Teaching Business Process Modeling to Leverage Soft Skills of Computing Students

2026-07-23

AI Summary

This study addresses the growing demand for interdisciplinary computing talent in the AI era by exploring an industry-driven instructional approach to enhance students’ soft skills and business acumen. Through project-based learning, 53 computing students collaborated with real-world stakeholders to engage in business process modeling exercises. The first systematic evaluation of this method demonstrates significant improvements in key soft skills, including professional competence, proactivity, communication, and teamwork. These findings offer an effective pathway for cultivating talent capable of integrating technical expertise with business understanding in the context of AI-assisted development.

Abstract

Background and Context: Organizations have highly depended on software systems to realize their business processes and achieve strategic business goals and competitive advantage; hence, computing professionals who can understand these processes could more effectively build such systems. At the same time, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased the productivity in developing these and other systems, professionals should be better prepared due to the competitiveness of the job market; thus, soft skills could be an important factor to ensure their position in this market. Objective: This paper aims to analyze and present the impact of teaching business process modeling to leverage key soft skills of future computing professionals. Method and Findings: Our method involved an industry-driven, project-based approach with 53 computing students who actively interacted with stakeholders and modeled the organization's business process. We systematically collected the students' feedback, including the soft skills practiced and demonstrating that professionalism, initiative, motivation, communication, and teamwork can be leveraged. Implications: The main implication of this work for the Computer Science Education research community is to provide evidence that teaching business process modeling subjects is particularly beneficial for future professionals, as it could contribute to preparing them regarding their soft skills for the era of AI-assisted software development.

Problem

• soft skills
• business process modeling
• computing education
• AI-assisted software development
• professional readiness

Innovation

• business process modeling
• soft skills
• project-based learning
• AI-assisted software development
• computer science education