Business Process Management

Business Process Management (BPM) includes methods, techniques, and tools to support the design, enactment, management, and analysis of operational business processes. It can be considered as an extension of classical Workflow Management (WFM) systems and approaches. Although the practical relevance of BPM is undisputed, a clear definition of BPM and related acronyms such as BAM, BPA, and STP are missing. Moreover, a clear scientific foundation is missing. In this paper, we try to demystify the acronyms in this domain, describe the state-of-the-art technology, and argue that BPM could benefit from formal methods/languages (cf. Petri nets, process algebras, etc.).

The introduction of Web Services has a profound impact on component models. The interaction processes behind a service become integral part of the component type, and as such formally described and automatically manageable. Workflow emerges as the reference model for the description of interaction processes associated to individual web services. In the DySCo (Dynamic Service Composition) project, we investigate the use of workflow for both the modelling and implementation of composite solutions based on web services. Key aspect of DySCo is the separation between composition and coordination logic. In this paper, we discuss the composition model defined in DySCo, and a technology framework to enforce it.

This paper presents an approach on mining most specific workflow models from event-based data. The approach is embedded in the context of data mining and knowledge discovery in databases. It consists of two parts. The first one is an introduction of a block-structured workflow model representation and the second one is an extraction procedure for workflow models based on that model representation. This paper describes both parts in detail and also outlines preceding and subsequent steps.

The capability to dynamically adapt in-progress workflows (WF) is an essential requirement for any workflow management system (WfMS). This fact has been recognized by the WF community for a long time and different approaches in the area of adaptive workflows have been developed so far. They either enable WF type changes and their propagation to in-progress WF instances or (ad-hoc) changes of single WF instances. Thus, at first glance, many of the major problems related to dynamic WF changes seem to be solved. However, this picture changes when digging deeper into the approaches and considering implementation and usability issues as well. This paper presents important criteria for the correct adaptation of running workflows and analyzes how actual approaches satisfy them. At this, we demonstrate the strengths of the different approaches and provide additional solutions to overcome current limitations. These solutions comprise comprehensive correctness criteria as well as migration rules for change realization.

We need to put more emphasis on managing the communication between different types of stakeholders and in particular we need to use diagrammatic constructs that support that communication process. This paper describes a state-based approach to capturing business rules that has been tested with different stakeholders in several business process applications. The examples provided in this paper show the benefits of using this notation as a means of communicating between three different groups of stakeholders.

Business process modeling assists an enterprise to achieve strategic objectives by providing methodology and tools to develop integrated business process models, however there is little discussion on how to identify the strategic objectives or how process and functional objectives link to the strategic objectives. On the other hand, decision-modeling literature offers well-established techniques for identification of strategic objectives and associated objectives networks but lacks discussion of the processes and functions aimed at achieving these objectives. That neither discipline can provide business with an overall solution is the main problem addressed by this paper through development of a formalized model for linking the two sets of objectives. The resulting model is used to analyze the links between different types of objectives and as a basis for a practical implementation procedure for business modeling. Concepts discussed in the paper are illustrated within a Human Resources context.

In requirements engineering we have to discover the user requirements and then we have to transform them into precise system specifications. There are two essential aspects to be modeled: the data aspect and the process aspect of the system. There are many techniques available to describe these aspects but it is always difficult to integrate these views in a consistent way. Last decade two techniques are used frequently in requirements engineering: use cases and workflow models. We show that these techniques can be integrated in a natural way, using the framework of colored Petri nets. We only sketch the underlying formal framework and focus on the practical application of the approach by a case study.

Workflow systems utilize a process model for managing business processes. The model is typically a directed graph annotated with activity names. We view the execution of an activity as a time interval, and present two new algorithms for synthesizing process models from sets of systems’ executions (audit log). A model graph generated by each of the algorithms for a process captures all its executions and dependencies that are present in the log, and preserves existing parallelism.

We compare the model graphs synthesized by our algorithms to those of [1] by running them on simulated data. We observe that our graphs are more faithful in the sense that the number of excess and missing edges is consistently smaller and it depends on the size and quality of the log. In other words, we show that our time interval approach permits reconstruction of more accurate workflow model graphs from a log.

Inter-organizational business processes often involve contracting. ICT solutions for contracting processes must offer high flexibility in changing the structure of the contracting process. This can be achieved by ‘process-aware’ software components which are configured by an explicit model of the contracting process: the contracting workflow. However, the design of a contracting workflow from scratch is a complex task. We propose a solution in which contracting workflows are composed from standard building blocks and show that protocol patterns for business transaction protocols are a necessity for making these standard building blocks available. Finally, we propose a number of protocol patterns for the negotiation phase in a transaction.

We present a general methodology for integrating arbitrary security requirements in the development of business processes in a both elegant and rigorous way. We show how trust relationships between different parties and their respective security goals can be reflected in a specification, which results in a realistic modeling of business processes in the presence of malicious adversaries. Special attention is given to the incorporation of cryptography in the development process with the main goal of achieving specifications that are sufficiently simple to be suited for formal verification, yet allow for a provably secure cryptographic implementation.

There doesn’t seem to be much commonality among business processes, even not if they belong to the same kind of organization. However, by applying the right kind of abstraction from realization issues and by rooting this abstraction is the CAP-theory, it appears that there is a generic recurrent pattern in all business processes. This pattern, called the transaction, is presented and elaborated in this paper. The part of the underlying CAP-theory (Coordination-Actors-Production) that is necessary for understanding and appreciating it is explained. The focus in this paper is on the Coordination aspect. An outlook is given on the potential benefits of the transaction pattern for the analysis and design of business processes.

Personal schedules allow workflow participants to improve their performance of activity executions. Participants are no longer surprised by the entries in their work-lists but receive advance information about (potential) future activity assignments, allowing better possibilities for work-planning. The personal schedule system is based on a probabilistic workflow time management system using duration histograms. A personal schedule collects future activity assignments together with their probability and their timing requirements and allows to analyze the workload of a participant and to support the scheduling of activities with the goal of reduced turn-around times and reduced number of violations of temporal constraints.

Public-key cryptography is a prerequisite for security in distributed systems and for reliable electronic commerce. The protection of public keys against attacks is the Achilles’ heel of public-key cryptography. It is the goal of public-key infrastructures to provide the authenticity of the public keys for its participants. Formal models (called trust models) contribute decisively to a deeper understanding of the desirable design principles for these infrastructures. The present paper gives a trust model on the basis of a coloured Petri net. The graphic representation of nets of this type makes them easily understandable even for unexperienced users. In an application in electronic commerce the process formalized by this Petri net will be embedded in a cryptographic protocol which again will be an important part of a larger business process. So, the model of this paper is a useful module in business processes that are common in electronic commerce.

The development of workflow applications requires satisfactory concepts and tools. Workflow patterns cover the conceptual part. To base the patterns on high-level Petri nets allows for the tight integration of the modelling editor with the actual execution engine. The development process of workflow applications gains from this.

We propose to use Reference nets as the modelling technique, Renew as the basic execution engine, and our workflow modelling tool for the design of workflows. The latter is a plug-in for the Renew editor, which is based on the use of workflow patterns. The development process is based on prototyping.

The design and the achievement of any consequent project imply the involvement of several people, teams and even enterprises. These enterprises interact and exchange data, more and more often, through Internet and the “Web”. However, exchanging data is not enough for working together, it is also necessary to control and manage these exchanges occurring within business processes. Cooperation between enterprises means interconnecting and coordinating their business processes. If a wide spectrum of tools for work coordination exists, they have been unfortunately developed to only suit the internal needs of enterprises. Thus, existing work coordination systems are not adapted to inter-enterprise cooperation. This paper presents a promising approach for interconnecting processes based on service interaction. Its aim is to formally present a model for enterprise process interconnection and coordination through service interaction based on information sharing between process services, and process services coordination.

Graph oriented models are at the core of most business process management systems. In recent years, “algebraic” business process modeling languages based on different process calculi have been proposed. The semantics of these algebraic process languages are quite different, and seemingly incompatible, with those of graph oriented approaches. In this paper we study how the BPEL4WS exception handling mechanism is used to integrate the algebraic and graph process models. Unlike other approaches to exception handling in business processes, the BPEL4WS model does not require that the process topology be constrained by the exception handling hierarchy, thus allowing both highly structured and graph based processes to benefit from it. Based on this exception handling model, we explain “dead path elimination” (the runtime mechanism by which process termination is ensured) as a form of exception processing. The integration of dead path elimination with the exception handling mechanism provides the semantic base for the integration of the graph and algebraic processes models in BPEL4WS.

In 1999 the Swiss Mobiliar Insurance Company (Mobiliar) started a programto transformto a process oriented organization. To ensure a unified methodical procedure during this transformation a competence center was founded. After the first phase the core business processes were documented. To ensure a continuous usage of this work, a system of ratios was developed to support the process management. This paper introduces the main ratios, how they link to models and how they are used.

Many organisations in the West have undertaken business process reengineering initiatives with the aim of improving organisational performance. These initiatives inevitably involve redesign and alterations to the existing information systems that support the business processes. The implications for information systems and how an organization’s existing systems can evolve to support a reengineering project is an area, which has been relatively under researched. Although it is recognised that information systems design and development is difficult in BPR environments, there is little overlap between research in BPR and systems analysis, so that there is no shared vocabulary and perspective. This paper examines how information systems redesign can be integrated with business process reengineering through a review of relevant literature and empirical research.

A top-down approach for workflow design is proposed in the framework of Petri net theory. Simple but powerful refinement rules are proposed that guarantee soundness of the resulting workflow nets. The refinement process supports the definition of regions, which are parts of the workflow that correspond to logistically related items. Exception handlers can be associated to regions. Defining regions helps determining the impact areas of the unexpected events during workflow execution.

Case-oriented workflow modeling provides flexibility in specifying and executing workflows because it is possible to consider unique, organization-specific business process conditions and thereby minimize exceptions. However, it is a laborious task for a workflow designer to derive a case-oriented workflow model from a business specification, resulting in high modeling overhead. Recent commercial systems are providing generic templates of common business processes which may be adapted to an organizations requirements. These templates, called cases, can be modified individually or multiple cases may be composed into a more complex workflow and then the assembled workflow may be modified as needed to meet the business specification. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for case-oriented retrieval, instantiation and reuse of workflow models utilizing Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) techniques. We describe key modules of a prototypical implementation to facilitate model management activities such as model retrieval, reuse and composition of component case models from a workflow repository.

In this tool presentation we give an overview of the ADEPT workflow management system (WfMS), which is one of the few available research prototypes dealing with enterprise-wide, adaptive work- flow (WF) management. ADEPT offers sophisticated modeling concepts and advanced features, like temporal constraint management, ad-hoc WF changes, WF schema evolution, synchronization of inter-workflow dependencies, and scalability. We sketch these features and describe how they have been realized within ADEPT. In addition, we show which tools and interfaces are offered to developers and users in this context. ADEPT follows a holistic approach, i.e., the described concepts have not been implemented in an isolated fashion only, but are treated in conjunction with each other by integrating them within one WfMS.

This paper describes concepts and features of a new version of the VipTool. As for the original VipTool, the main issue of this software package is to generate, analyze and visualize process nets, representing the partial order behavior of business process models given by Petri nets. Whereas the original VipTool was implemented in the scripting language Python, the new VipTool is a completely new and modular implementation in Java that allows to add arbitrary extensions in a more flexible way. In this new version, several drawbacks that had appeared previously where eliminated. Moreover, the new VipTool contains additional features such as a more comfortable editor as well as eps- and XML-interfaces. The main improvement is a better support of step-wise validation of models and specifications and, alternatingly, partial verification (testing) of specification implementations. This paper also presents a small case study explaining how the VipTool supports these design steps.