English

Business process modeling notations are used in requirements engineering to specify business processes that should be supported by the system under development. Comparisons of business process modeling notations with regard to their concepts do exist, but to our knowledge, little evaluation has taken place regarding their effectiveness and efficiency for typical requirements engineering tasks. Therefore, we set up experiments examining UML activity diagrams (ACTs) and event-driven process chains (EPCs) both from a requirements engineer's perspective with a focus on model creation and from a customer's or end user's perspective with a focus on model understandability. The experiments were conducted as a blocked subject-object study, where the participants had to solve several characteristic tasks. The results were then analyzed by means of statistical analysis methods. In the case of the requirements engineer, we were able to show that ACTs perform better than EPCs. In the case of the customer or end user, we cannot make a clear statement.

The correctness of business process models is of paramount importance for the application on an enterprise level. A severe problem is that several languages for business process modelling do not have formal execution semantics which is a prerequisite to check correctness criteria. In this context, soundness defines a minimum correctness criterion that a process model should fulfil. In this paper we present a novel approach to reason about soundness based on so-called causal footprints. A causal footprint represents a set of conditions on the order of activities that holds for every case of a process model. We identify three kinds of error patterns that affect the soundness of a process model, namely the deadlock pattern, the multiple termination pattern, and the trap pattern. We use event-driven process chains (EPCs) and Petri nets to demonstrate the applicability of our approach for both conceptual as for formal process modelling languages. Furthermore, it can easily be applied to other languages, such as UML activity diagrams or BPEL. Based on the trap pattern, we prove that the "vicious circle", that is heavily discussed in EPC literature, is unsound

Event-driven Process Chain (EPC) is a known business process modeling language which is primarily renowned for efficient modeling of business requirements. It is a semi-formal modeling language which is commonly verified though various formal mechanism for simple atomic events. However, the complexity of business requirements cannot be modeled through EPC atomic events alone especially in case of real time systems. Therefore, the complex events patterns like Event Time, Event location, Event Cardinality, Event Sequence, Event Exclusion, Event Trend and Data dependency are introduced in EPC from the novel area of complex event processing. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no mechanism available in EPC to model and verify such complex events. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the verification possibilities of both (atomic and complex) events in the context of Timed-Automata (TA) and Time Petri Nets (TPN). Particularly, we try to map the semantics of simple and complex events with the corresponding concepts of TA and TPN. It is analyzed that the simple EPC events can be formalized through TA and TPN but limited support is available for complex events. The restaurant process case study has been used for further investigation of complex events. It has been concluded that TA formalism is more suitable than TPN for the verification of complex events in EPC.

Nowadays, the problem in business process management (BPM) is that BPM systems should both be easy to use for business process developers and be based on a sound formal method. Business process management systems are often based on semiformal modeling techniques such as event-driven process chains (EPC) or UML. Unlike semiformal modeling techniques, the process calculus CSP comes with mature verification sup- port. Surprisingly little work has been done on using CSP for business process modeling and management. In this paper, we present our approach to business process management, which is based on the observation that CSP is well suited not only for specifying business processes and verifying work???ows but also for executing work???ows using our CSP4J framework. We report on a work???ow server, which is specified in CSP and implemented using our CSP4J framework. The server accepts work???ows that are modeled in CSP and also implemented using CSP4J. This allows us to integrate the mature verification support of CSP into both the management system itself and the development process of the end users’ business process definitions.

A significant challenge in business process automation involves bridging the gap between business process representations and Web service technologies that implement business activities. We are interested in business process representations such as Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and Event-Driven Process Chains (EPCs). Web service technologies include protocols such as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), architectures such as REpresentational State Transfer (RESTful), or semantic description languages and formalisms such as Web Ontology Language for Services (OWL-S) and Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO). This paper reviews previous work on the integration of business process representations and Web service technologies. It provides a perspective on the field by summarizing, organizing, and classifying the proposed approaches. Consequently, this study has identified opportunities for future research in the field, including the need for a generic transformation approach among arbitrary models, the need to represent mappings in a formalized way, and the necessity of a common execution framework.

UML activity diagrams are the object-oriented equivalent of flow charts and data-flow diagrams from structured development (Gane and Sarson 1979). In UML 1.x, UML activity diagrams were a specialization of UML state machine diagrams, although in UML 2.x they are full-fledged artifacts. UML activity diagrams are used to explore the logic of ■ a complex operation, ■ a complex business rule, ■ a single use case, ■ several use cases, ■ a business process, ■ concurrent processes, ■ software processes. General Guidelines Place the Starting Point in the Top Left Corner A starting point is modeled with a filled circle, using the same notation that UML state chart diagrams use. Every UML activity diagram should have a starting point, and placing it at the top left corner reflects the way that people in Western cultures begin reading. Figure 41, depicting the business process of enrolling in a university, takes this approach. Another good option is to place it at the top center of the diagram. Include an Ending Point An ending point is modeled with a filled circle with a border around it. Some people's style is to make ending points optional—sometimes an activity is simply a dead end—but if this is the case, then there is no harm in indicating that the only activity edge (formerly known as a transition) is to an ending point. That way, when someone else reads your diagram, they know that you have considered how to exit these activities.

Business Process Management (BPM) has gained remarkable importance in research and practice in the last years. Innovative information and communication technology (ICT) is a driver for the effectiveness and efficiency of enterprise collaboration and the management of inter-organizational business processes. In this context, cooperating enterprises need a shared understanding of their own processes, those of their partners as well as of emerging inter-organizational process structures. In order to create such a shared understanding, the concept of collaborative modeling can serve as a useful approach. This article introduces a concept for collaborative business process modeling and its implementation in the CoMoMod tool. The tool supports several aspects of collaborative process modeling, such as simultaneous work of spatially distributed modelers on one process model diagram. Furthermore the tool permits synchronously creating a collaborative model with different modeling languages by automatically mapping and converting the different model representations. The proof of concept utilizes Event-driven Process Chains (EPC) and Petri Nets. The usage of an integrated chat messaging service supports communication during the process of collaboratively modeling business process.

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.

IntroductionSince 2019 people who have insured in the German statutory health insurance are entitled to use certified apps called the Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen [Digital Health Applications (DiGAs)]. The prerequisite for this is that an app certified as DiGA and suitable for their diagnosis exists. The DiGA can then either be prescribed by a physician or psychotherapist or requested by the patient from the statutory health insurance fund. Given the novelty of this type of healthcare, the implementation of a DiGA should be closely monitored to identify potential weaknesses and achieve quality improvements. To enable an analysis of the supply of DiGAs step-by-step, we aimed to create the DiGA-Care Path.MethodsWe conducted three steps to create the DiGA-Care Path. First, a knowledge base was created based on a structured literature research matched with knowledge gathered from the superordinate research project “QuaSiApps” funded by the German Federal Joint Committee. Second, we aimed to create an “ideal-typical” DiGA-Care Path using a flowchart. Third, based on the first path, a final path was developed using the graphical modeling language “Event-Driven Process Chain.”ResultsThe DiGA-Care Path was developed to depict the supply of DiGAs in Germany. The final path is constituted by a “main path” as well as a corresponding “sub-path”. While the “main path” focuses more on the supply environment in which a DiGA is used, the “sub-path” depicts the supply delivered by the DiGA itself. Besides the process itself, the paths include relevant actors to indicate responsibilities for individual process steps.DiscussionThe DiGA-Care Path helps to analyze the current supply of DiGAs step-by-step. Thereby, each step can be investigated in detail to identify problems and to detect further steps where quality improvements can be enabled. Depending on the perspective, focused either on the supply environment, or the supply delivered by the DiGA itself, the “main path” or the “sub-path” can be used, respectively. Besides the potential of the DiGA-Care Path to improve the current supply of DiGAs, it can help as an orientation for international policymakers or further stakeholders either to develop their own integration of apps into healthcare systems or for international manufacturers to consider entering the German market.

Business process modelling (BPM) notations, such as BPMN, UML-Activity Diagram (UML-AD), EPC and CMMN describe processes using a graphical representation of process-relevant entities and their interplay. Despite the wide literature on the comparison between different modelling languages, the BPM community still lacks an ontological characterisation of process elements, among which process participants, that is, the main entities involved in a business process. Purpose of this paper is to start filling this gap by providing an ontological analysis of business processes from the standpoint of process participants. In particular, by discussing participants common to languages such as BPMN, EPC, UML-AD, and CMMN we characterize them on the basis of their ontological properties.

General-purpose modeling languages are inadequate to model and visualize business processes precisely. An enterprise has its own vocabulary for modeling processes and its specific tasks may have attached data that define the tasks precisely. We propose using Domain Specific Modeling (DSM) languages to model business processes, such that an enterprise can define its own DSM language(s) capturing its vocabulary and data requirement. We suggest using UML profiles and UML activity diagrams as the semantic base for these DSM languages and present tools that are able to create a DSM language and tool support for a given domain. One tool, called ADSpecializer, can generate a UML profile and its tool support of a given application domain. The other tool, ADModeler, is used to create UML activity diagrams within such a domain-specific UML profile. The two tools enable an enterprise to efficiently define and utilize their own DSM language.

ABSTRACTBackground and Context: The relationship between novices’ first programming language and their future achievement has drawn increasing interest owing to recent efforts to expand K–12 computing education. This article contributes to this topic by analyzing data from a retrospective study of more than 10,000 undergraduates enrolled in introductory computer science courses at 118 U.S. institutions of higher education.Objective: We explored the relationship between students’ first programming languages and both their final grades in an introductory computer science course and their attitudes about programming.Method: Multiple matching techniques compared those whose first language was graphical (e.g., Scratch), textual (e.g., Java), or absent prior to college.Findings: Having any prior programming experience had positive effects on both attitudes about programming and grades in introductory computer science courses. Importantly, students whose first language was graphical had higher grades than did students whose first language was textual, when the languages were introduced in or before early adolescent years.Implications: Learning any computer language is better than learning none. If programming is to be taught to students before early adolescence, it is advised to start with a graphical language. Future work should investigate the transition between different types of programming languages.

Business process models have increasingly gained importance within today’s rapidly changing whilst competitive business environments. Process modeling languages provide graphical means to depict, communicate and reflect real-world phenomena. With the advent of business process modeling a range of process modeling languages (such as BPMN, Event-driven Process Chains or S-BPM) as well as training programs for different process modeling languages have been developed. However, appropriate BPM education (cf. [14]) as well as the discussion “what and how to teach modeling” (cf. [8]) are still topics requiring further investigations and developments. In this contribution an e-learning approach towards the education of process modeling is presented based-on requirements derived from related work on educating modeling and e-learning. Furthermore, the developed learning approach will be illustrated within different usage scenarios.Keywordseducationself-directed learningprocess modeling

The paper analyzes the existing theoretical knowledge on modelling business processes of an enterprise in the conditions of the development of digital technologies. The purpose of the article is to generalize the existing views on the definition of the term «business process» and to note certain common essential features inherent in business processes, which consist in the awareness of the purpose of their implementation, repeatability (cyclicity), formation in time-space, provision of a certain resource, effectiveness. In view of the consolidated classification of enterprise business processes developed by scientists, with which the author agrees and the reference to which is indicated in the article, the developed standards for their description were considered. Thanks to the rapid development of digital technologies, new possibilities and ways of processing, presenting, saving and using information are opening up. Due to the tools developed on their basis, it was possible to analyze the approaches and ways of building graphic models of business processes, created according to the methodology of structural analysis (SADT) with the use of modern digital tools such as the graphical modelling language BPMN. We came to the conclusion that by having an idea of the functional structure of an enterprise, the purpose of its activity, and the list and content of existing business process models, using modern digital business process modelling tools, it is possible to significantly optimize work and obtain better results of operational activity. The application of the specified toolkit provides an opportunity to determine the degree of development of the business process, the ability to make quick adjustments by making changes, eliminating deficiencies, and checking the effectiveness of the system at the modelling stage. This will ensure a higher level of competitiveness for an enterprise in modern digital conditions.

The topological functioning model (TFM) of the system could be automatically transformed to behavioral specifications, e.g., UML Activity Diagrams, and BPMN diagrams. However, the TFM lacks a formal definition and specification of topological cause-and-effect relations. This paper addresses this challenge by using an inference means suggested by classical logic, namely, notions of necessity, sufficiency and logical operators. The result could be applied in order to reduce human participation in transformations, as well as to verify results of analysis of the system.