Indexing Business Processes based on Annotated Finite State Automata

IoT-aware business processes are gaining momentum as part of an effort to exploit the potential of IoT technology in the business process management field. The conventional lifecycle of a business process (BP) consists of several phases, from modeling and analysis down to implementation, monitoring and optimization. The availability of widely used standard notations for BP modeling, such as BPMN, allows business analysts to specify their BPs and get the corresponding implementations in an effective and largely automated way. Introducing IoT technologies from the BP design phase proves to bring significant improvements in terms of BP efficiency but also difficulties, when it comes to deal with the complexity and heterogeneity of such technologies at BP modeling time. This paper proposes an approach, named Process over Things (PoT), that aims at overcoming such difficulties by using a standardized ontology to deal with IoT interaction at BP modeling and design time. The proposed approach introduces a BPMN extension to explicitly address the IoT ontology in the BPMN model, yet being independent of the specific ontology implementation. A technology named PoT Broker is also introduced to fill the gap between the BP execution platform and the IoT devices access layer. The PoT Broker also obtains a significant level of automation when implementing IoT-aware BPs making use of a specific IoT ontology. The paper describes the architecture of the PoT approach and illustrates its application to a case study dealing with a weather alert system.

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.

This paper proposes a new approach for modeling business processes using the AI-Planning paradigm. Based on the concepts of agents, actions, constraints and goals, the AI-Planning approach allows explicit representation of various types of internal controls. Different threats to business processes, such as fraud, can be modeled as planning tasks—that is, finding a sequence of actions that intend to achieve a defined set of goals. Applying modeled threats to models of business processes, a planning reasoner can generate hypothetical scenarios of exposures. Because of its ability to explicitly represent threats, controls and exposures, we argue that the AI-Planning approach is useful for business process modeling from the control perspective. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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.

Information Systems (IS) are mostly built on three major concerns: data, security and business processes. Dealing with the correctness of these concerns makes the IS more efficient, which is of a great importance for organizations, given the impact their IS can have on their productivity. However, these concerns are often defined by different stakeholders leading to several inconsistencies between the resulting artifacts. This paper outlines our model driven approach to align and formally analyze in a decoupled way the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for data modeling, Role-based Access Control (RBAC) for security policies definition and the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) for process modeling. Several works addressed the integration of BPMN and UML or BPMN and Security, but none of them tried to make the bridge between the three concerns in a unified framework in order to formally establish their consistency. In this ongoing work we propose two kinds of formal analysis: the static analysis that deals with the structural properties of the three concerns, and the dynamic analysis, which is intended to apply the B method and underlying formal reasoning tools in order to animate processes and formally check their feasibility regarding data and security.

Business Process and Practice Alignment Meta-model

<b>Research background and purpose</b>: Efficient management of business processes is crucial for operational excellence and customer satisfaction. Organizations employ Business Process Management techniques to design, monitor, optimize and automate these processes effectively. This paper explores the elements that ensure the smooth functioning of business operations and drive organizational success, and is focused on the determinants of business process effectiveness. Based on a literature review, this study aims to examine the role of knowledge transfer and integration, business process efficiency and business process modelling in shaping business process effectiveness. <b>Design/methodology/approach:</b> Data collected from polish 300 managers and specialists using the CAWI method was analysed using structural equation modelling. <b>Findings:</b> The study provides evidence of the direct influence of business process efficiency on business process effectiveness. The study's findings also reveal the direct impact of business process modelling, as well as knowledge transfer and integration, on business process efficiency. It is surprising that the influence of business process modelling, and knowledge transfer and integration on the effectiveness of business processes is not recognized. <b>Value added and limitations:</b> The contribution of this study is to highlight the importance of business process modelling (as a major factor), as well as knowledge transfer and integration, in business process effectiveness, and the importance of business process efficiency in shaping business process effectiveness. The study is subject to certain limitations, among which are: the use of a single-respondent approach, conducting the survey among managers from different sectors (the specifics of the business can have a significant impact on shaping the constructs we study), conducting the study at a specific point in time, which creates challenges in accurately assessing the effectiveness of business processes.

Communication flow orientation in business process modeling and its effect on redesign success: Results from a field study

The necessity of aligning an enterprise's information system (IS) model to its business process (BP) model is incontestable to the consistent analysis of the business performance. However, the main difficulty of establishing/maintaining BP-IS model alignment stems from the dissimilarities in the knowledge of the information system developers and the business process experts. To overcome these limits, the authors propose a model-driven architecture compliant methodology that helps software analysts to build an IS analysis model aligned to a given BP model. The proposed methodology allows mastering transformation from computation independent model to platform independent model. The CIM level expresses the BP, which is modelled through the standard BPMN and, at the PIM level represents the aligned IS model, which is generated as use case diagram, system sequence diagrams, and class diagram. CIM to PIM transformation accounts for the BP structural and semantic perspectives to generate an aligned IS model that respects the best-practice granularity level and the quality of UML diagrams.

Although Business process modelling is an increasingly popular research area for both organisations and enterprises due to its usefulness in optimizing resources management, business reengineering and business performance, it is not yet widely accepted in Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs), which are vital for sustainable economy development. The understanding of Business Process is an essential approach for an Organization to achieve set objectives and improve its operations. It has been able to show Business Analysts, and Managers where bottleneck exists in the system, how to optimize the Business Process to reduce cost of running the Organization, and the required resources needed for an Organization. This is clear for large scale organizations and enterprises but under research investigation for SMEs. Business Process Modelling (BPM) is a representation of the processes of the Organization. Several modelling techniques have been proposed and used to capture the characteristics of business processes. However, limited guidelines exist for selecting appropriate modelling techniques based on the characteristics of the problem and its requirements. This is even more accurate in the case of selecting proper BPM software tools to achieve those BPM modelling and simulation goals. This paper aims at presenting a comparative analysis of some relatively popular business process modelling techniques focusing on the associated software tools. The comparative framework proposed is based on the following major criteria: data flow capability, logical reasoning and understandability, specification of roles, and capability of simulation, flexibility and ease of use, simulation support and scope. However, the emphasis of this investigation is put on SME applicability of these tools and techniques. Therefore, the first goal is to define proper selection criteria for the application of BPM tools to SMEs. The proposed framework can serve as the basis for evaluating further modelling techniques and generating selection procedures focusing on a comparison of existing tools to implement these techniques properly for SMEs. This is to enable a potential user/modeller choose the right technique and tool in modelling critical SME Business Processes in order to analyse and optimize its operations.

This chapter reveals the roles of business process modeling (BPM) and business process reengineering (BPR) in eGovernment, thus describing the concepts of eGovernment and BPM; BPM methodologies; business process modeling notation (BPMN); the importance of BPR in government-to-citizen (G2C) e-commerce; the relationship between BPM and eGovernment-based citizen satisfaction; the application of BPR in eGovernment; and the implementation of eGovernment through BPM. eGovernment is a modern trend that is driven by the advances in BPM and BPR as well as the aspirations of citizens who place increasing demands on governments' service. By modeling business processes in eGovernment, public sector organizations can achieve improvements in transparency and reduction in costs and resource requirements, resulting in improved business performance and compliance. The chapter argues that applying BPM and BPR in eGovernment has the potential to enhance public sector performance and achieve organizational goals in public sector organizations.

Today’s fast and competitive markets require businesses to react faster to changes in its environment, and sometimes even before the changes actually happen. Changes can occur on almost every level, e.g. change in demand of customers, change of law, or change of the corporate strategy. Not adapting to these changes can result in financial and legal consequences for any business organisation. IT-controlled business processes are essential parts of modern organisations which motivates why business processes are required to efficiently adapt to these changes in a quick and flexible way. This requirement suggests a more dynamic handling of business processes and their models, moving from design-time business process models to run-time business process models. One general approach to address this problem is provided by the community of models@run.time, in which models reflect the system’s current state at any point in time and allow immediate reasoning and adaptation mechanisms. This paper examines the potential role of business process models at run-time by: (1) discussing the state-of the art of both, business process modelling and models@run.time, (2) reflecting on the nature of business processes at run-time, and (3) most importantly, highlighting key research challenges that need addressing to make this step.

Business analysts define business process models for describing a series of tasks to produce services or products to serve business goals. Hence business process models represent business requirements for development of the software that enables automation of the business processes. When tasks in a business process are changed, such changes also trigger changes in the artifacts that have been produced during development of the related software. Analysis of an impact a business process change has on the software is useful for the software project manager and the system analyst to plan the effort to change the artifacts, including the software itself, accordingly. This paper presents a traceability impact analysis using traceability information of the old version of the business process model and its related software artifacts. The impact analysis is based on different patterns of business process changes that are made to the old business process model to create a new version of the model. Detection algorithms are used to identify various patterns of process structure changes so that business process tasks that are changed and software artifacts that would be impacted by the changes can be reported. The paper also discusses a supporting tool and its evaluation.

In this study, we argue that important of strategy, business, design, and technology alignment affecting an organization’s ICT enterprise architecture is also reflected by business management perspective and business process model. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an effective way to develop current and future views of the entire enterprise. EA does this primarily by integrating the processes for strategic, business and technology planning in a way that also integrates with other business and technology process. The seamless collaborate and synergize working between technology and non-technology executives and professionals are needed in the designing and formulating enterprise architecture. Therefore, in order to facilitate this analysis, we propose an approach to relate EA specified business architecture to business process innovation, modeled using Service blueprint and Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Our approach is accompanied by a method that supports the process automation of business process model and is illustrated by a Healthcare service practice as a case study.

Business Process Management (BPM) is the factual criteria for business process modeling. Although it is widely used in various fields, when required When using business processes to express big data business processes, the existing business process specifications do not support it. Big data business can only be simulated as multiple manual tasks before execution, which is not friendly to non-big data technology practitioners, and will The non-standardized business process and poor reusability lead to a reduction in the efficiency of business completion. On the other hand, while supporting big data technology brings flexibility to BPM, it consumes a lot of process engine resources when executing big data business processes, and the execution efficiency is low, which brings greater burden to the process engine. Aiming at the above deficiencies, this paper carries out the following work: (1) Extend the existing business process modeling, and define a new category of " Big Data Service Task" by extending the activity elements in BPMN2.0 (2) Propose a compatible big data technology The task scheduling strategy in the business process includes a single big data task scheduling decision and an intensive big data task scheduling decision.