chapter, we carry out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the topic. After studying 613 papers, we identified and analyzed in depth a total of 39 different solutions. Among other findings, we can conclude that the BPMN notation, in its original form or extended, is the preferred language for modeling IoT-enhanced BPs. In addition, we report on some important issues that should be addressed in the near future, such as the need for standardization and for more extensive and empirical validations.