How Modelangelo Helps Companies Make Sense of Their Knowledge
Imagine this: you're sitting in a conference room, whiteboard markers scattered across the table, trying to map out how knowledge flows through your organization. It starts with a simple process—say, onboarding a new employee. But the more you dig in, the more complicated it gets. There are documents, handovers, shared drives, tacit know-how from seasoned team members, and processes that everyone follows but no one’s ever written down.
This is where Modelangelo enters the picture. Link to page
A Tool Born from a Real Need
Modelangelo wasn't created in a vacuum. It was developed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Norbert Gronau and his research team at the University of Potsdam, who saw firsthand the challenges businesses face when trying to manage knowledge in a meaningful, structured way.
They realized that traditional process modeling tools weren’t enough. Businesses needed something that could capture not only what happens in a process but how knowledge moves, transforms, and supports decision-making along the way.
So they created Modelangelo, a modeling tool built on the KMDL® (Knowledge Modeling and Description Language) method—designed specifically for knowledge-intensive processes.
More Than Just Arrows and Boxes
At first glance, Modelangelo might look like another process modeling tool. But once you start using it, you see the difference.
Take Anna, for example. She’s a knowledge manager at a large consulting firm. When she used Modelangelo to map out her team’s proposal-writing process, she didn’t just draw tasks and decision points. She could model how consultants draw on previous projects, where documents are stored, and even how informal chats with colleagues influence the final output.
With Modelangelo, she could represent both explicit knowledge (documents, systems, templates) and tacit knowledge (the experience and intuition of her team). It was like lifting the hood of a well-oiled machine to see how everything really worked.
Building a Language That Fits You
Every company has its own jargon, its own way of doing things. Modelangelo embraces that. It lets users customize their modeling language—not just changing names of shapes, but redefining their meaning, appearance, and structure through meta-modeling.
That means whether you're a manufacturer in Germany, a tech startup in China, or a public service department in South Africa, Modelangelo can speak your language.
And if you're familiar with event-driven process chains (EPC/eEPC) from Prof. Scheer, you’ll feel right at home—Modelangelo supports those too.
See the Process. Spot the Potential.
One of the most powerful features of Modelangelo is its ability to analyze what you’ve modeled. It doesn’t just leave you with a pretty diagram.
It helps you find:
- Who’s doing what
- Where knowledge is being reused—or lost
- Which tasks rely too heavily on unwritten know-how
- How to streamline workflows and eliminate bottlenecks
Whether you're generating predefined reports or crafting your own with SQL, the insights are actionable. You're not just documenting; you're discovering.
Designed for Real-World Use
Modelangelo comes with a graphical interface that’s easy to use. The Process Explorer lets you zoom in and out of subprocesses. Objects can be dragged from the palette or the Explorer—handy if you need a reference to an object that’s used in multiple places.
You can:
- Print or export your models as PDFs or images
- Walk stakeholders through processes using presentation mode
- Save projects in XML or KMDL® formats
- Export everything to HTML for your intranet
It’s a tool designed not just for modelers, but for teams—collaborating, analyzing, improving.
The Bigger Picture
Modelangelo isn’t just about modeling—it’s about making knowledge visible. It’s about equipping your business to answer questions like:
- Where is our critical knowledge stored?
- Who holds the expertise?
- How can we make our processes more efficient, more resilient, more human-centered?
In a world where companies rise or fall based on how well they manage what they know, tools like Modelangelo are no longer nice-to-haves. They’re essential.
So next time you're faced with a messy process, a half-documented workflow, or that sinking feeling that your team “just knows how to do it,” remember: there’s a better way to capture and improve the flow of knowledge. And its name is Modelangelo.