SUMA: A Semantic Business Process Management Architecture

A company's competitiveness relies heavily on its business processes and accurate knowledge to execute its business processes with agility and efficiency. Business Process Management (BPM) initially promised to provide the business world with suitable tools and techniques for successful BPM without help from the IT world. However, the current practice of BPM has several fundamental problems, including difficulty with automatic discovery and the integration of business processes across organizations. Understanding that the main cause of these problems lies in the lack of semantics on business process, we first define a variety of business process ontologies in order to build a semantic business process space (SBPS) for the limited area of sales order. We then explain how the SBPS satisfies the requirements for successful implementation of semantic BPM (SBPM) and demonstrate with a scenario how SBPM can be realized in the environment of SBPS. Our novel approach will reduce the time and cost necessary for the development of a new business process in a fast-changing environment and provide practitioners with useful insights into the proper implementation of the SBPM. Although our paper defines semantic business process knowledge for only a limited domain, its insights can be readily extended to other areas of business.

Business process management (BPM) is a widely adopted approach for identifying, documenting, and improving business processes. One of the main goals of BPM is to assure that the business processes of an organization constantly produce the desired outcome. One considerable challenge in this context is that not every process can be fully anticipated in advance. Particularly so-called knowledge intensive processes are characterized by a high level of complexity, reduced repeatability, and the occurrence of unexpected events. Many authors argue that knowledge intensive processes may benefit from informal work practices as they exhibit more potential for improvements. Non knowledge intensive processes, on the other hand, are typically considered to be less frequently affected by negative deviations from management intended structures. In this paper, we conduct a positivist case study to challenge these viewpoints from literature. In particular, we empirically investigate the effect of informal work practices on knowledge intensive as well as non knowledge intensive business processes in a German IT company that offers one of Europe's leading online project platforms. Our results show that existing view points are too general and that a more balanced discussion of knowledge intensity is needed.

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.

In the modern business scenario, organizations are vesting high efforts in managing process sustainability as part of their operations management practices. The global environmental concerns for the welfare of the society have facilitated this change. Research studies have reported Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as one of the prerequisites in developing and maintaining efficient business processes. The process sustainability related initiatives and various processes related regulatory compliances have created the need for sophisticated IT tools like BPM (Business Process Management) and BI (Business Intelligence) in organizations. Thus with the advancement of ICT, a strong desire to enhance the business process performance through BPM and BI applications is felt across organizations. However, there is scant research available on leveraging the advantages of these applications in sustainability development. Therefore, this paper aims to present a conceptual architecture framework using an integrated BPM and BI solution to develop an orientation among practitioners and academicians towards the inclusion of ICT in attaining a sustainable, energy efficient business operations or processes. The framework is based on the literature pertaining to the role of BPM and BI in process sustainability as well as from the inputs of practitioners involved in the field of BPM and BI.

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.

The theory of business process management system actively plays a principle role in the domain of semantic web service and business process management. This paper briefly described my current Ph.D work result and the perspective about specification and verification of data-centric probabilistic business process system which integrating traditional probabilistic business process and probabilistic database. The probabilistic business process system is described by probabilistic automaton which is an abstracted framework for the transition system. By integrating probabilistic database, probabilistic automaton would be provided greater expressive power to handle the probabilistic event and high volume probabilistic data.

DT4BPM: A proposed approach for combining Digital Transformation and Business Process Management

Introduction. In the context of modern challenges and needs of the global business environment, effective management of business processes and ensuring economic security are extremely important for the success of IT enterprises. This article examines the key aspects of economic security and business process management in the context of information technology, enabling analysis, evaluation, and optimization of enterprise activities in this sector. Research Objective. Studying key aspects of economic security and business process management in the context of their optimization in the IT sector, as well as researching methods of business process management and providing practical recommendations that can be useful for IT enterprises to improve their efficiency and competitiveness. Method (methodology). The research methodology involves literature analysis, empirical studies, and the use of analytical, synthesis, modeling, and forecasting methods to gain a deeper understanding of economic security and business process management in the IT sector. General scientific techniques have been utilized, including the analysis of scientific literature addressing issues of economic security and business process management. Empirical studies include the analysis of practical situations in the IT sector, allowing for the examination of specific cases of success or challenges in the field of economic security and business process management. This combination of methods will enable a comprehensive analysis and provide recommendations for improving practices in the IT sector. The results. The research methodology encompasses literature analysis, empirical studies, and the utilization of analysis, synthesis, modeling, and forecasting methods to gain a deeper understanding of economic security and business process management in the IT sector. Empirical research involves analyzing practical situations in the IT sector, allowing for the examination of specific cases of success or challenges in the realm of economic security and business process management. This combination of methodologies enables a comprehensive analysis and provides recommendations for improving business process management practices within the context of economic security in the IT sector Conclusions. The issues of achieving economic security status by IT businesses have been studied and summarized, taking into account their specificities. Methods for assessing the effectiveness of business process management through the use of indicator systems adapted to the IT industry have been generalized. Suggestions have been made for developing performance indicators for IT enterprise business processes to enhance management practices and ensure stability and competitiveness of IT companies within the context of economic security.

Business processes are designed to execute strategies that aim at achieving organisational goals. During the last decade, several methods have been proposed that prescribe the use of goal-oriented requirements engineering techniques for supporting different business process management activities, in particular business process modelling. The integration of goal modelling and business process modelling aims at increasing the alignment between business strategies and the processes with their supporting IT systems. This new research area, which the authors call Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering for Business Processes (GORE-for-BP), is developing rapidly, but without a clear conceptualization of the focus and scope of the proposed GORE-for-BP methods. Furthermore, an overview is lacking of which methods exist and what their level of maturity is. This paper therefore presents a research review of the GORE-for-BP area, with the aim of identifying relevant methods and assessing their focus, scope, and maturity. This study used Systematic Literature Review and Method Meta-Modelling as research methods to identify and evaluate the state of the GORE-for-BP research area and to propose a research agenda for directing future research in the area. Nineteen methods were identified, which is an indication of an active research area. Although some similarities were found with respect to how goal models are transformed into business process models (or vice-versa), there is also considerable divergence in modelling languages used and the extent of coverage of typical requirements engineering and business process management lifecycle phases. Furthermore, the exploitation of requirements engineering techniques in the full business process management lifecycle is currently under researched. Also, the maturity of the methods found in terms of the formalisation of the transformation activity, the elaboration of method guidelines, and the extent to which methods are validated, can be further improved.

Companies have to adhere to compliance requirements. Typically, both, business experts and compliance experts, are involved in compliance analysis of business operations. Hence, these experts need a common understanding of the business processes for effective compliance management. In this paper, we argue that process templates generated out of compliance requirements can be used as a basis for negotiation among business and compliance experts. We introduce a semi automated approach to synthesize process templates out of compliance requirements expressed in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL). As part of that, we show how general constraints related to business process execution are incorporated. Building upon existing work on process mining algorithms, our approach to synthesize process templates considers not only control-flow, but also data-flow dependencies. Finally, we elaborate on the application of the derived process templates and present an implementation of our approach.

Business process management (BPM) is an approach focused on the continuous improvement of business processes, providing for this a collection of best practices. These best practices enable the redesign of business processes to meet the desired performance. IT service management (ITSM) defines the management of IT operations as a service. There are several ITSM frameworks available, consisting in best practices that propose standardizing these processes for the respective operations. By adopting these frameworks, organisations can align IT with their business objectives. The constant need for change, competitiveness and innovation in organisations compels managers to analyse its business processes and find improvement opportunities. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand how BPM can be used to improve of ITSM processes. An exploratory case study in a multinational company based in Lisbon, Portugal, is conducted for the improvement of the time performance of an incident management process. Data were gained through documentation, archival records, interviews and focus groups with a team involved in IT support service. The results of this study demonstrate how BPM highlighted the current incident management process incongruences. The preliminary evidences of this research indicate that with the application of the remain BPM lifecycle phases may be possible to improve incident management process. During the next months the authors intend to identify the main problems and simulate the appropriate BPM heuristics to understand the impact in the business organisation.

Acknowledgements. Foreword. Chapter 1. Introduction. Chapter 2. What is Application Integration? 2.1. The economy: the engine of integration. 2.2. The history and the issues of application integration. 2.3. Consequences for IT. 2.4. Integration typologies. 2.4.1. Classifying the integration problem types. 2.4.2. Classifying the applications. 2.5. EAI: Integrating enterprise applications (A2A). 2.5.1. Accounting interpretation: EAI precursor. 2.5.2. EAI today. 2.6. Integrating inter-enterprise exchanges (B2B). 2.7. Coupling A2A and B2B: A2B (or Business Collaboration). 2.8. Managing business processes (BPM). 2.9. Service-oriented architectures (SOA). Chapter 3. Levels in Integration Services. 3.1. Transport and connectivity. 3.1.1. Defining partners. 3.1.2. Data transport. 3.1.3. Connectivity. 3.1.4. Supervising transport. 3.2. Adapting the information. 3.2.1. Transformation. 3.2.2. Routing. 3.2.3. Storage. 3.2.4. Defining the rules. 3.2.5. Supervising exchanges. 3.3. Automating business processes. 3.3.1. Modeling business processes. 3.3.2. Executing business processes. 3.3.3. Supervising business processes. 3.4. Business process and integration: mediation and exchange. 3.4.1. Business process level and integration level. 3.4.2. Mediation process sub-level. 3.4.3. Exchange process sub-level. 3.4.4. Interaction between the sub-levels. 3.4.5. Interaction between integration and business process (BPM). 3.5. Choosing the exchange architecture. 3.5.1. Synchronous/asynchronous communication. 3.5.2. Architecture: centralized or distributed? Chapter 4. Types of Integration Projects. 4.1. Integrating a single application. 4.1.1. Exchange cartography. 4.1.2. The integration platform. 4.2. IT infrastructure projects. 4.2.1. Urbanization of information systems. 4.2.2. IT exchange infrastructure. 4.3. Integrating inter-enterprise exchanges. 4.3.1. Exchanging electronic documents (EDI). 4.3.2. XML standards. 4.3.3. Inter-enterprise spaghetti system. 4.3.4. Inter-enterprise exchange platforms. 4.3.5. Single Window initiatives. 4.4. Managing business processes. 4.4.1. Points of departure. 4.4.2. BPM project opportunity: choosing the processes. 4.4.3. The approach. 4.4.4. Expected results. 4.5. Implementing a service architecture. 4.5.1. Characteristics of an SOA. 4.5.2. Elements of an SOA infrastructure. 4.5.3. Applicable norms and standards. Chapter 5. Application Integration Tools. 5.1. Brokers. 5.2. Application servers. 5.3. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). 5.4. BPM tools. Chapter 6. Understanding Integration Failures. 6.1. High failure rates. 6.2. The technological approach. 6.2.1. New technology or new packaging? 6.2.2. Technology confronts reality. Chapter 7. Integration Myths. 7.1. The mirage of the single tool. 7.1.1. A conservative choice: example and consequences. 7.1.2. Modern architectural choice: example and consequences. 7.2. XML: miracle format. 7.3. Business adapters: simplifying the implementation. 7.3.1. Business adapter: implementation - maintenance - problem. 7.3.2. By way of a conclusion on business adapters. 7.4. Java: the proof of a modern solution. 7.4.1. The real reason for Java. 7.4.2. Limitations of an all-Java integration solution. 7.5. Files: the poor cousins of application integration. 7.6. Process and services are everything. 7.6.1. BPM and SOA: top-down approach - from business to IT. 7.6.2. EAI and B2B: bottom-up approach - from IT to business. 7.6.3. Complementary approaches. Chapter 8. Integration and IT Urbanization. 8.1. IT urbanization review. 8.2. Limits of urbanization without an integration solution. 8.3. How do integration solutions support IT urbanization? 8.4. Limits of integration solutions without IT urbanization. 8.5. How does IT urbanization support integration solutions? 8.6. The need to correlate integration solutions and urbanization. Chapter 9. Choosing an Application Integration Solution . 9.1. General approach. 9.2. Methodology for calculating return on investment (ROI). 9.2.1. Introduction to the method. 9.2.2. Equations: maintaining the language of integration. 9.2.3. Operational workload gains through centralized supervision. 9.2.4. Quality of service improvements. 9.3. Opportunity study. 9.3.1. Analyzing the real needs of the enterprise. 9.3.2. Real needs and the state of the art. 9.3.3. Identifying possible business benefits. 9.4. Go/NoGo from General Management. 9.5. The search for a candidate: Request for Information (RFI). 9.5.1. Why issue an RFI? 9.5.2. Key points in an integration RFI. 9.6. Request for Proposal (RFP) or specifications document. 9.6.1. Interest and spirit of an RFP. 9.6.2. Myths: standard questionnaire + one-stop supplier. 9.6.3. Key points in an RFP for application integration. 9.7. Presentations from the candidates. Chapter 10. Deployment Methodology. 10.1. Introduction to the method. 10.2. Deployment methodology: general principles. 10.3. Special case: deploying BPM and SOA. 10.4. Economic models of cost allocation. 10.4.1. Cost allocation linked to usage. 10.4.2. Cost allocation linked to usage and services (developed model). Chapter 11. Operational Examples of Implementation . 11.1. Rationalizing bonds purchase order management (banking). 11.1.1. The context. 11.1.2. The choices. 11.1.3. The solution. 11.1.4. The results. 11.2. An EAI hub (telecommunications). 11.2.1. The context. 11.2.2. The choice. 11.2.3. Implementing the pilot: first difficulties. 11.2.4. Integration tests: disturbing results. 11.2.5. How did we end up here? Consequences of architectural choices. 11.2.6. Performance tests: catastrophic results. 11.2.7. Report card: final decision. 11.2.8. The lesson: what we could have done. 11.3. A2A and B2B (retail). 11.3.1. The context. 11.3.2. The choice. 11.3.3. The solution. 11.3.4. The results. 11.4. BPM and SOA in service delivery. 11.4.1. The context. 11.4.2. The choice. 11.4.3. The solutions. 11.4.4. The results. 11.4.5. Points to watch for this type of solution. Conclusion . Bibliography. Index.

The aim of the article is to present a framework enabling the quick and practical assessment of the nature of business processes, necessary to select business process management (BPM) tools and methodologies in accordance with the actual nature of BPs in the organization. The lack of such compliance reduces or delays the results, or it can even cause the failure of BPM implementations. To avoid this risk, organizations should be aware of the nature of their processes prior to planning and implementing BPM. The article summarizes extensive literature studies and experiences resulting from the practical implementation of business process management in organizations with diverse types of business processes. Developed in accordance with the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, the Business Process Nature Assessment Framework (BPNAF) uses an approach that combines business process management with the management of the knowledge used and created in the course of the process execution. The article presents the concept of the business process space and the Business Process Nature Assessment Framework (BPNAF) based thereon, which enables the quick and efficient assessment of the nature of business processes in an organization in terms of their unpredictability and knowledge intensity. The presentation of the results enables the objective recommendation of the selection of implementation methodologies, HRM policies, or IT systems supporting BPM in line with the real nature of business processes implemented in the organization, in a way that is understandable to both specialists and non-specialists. The article is dedicated to researchers, but above all to practitioners using BPM. The application of the presented BPNAF allows managers to choose the methodology and tools supporting the management of business processes, but also human resources or knowledge, in accordance with the objective nature of the processes and the needs of the organization. The simplicity and speed of analysis, as well as the ability to directly use its results in the initial implementation of business process management, mean that the benefits of using the BPNAF are much greater than the effort or preparation costs involved. An important limitation of the work is the fact that the analysis of the business process space and, consequently, the BPNAF are limited to only two dimensions: unpredictability and knowledge-intensity. The article presents the original concept of the business process space and the author's model of the BPNAF framework based on its two-dimensional version. The supplement of BPM implementation methodologies with the use of the results of this work is of key importance for the success or failure of implementations.

In order for enterprises to collaborate at the business-process level, they must deal with two kinds of processes: the public conversation processes specifying inter-enterprise document flows, and the private business processes specifying local workflows of document manipulation and other related tasks. The provisioning, interaction and integration of conversation management and business process management, have become the common interest of the e-business (electronic business) industry. We discuss the relationship and interaction between conversation management and business process management; point out the difference between public conversation processes (e.g. BPSS processes) and peer-conversation processes (e.g. BPEL4WS processes). We then illustrate our collaborative process management system that has functionally separated conversation manager and business process manager. The conversation manager is based on the ebXML (Extensible Markup Language) BPSS (Business Process Execution Language) standard; it is used for validating document exchange at run-time and for activating corresponding process tasks. We have also proposed the conversation model driven asynchronous task activation mechanism for interaction between a conversation process and the coupled business process dynamically. With this mechanism, generic APIs (application program interfaces) between the conversation manager and the business process manager can be easily defined and used by multiple plugged-in conversation managers.

One of the key issues in corporate management is business process management. That is why the greatest interest for company analysts is the issue of effective forecasting of business processes. In today's digitalization of the economy, integration and automation of business processes have become the main priorities for achieving efficiency and effectiveness of companies, and especially for effective management decisions. This problem can be solved with the help of integrated systems, which are tools for effective management decisions, modeling and optimization of business processes. The article provides an analytical review of known forecasting methods and identifies the features of their application, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages that will take them into account in modeling the company and promote economic development, competitiveness and optimize business processes.