Combining Process Modeling and Requirements Engineering: An Experience Report

The use of design process models is of great importance for developing better products. Indeed, it is one of the factors that may differentiate the best companies from the rest. However, their adoption in companies is declining. Usefulness and usability issues may be responsible for process models not to meet the needs of its users. The goal of this research is to provide deeper understanding of the users' needs of design process models. Three main perspectives are provided: (1) why organizations use process models, (2) who are the users of process models, and (3) how the context of use of process models is. The research methodology adopted was the Design Research Methodology (DRM). Three stages were performed: (i) Research Clarification, (ii) Descriptive Study I, and (iii) Prescriptive Study. In the first stage, an initial literature review was carried out to collect evidences of why researching process models and their users' needs is relevant for the design theory. During the second stage (Descriptive Study I), literature was reviewed to identify the purposes of use of design process models and its potential users; a focusgroup section with 24 subject matter experts was carried out to evaluate these purposes and identify process model users; and, lastly, a case study was perfomed to investigate the context of use of design process models in one organization and to portray the profile of the core users. Finally, the third stage (Prescriptive Study) aimed to uncover directions for organizations develop user-centered design process models. Four main results were achieved through this research. The first result is a deep understanding of three types of application of the design process models: (a) develop the design activity, (b) manage the design project, and (c) improve the design process. The purposes for these aplications were investigated and their level of importance were revealed. In addition, it was mapped the core users of process models for the three applications. The second result is the definition of the context of use of the models.Three dimensions of the context were depicted: the product, the design process, and the organizational structure. The third result is the set of users profiles. Empathy Maps were elaborated to represent the profiles of product engineers, project managers, and technical leaders. The last result consists in recommendations regarding the content provided to users and the process models system design. Finally, industrial practitioners will benefit from this research once it was provided evidences that the activity development application type is not properly considered in organization and that important users' needs are not getting proper attention in the current models. Therefore, they will be able to make use of the recommendations outlined here.

Business process modelling is an important part of system design. When designing or redesigning a business process, stakeholders specify, negotiate, and agree on business requirements to be satisfied, including non-functional requirements that concern the quality of the business process. This thesis addresses the question of how to specify and compute the quality of a business process, given the model that stakeholders use. The motivation for this thesis is the increasing importance of the quality of business processes. Knowing the quality of specific business processes enables stakeholders to judge if these processes need improvement. Knowing the quality of the constructs of those processes (viz., events, inputs, activities, and outputs) and the way they are structured enables a more detailed analysis of their shortcomings and provides a basis for the design of improvements. The research challenge of this thesis is grounded in the assumption that: “Organisations need an appropriate means to effectively compute achievement of their goals and objectives by their business processes.” Given this challenge, the main research question on which this thesis focuses is: “Can the quality of a business process be computed quantitatively at different levels of granularity?” The research objective is: “To develop frameworks, factors, and metrics for computing non-functional requirements (quality) of business processes quantitatively at different levels of granularity.” The outcomes of this thesis are: 1) BPIMM, a language-independent business process integrating meta-model, based on the concepts of seven mainstream business process modelling languages: BPMN, EPC, RAD, UML AD, SADT, IDEF0, and IDEF3. 2) BPC-QC (Business Process Concept - Quality Computation), an approach to quality computation at the lowest level of granularity of a business process. The approach consists of: i. BPC-QEF (Business Process Concept - Quality Evaluation Framework), a language-independent generic framework and algorithm to compute the quality of the constructs of a business process: event, input, activity, and output. ii. A set of business process quality dimensions and factors. The following quality dimensions are distinguished: performance, efficiency, reliability, recoverability, permissibility, and availability. Each dimension categorises different quality aspects in terms of factors. A non-exhaustive set of sixteen quantitative factors is provided. iii. Quality metrics for each of the quality factors, to facilitate a quantitative computation of the quality of a specific construct of a business process. 3) BP-QC (Business Process - Quality Computation), an approach to compute the quality at the highest level of granularity of a business process. The approach consists of: i. BP-CQCF (Business Process - Compositional Quality Computation Framework), a language-independent generic framework and algorithm to compute the quality of a business process as a whole, given the quality of its constructs. ii. A set of generic business process modelling patterns to decompose a business process into more succinct parts, namely: sequential, parallel with synchronisation, exclusive, inclusive, simple loop, and complex loop. iii. A set of over one hundred computational formulae. For each combination of modelling pattern and a quality factor, there is a formula to compute the quality. 4) AAV (Approach to Application and Validation), an evaluation plan to evaluate BPIMM, BPC-QC and BP-QC in practice, together with expert stakeholders. The plan consists of the units of measure, a measurement model, and a case study procedure. To evaluate the applicability of the contributions of this thesis to real world business needs, four case studies have been conducted in different environments: a Dutch educational institution, a global financial institution, an international financial service provider, and a Dutch research project on crisis management. Each of these case studies concerns a different, single business process. This thesis shows that: 1) A quality computation approach can be adopted independent of a business process modelling language. 2) Quantitative quality factors can be introduced specifically for the constructs of a business process. 3) Quantitative metrics and computational formulae can be developed for specific quality factors, allowing the computation of different aspects of the quality of a business process quantitatively at different levels of granularity. 4) An evaluation plan can be developed to evaluate the applicability of the contributions of this thesis (viz., BPIMM, BPC-QC, and BP-QC). The contributions of this thesis are designed to be beneficial to the areas of business and management, requirements engineering, software engineering, and business process modelling. In the areas of requirements engineering and software engineering, these contributions are intended to help practitioners to consider non-functional requirements at the earliest stage. In the area of business process modelling, information systems, service computing, and cloud computing, the contributions can be used for quality-driven modelling, design, and redesign. To conclude, knowing the quality value of a business process at different levels of granularity provides a basis for its improvement.

Deriving requirements from process models via the problem frames approach

Being a part of business process management (BPM) life cycle, business process modeling has found its place in information systems development (ISD) practices as well. At the same time, concepts of business vocabularies and rules are also the hot topics among BPM and ISD practitioners and academics. Nevertheless, in ISD, the integration of business process models with business vocabularies and rules is still not standardized and remains quite empiric. In this paper, basic aspects of the approach for business vocabularies’ extraction from business process models are presented. The approach is based on novel business level OMG standards “Business Process Model and Notation” (BPMN) and “Semantics for Business Vocabularies and Business Rules” (SBVR), thus contributing to OMG’s vision about Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) and to model-driven development in general.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.42.2.2310

The Role of Visual Modeling and Model Transformations in Business-driven Development

to report the construction of a process model to support the decision making of operating room nurses to control the risk for perioperative positioning injury. experience report on a process model that helps nurses with decision making regarding clients at risk for perioperative positioning injury. By following the steps, it was possible to identify intrinsic and extrinsic variables of the literature and of the workflows of teams involved in the positioning of the client for surgery. The Business Process Model and Notation, the Bizagi Modeler software and terms from the International Classification for Nursing Practice were used in the model. the experience allowed the observation of the knowledge integration between different areas, which enabled the process modeling and its validation. process modeling is an innovative option for the development of support systems for clinical nursing decisions.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address a theoretical gap in the business process management (BPM) literature on factors that influence the acceptance and use of business process modelling (PM) in organisations. The paper seeks to contribute to theory building and practice in BPM through better understanding of important determinants of PM adoption and use.Design/methodology/approachA combination of literature review and 34 interviews in context was used to develop a PM acceptance model that was subsequently empirically tested using survey data from 74 companies.FindingsThe paper provides empirical insights about how business PM can be influenced by many factors in the organisational context. It suggests that PM is a complex activity mandated by management, but influenced by individual and socio‐political factors.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need for future research to focus on the many opposing forces that influence business PM in organisations. Future studies should analyse influence from different stakeholder groups separately to reveal their relative influence on PM activity and its outcomes.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies important forces in the organisational context that managers should focus on in their efforts to successfully implement business PM in their organisations.Originality/valueThis paper uses a triangulation of sources of information to better understand the less‐studied process of PM adoption and use in an organisational context. It contributes to theory building within BPM and to more successful BPM in organisations.

This paper reports a study in which business process modelling was regarded as a useful tool for requirements engineering. We have used business process models as a starting point to derive alternative sets of requirements for a process-oriented system. These alternative sets capture different decisions regarding the intended ldquolevel of automationrdquo for the various activities in a business process. The approach is demonstrated in a case study which consists of the development of a real system to manage processes in a human resources (HR) department of a large organization. We use a requirements specification that was previously obtained through what we characterize as a ldquoconventionalrdquo requirements engineering technique and we compare it with the requirements specifications derived from the business process model. We discuss the impact of the use of business process models in the completeness, correctness, consistency and traceability of requirements in the case study.

The thermal hydrolysis process (THP) is applied to enhance biogas production in anaerobic digestion (AD), reduce viscosity for improved mixing and dewatering and to reduce and sterilize cake solids. Large heat demands for steam production rely on dynamic effects like sludge throughput, gas availability and THP process parameters. Here, we propose a combined energy and process model suitable to describe the dynamic behaviour of THP in a full-plant context. The process model addresses interactions of THP with operational conditions covered by the AD model obeying mass continuity. Energy conservation is considered in balancing and converting various energy species dominated by thermal heat and calorific energy. The combined energy and process model was then applied on the THP at Blue Plains advanced WWTP (DC Water) to analyse the process and assess potential energy optimizations. It was found that dynamic effects like mismatched steam production and consumption, temporary gas shortages and underloaded units are responsible for energy inefficiencies with losses in electricity-production up to 29%.

Modeling product characteristics is well known to software configuration management (SCM). Modeling process characteristics is relatively new to SCM. Combining process modeling and SCM enhances the current capabilities of SCM. The paper presents product and process models suitable for SCM. The outlined approach, Concert provides building blocks for developing project specific models. Concert's models are described by entity relationship diagrams. In addition, Concert uses the predicate calculus to express model restrictions. Concert offers a seamless integration of product and process modeling. The paper presents a process model for software maintenance that is based on change requests. Such a model helps SCM to recognize the course of a software project early, thus SCM need not determine the development history of a software ex post. The paper describes a tool to manage the presented models and their instances.

Business process modeling (BPM) is one of the key technologies to benefit enterprises with higher efficiencies and greater business values. However, BPM requires intensive business expertise and human resources. Thus, it is valuable and challenging to enable fast delivery of reusable business process designs, regarding the existence of various popular business processes modeling languages and fast changing markets. In this paper, we generate language-specific business process models and process interaction semantics from UML 2.0 process models. A WS-BPEL metadata model and a process interaction semantics metadata model is defined to annotate UML 2.0 business process model as stereotypes; with a set of transformation patterns, we can generate a WS-BPEL business process model and a process interaction semantics file from each annotated UML 2.0 process model. Our approach can also be similarly applied to other process modeling languages to highly reuse the business process model in UML 2.0.

Knowledge workers often have to navigate through multiple information artefacts to complete their tasks. Business process models and business rule repositories are two such artefacts, which when presented separately are known to cause a lack of shared understanding, conflicts and redundancies that can lead to inefficiencies and even compliance breaches. Although a number of integrated modeling approaches for business processes and rules have been proposed, there is a limited knowledge on how these approaches affect worker behavior and task performance. In this paper, we present the outcomes of an exploratory study undertaken to investigate the behavior of workers performing tasks that require dual artefacts namely business processes and rules. By using a sensemaking lens, our study reveals insights into worker behavior when the representation approach and task complexity is varied. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the sense making processes in various settings and inform modeling practice.KeywordsSensemakingBPMNBusiness process modelingBusiness rulesEye tracking

Regulatory compliance of business operations and practices is increasingly becoming an area of great concern for management, costing tens of billions of dollars in compliance actions a year. This paper presents a method for validating business processes with respect to the business rules. In the proposed method, business processes are modeled with UML activity diagrams, whilst business rules are represented as OCL expressions attached to process activities and the business conceptual model. The model validation is based on the simulation of the execution of process instances based on specific scenarios. The simulation algorithm steps through the process model executing the actions associated to the activities with the help of the USE tool and checking for violations of the associated business rules. The proposed method allows the modeler to have an early feedback of possible defects that may exist in a business process model.

Verification of behavioral soundness for artifact-centric business process model with synchronizations

Diagnosing behavioral differences between business process models: An approach based on event structures