Generation of interactive questionnaires using YAWL-based workflow models

Information System is one of the key domain in which lot of research has been done in the past few years. Applying Information systems to heterogeneous and distributed environments is one of the current research areas. Business Process Management Systems is the information systems which deal with the administration of tasks in the business processes, organizational structures, or in the related context. The Workflow Management system, the early idea of BPM, controls the workflow in an organization, data transfer, and integration of legacy information systems with existing programs and program modules, delegation of business tasks. Offering task management services especially modeling of business processes and underlying organizations, BPM serves it meaning and incorporates the WFM system. BPM supporting the use of knowledge concerning the awareness/unawareness of integrated software, and analysis of processes and organizational structure in terms of verification, modification, evaluation are key management in BPM system I.INTRODUCTION TO BPM: Combination of corporate restructuring and mergers urged the department and processes to be automated and linked together. Unfortunately it created largely disconnected spaghetti of systems and applications. Business Process Management (BPM) was born from a strong need to streamline internal processes and connections between both internal and external functions. It provides ability to model, monitor, manage and manipulate processes quickly in response to changes in strategy and market forces. BPM is an extension of classical Work Flow Management (WFM) systems and approaches. BPM delivers the maximum utility of legacy system. It is a method for revolutionizing the way the work moves throughout an organization. II.COMPONENTS OF BPM: The four key elements in Business Process Management are: Process modeling, Process rule, Process management, and Process performance analytics. Process modeling: Process modeling describes the flow of information (business process).It helps in building a model of process and mapping into an implementation frame work. Modeling requires a consistent analysis and representation of the processes. It forms the basis for the userspecific process environment. Process Rule: Process Rule is a heart of the BPM. It involves execution of discrete steps & integration of information. A process rules engine is used for this purpose. The engine is to monitor and manage the given steps by providing a flow control over the business process. If a process fails or delayed, a compensated action can be done to rectify. Process Management: Process Management is to correlate business/application events to fundamental business metrics .It enables the organization to monitor and optimize the business process. Once the process has been analyzed, modeled and the associated rules are formed. The next stage involves the visualization and management. Visualization means transaction data ranging from holistic to process-state or client state specific rules. Process Performance Analytics: Process Performance Analytics is a transition data source available for sophisticated management analytics .This data should be available on a retrospective or real-time basis. It should answer to one of the most difficult question like “how much does it cost to process a specific transaction?” By this way BPM mainly addresses four components. They are Work Flow Management, Content and records management Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Business Activity monitoring (BAM). III.RELEVENCE TO SYSTEM INTEGRATION: BPM can be fitted easily on the top of existing IT system. It is the Process rules that governs all the happenings and optimizes the process. BPM will not be able to work without the connectivity provided by the EAI layer. EAI layer provides BPM to gain and measure the value from the investment. On the other hand, BPM provides value to the EAI technology layer of Information technology. BPM layer offers business management the view of the message processing layer. It is used to unlock the value of the information held in the integration layer. It is also used to gather data of every transaction in the lifecycle. IV.APPLICATION OF BPM: BPM can be applied to any application which needs these advantages. BPM reduces unnecessary high losses in time critical transactions, helps to provide any critical information, practical application yield fast ROI ,better control over the information, identifying and maximizing the benefits faster, better analysis and tracking, provides enterprise-wide visibility of business processes, improve the effectiveness of the core operations, provides ability to coordinate interactions between information systems, business process and the people, flexible and easily changed by non-technical business people.

The growing of IT in companies could be explained by the promise of reducing costs and rationalizing the organizational processes. This is made possible, for example, by the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that required a process‟s knowledge from the company managers. Thus, the comprehension of the possible repercussions by the adoption or adjustment of an ERP system has became a relevant field for research. It is necessary to measure not only the impact on the activities but also on document‟s utilization, computer programs, risks, databases and other items that support the activities which are part of each process in the company. In this context, business process modeling could be use as a tool to assess the impacts caused by the adoption of an IMS in the organization‟s processes. Although several authors discuss the consequences of implementing an ERP, there are a few that describe the impacts on the business processes. This absence could challenge the arguments to support or criticism of an ERP‟s adoption, specifically, or diverse implementations, in general. Consequently, this paper intends to describe the impacts caused by the adoption of an ERP by using a theoretical framework from business processes engineering, as a general approach, and ARIS methodology (architecture of integrated information systems), as a specific one. The outcomes obtained were promising and brought concrete possibilities for replications of the methodology. Aspects such as risk management by using processes modeling and implementing ERP together still require to be studied in depth.

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

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.

Modelling business processes with workflow systems: an evaluation of alternative approaches

Many scientific endeavors, such as molecular biology, have become dependent on big data and its analysis. For example, precision medicine depends on molecular measurements and data analysis per patient. Data analyses supporting medical decisions must be standardized and performed consistently across patients. While perhaps not life-threatening, data analyses in basic research have become increasingly complex. RNAseq data, for example, entails a multi-step analysis ranging from quality assessment of the measurements to statistical analyses. Workflow management systems (WFMS) enable the development of data analysis workflows (WF), their reproduction, and their application to datasets of the same type. However, far more than a hundred WFMS are available, and there is no way to convert data analysis WFs among WFMS. Therefore, the initial choice of a WFMS is important as it entails a lockin to the system. The reach in their particular field (number of citations) can be used as a proxy for selecting a WFMS, but of the about 25 WFMS we mention in this work, at least 5 have a large reach in scientific data analysis. Hence other criteria are needed to delineate among WFMS. By extracting such criteria from selected studies concerning WFMS and adding additional criteria, we arrived at five critical criteria: reproducibility, reusability, FAIRness, versioning support, and security. Another five criteria (providing a graphical user interface, WF flexibility, WF scalability, WF shareability, and computational transparency) we deemed important but not critical for the assessment of WFMS. We applied the criteria to the most cited WFMS in PubMed and found none that support all criteria. We hope that suggesting these criteria will spark a discussion on what features are important for WFMS in scientific data analysis and may lead to developing WFMS that fulfill such criteria.

ERP modeling: a comprehensive approach

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) in gastronomy education

Electronic commerce process traditionally is enacted by centralized work flow management system which is inflexible and unreliable. Contrarily, the paper presents a decentralized architecture composed of collaborating agents to solve the problem. Also, mobile agent is used to reduce communication burden on the web. Moreover, both process modeling language and agent communication message are modeled by extensible markup language (XML) which is regarded as the universal format on the web. This greatly improves interoperability which is very important, as electronic commerce process normally involves multiple systems with different process modeling languages. This process environment is currently implemented in JAVA, and is based on the IBM aglets software development kit (ASDK).

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.

The criteria for selecting the specific systems are - containment of most common sources for attacks, knowledge of the exact location of each security hole, accessibility to the source code and selection of a typical web application such as a human resource management. We followed the human resource (recruiting and working procedure) to integrate all the facilities in a single programmable platform. The applied framework has been used to map a commercial security library to the target mobile application SoC (System-of-Chip). The applicability of our framework to software architecture has been explored in other multiprocessor scenarios. ERP software (or enterprise resource planning software) is an integrated system used by businesses to combine, organize and maintain the data necessary for operations. The fundamental advantage of ERP is that integrating the myriad processes by which businesses operate saves time and expenses. The whole process has been automated using a methodology that extracts the risk of ERP system by analyzing the class diagram of the system. ERP for the business to develop innovative services for new and existing organizations, has achieved operational excellence with streamlined logistics and manufacturing improve financial performance with tighter internal controls and insights connect headquarters, subsidiaries and partners in a single network. Any type of small and large organization who to maintain their work flow in an organized way and having an intensity of clear book keeping like as business & educational institutions as well as social organizations.

We present the process model employed in the result-maker online consultant (ROC) workflow management system as an example of a declarative workflow language used in practice. We describe and formalize the key primitives of the ROC process model as linear time temporal logic (LTL) formulas, in line with a recent proposal of van der Aalst and Pesic to use LTL as the foundation for flexible declarative process languages. The work is one of the first steps in a recently initiated research project (trustcare) aiming at contributing to the foundations for workflow management for trustworthy pervasive healthcare services by combining research in formal process models, pervasive user interfaces, and development of research based prototype extensions to the ROC workflow management system.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems dominate information technology landscape of many companies. Due to the implement of ERP system for enterprise in different levels, a comprehensive and principled method for evaluating the maturity of ERP customer is eagerly needed to determine and control the risks. As a result, based on the framework of Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM), which conducts assessment of process management and organizational maturity, and the characteristic of ERP customer, the ERP Customer Capability Maturity Model is discussed in this paper. It has two dimensions, one for process maturity and another for enterprise maturity. In addition, it has four areas, which are initial, managing, standardized and optimizing. It is used to qualitatively describe the maturity of the ERP customer and aims to offer an assessment tool for ERP customer, ERP vendor and consultant firm before they implement ERP system.

Cross-company business processes are common in today’s networked economy and are nowadays often supported by process support systems that integrate the information systems of the different partners based on web service technology. In contrast to earlier Workflow Management Systems, which were often deployed in the controlled environment of a single company, the distributed nature of modern solutions make company-spanning web service processes more susceptible to failures. Therefore, it is desirable to augment the process models already at design time with error-handling behavior such that disrupted process instances can for instance be rolled back or completed on an alternative execution path, if, e.g., an individual service is not reachable.In this chapter, we will give an overview of past and current approaches as well as potential future works to exception handling in web service processes. We start with the concepts that were developed in the area of Workflow Management Systems, continue with error-handling techniques in state-of-the-art process modeling languages and finally give an outlook on future automated approaches to error recovery and repair.KeywordsException HandlingBusiness Process Modeling NotationRepair PlanBPEL ProcessFault HandlerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

The term Industry 4.0 derives from the new (fourth) industrial revolution enabling suppliers and manufacturers to leverage new technological concepts like Internet of Things, Big Data, and Cloud Computing: New or enhanced products and services can be created, cost be reduced and productivity be increased. Similar terms are Smart Factory or Smart Manufacturing. The ideas, concepts and technologies are not hype anymore — they are at least partly reality, but many software specification and development aspects are still not sufficiently covered, e.g. standardization, specification and modeling languages. This paper presents an Industry 4.0 process modeling language (I4PML) that is an extension (UML profile with stereotypes) of OMG's BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) standard. We also describe a method for the specification of Industry 4.0 applications using UML and I4PML.