Design and Realisation of Scalable Business Process Management Systems for Deployment in the Cloud

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Chun Ouyang ◽  
Michael Adams ◽  
Arthur H. M. Ter Hofstede ◽  
Yang Yu
Keyword(s):  
Load Balancing ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
User Demand ◽  
Process Engine ◽  
Automated Support ◽  
Dynamic Execution

Business Process Management Systems ( BPMSs ) provide automated support for the execution of business processes in modern organisations. With the emergence of cloud computing, BPMS deployment considerations are shifting from traditional on-premise models to the Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS ) paradigm, aiming at delivering Business Process Automation as a Service. However, scaling up a traditional BPMS to cope with simultaneous demand from multiple organisations in the cloud is challenging, since its underlying system architecture has been designed to serve a single organisation with a single process engine. Moreover, the complexity in addressing both the dynamic execution environment and the elasticity requirements of users impose further challenges to deploying a traditional BPMS in the cloud. A typical SaaS often deploys multiple instances of its core applications and distributes workload to these application instances via load balancing. But, for stateful and often long-running process instances, standard stateless load balancing strategies are inadequate. In this article, we propose a conceptual design of BPMS capable of addressing dynamically varying demands of end users in the cloud, and present a prototypical implementation using an open source traditional BPMS platform. Both the design and system realisation offer focused strategies on achieving scalability and demonstrates the system capabilities for supporting both upscaling, to address large volumes of user demand or workload, and downscaling, to release underutilised computing resources, in a cloud environment.

On Flexibility in Business Process Management Systems

2012 ◽  
pp. 184-198
Author(s):  
Amit V. Deokar ◽  
Nazim Taskin
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Support Systems ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Process Support ◽  
Key Dimensions

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) provide the necessary infrastructure for managing business processes, in both intra-organizational and inter-organizational contexts. These process support systems also provide the technical support for managing changes in business processes, either at design time or run-time. Consequently, it is necessary for a BPMS to be flexible and amenable to changes at various levels. This chapter highlights key dimensions along which process support systems such as BPMS can be made more flexible, provides an overview of the existing body of knowledge on these dimensions, and motivates the future work in this direction. The intention is to provide the reader a strong starting point for either conducting a more detailed literature study or pursuing further research along any of these dimensions.

scholarly journals IMPLEMENTASI SISTEM PENGELOLAAN PROSES BISNIS MENGACU PADA MIT PROCESS HANDBOOK

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Putu Wuri Handayani ◽  
Stéphane Bressan ◽  
Doan Khanh Han ◽  
Omar Boucelma
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Extensible Markup Language ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Base System ◽  
Markup Language ◽  
Extensible Markup

MIT Process Handbook menawarkan metode penyimpanan dan pencarian proses bisnis suatu organisasi. Komunitas bisnis atau mahasiswa yang mengambil topik kuliah proses bisnis dapat mempelajari best-practice proses bisnis yang terdapat dalam MIT Process Handbook. Kumpulan proses bisnis yang terdapat di MIT Process Handbook hanya mengelola deskripsi proses bisnis tersebut dalam format teks. Kemunculan teknologi Extensible Markup Language (XML), kemampuan XML dalam melakukan query, adopsi dari banyak industri untuk menggunakan standar berbasis XML dalam pendefinisian dan pengeksekusian proses bisnis serta dukungan dari sistem basis data yang sudah mendukung penyimpanan data dalam format XML memudahkan semua pihak dalam perancangan dan implementasi sistem pengelolaan bisnis proses dengan mengadopsi standar dan teknologi XML ini. Sistem pengelolaan proses bisnis ini dapat digunakan untuk mengelola, mendistribusikan, dan melakukan query terhadap proses bisnis tertentu. Penelitian ini menjelaskan mengenai rancangan dan arsitektur sistem pengelolaan proses bisnis dengan kumpulan proses bisnis yang dapat digunakan untuk mengajar mata kuliah Business Process Management di program studi Sistem Informasi. MIT Process Handbook offers a method of storage and retrieval of an organization's business processes. Business community or college students who take the topic of business processes can learn best-practice business processes contained in the MIT Process Handbook. Collection of business processes that are contained in the MIT Process Handbook only manage the business process description in text. The emergence of Extensible Markup Language (XML), XML querying capabilities, adoption of many industries to use XML-based standards in the definition and execution of business processes and data base system that supports data storage in XML format facilitates all parties in the design and implementation of business process management systems by adopting these standards and XML technologies. Business process management systems can be used to manage, distribute, and perform a query against a particular business process. This study describes the design and architecture of business process management system with a collection of business processes that can be used to teach Business Process Management in Information Systems courses.

scholarly journals Roadmap for operational sustainability: an approach based on Integrated Management Systems and Business Process Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-212
Author(s):  
Camila dos Santos Ferreira ◽  
Camila Fabricio Poltronieri ◽  
Diego Rodrigues Iritani ◽  
Mônica Tani Vicente ◽  
Stefano de Nadai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Integrated Management Systems

Purpose - This paper proposes a roadmap for the sustainability of operations based on the principles and practices taken from Integrated Management Systems (IMS) and Business Process Management (BPM). Theoretical framework - Companies must consider results based on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line, and as such, some researchers point to the contribution made by IMS for sustainability. Another important aspect of changing to more sustainable business models is organizational structure. BPM focuses on implementing horizontal management in the organization through business processes. Design/methodology/approach – Within this context, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried out to identify IMS and BPM principles, practices and techniques, then a roadmap was designed and field research was carried out by specialists. Findings - Field research findings indicate that the roadmap represents a framework which can support organizations to achieve their sustainability goals. Research limitations/implications - One of the limitations in the study was the reduced number of specialists who analyzed the roadmap. Therefore, it is suggested, as a further study, that this roadmap is validated by other experts, including people from other countries. Another limitation is that the study must progress further on the issues of implementation posed by the proposed roadmap. As such, a further study should be carried out to address this point. Originality/value - This study uses concepts that have already been consolidated in the literature (IMS and BPM) as support for companies that seek to become more sustainable. Key words - Integrated Management System; Business Process Management; Roadmap; Sustainability; IMS; BPM.

scholarly journals Advanced Business Process Management in Networked E-Business Scenarios

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 70-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Grefen ◽  
Oktay Turetken
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Business Networks ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Automated Support

In the modern economy, we see a shift towards networked business scenarios. In many contemporary situations, the operation of multiple organizations is tightly coupled in collaborative business networks. To allow this tightly coupled collaboration, business process management (BPM) in these collaborative networks is becoming increasingly important. We discuss automated support for this networked BPM: automated means to manage business processes that span multiple autonomous organizations - thereby combining aspects of process management and e-business. We first provide a conceptual background for networked BPM. We describe a number of research approaches in this area, ranging from early developments to contemporary designs in a service-oriented context. This provides an overview of developments in which we observe several major trends. Firstly, we see a development from support for static business processes to support for highly dynamic processes. Secondly, we see how approaches move from addressing simple business collaboration networks to addressing complex networks. Thirdly, we find a move from the use of dedicated information technology to the use of standard technology. Finally, we observe that the BPM research efforts move through time from pushing new BPM technology into application domains to using BPM to realize business-IT alignment in application contexts.

scholarly journals Advanced Business Process Management in Networked E-Business Scenarios

2020 ◽  
pp. 638-675
Author(s):  
Paul Grefen ◽  
Oktay Turetken
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Business Networks ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Automated Support

In the modern economy, we see a shift towards networked business scenarios. In many contemporary situations, the operation of multiple organizations is tightly coupled in collaborative business networks. To allow this tightly coupled collaboration, business process management (BPM) in these collaborative networks is becoming increasingly important. We discuss automated support for this networked BPM: automated means to manage business processes that span multiple autonomous organizations - thereby combining aspects of process management and e-business. We first provide a conceptual background for networked BPM. We describe a number of research approaches in this area, ranging from early developments to contemporary designs in a service-oriented context. This provides an overview of developments in which we observe several major trends. Firstly, we see a development from support for static business processes to support for highly dynamic processes. Secondly, we see how approaches move from addressing simple business collaboration networks to addressing complex networks. Thirdly, we find a move from the use of dedicated information technology to the use of standard technology. Finally, we observe that the BPM research efforts move through time from pushing new BPM technology into application domains to using BPM to realize business-IT alignment in application contexts.

scholarly journals Networked Business Process Management

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Grefen
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Dynamic Networks ◽  
Business Networks ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
It Alignment ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Automated Support

In the current economy, a shift can be seen from stand-alone business organizations to networks of tightly collaborating business organizations. To allow this tight collaboration, business process management in these collaborative networks is becoming increasingly important. This paper discusses automated support for this networked business process management: automated means to manage business processes that span multiple autonomous organizations. The author starts this paper with a treatment of intra- and inter-organizational business processes to provide a conceptual background for business process management in business networks. The author describes a number of research approaches in this area, including the context of these approaches and the architectures of the automated systems proposed by them. The approaches are described from early developments in the field relying on dedicated technology to current designs based on standardized technology in a service-oriented context. The paper thereby provides an overview of developments in the area of inter-organizational business process management in the spectrum from simple, static business networks to complex, dynamic networks. The author observes that the described BPM research efforts move from pushing new BPM technology into application domains to using BPM to realize business-IT alignment in complex application contexts.

Systems for Interorganizational Business Process Management

2011 ◽  
pp. 403-425
Author(s):  
Paul Grefen
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
Automated Support

This chapter is devoted to automated support for interorganizational business process management, that is, formation and enactment of business processes that span multiple autonomous organizations. A treatment of intra- and interorganizational business processes is included to provide a conceptual background. It describes a number of research approaches in this area, including the context of these approaches and the design of the systems proposed by them. The approaches are described from early developments in the field relying on dedicated technology to current designs based on standardized technology from the service-oriented context. The chapter thereby provides an overview of developments in the area of interorganizational business process management.

scholarly journals Resource Controllability of Business Processes Under Conditional Uncertainty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Zavatteri ◽  
Carlo Combi ◽  
Luca Viganò
Keyword(s):  
Access Control ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Autonomous Systems ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Current Research Problem ◽  
Constraint Networks ◽  
Process Engine ◽  
A Current

AbstractA current research problem in the area of business process management deals with the specification and checking of constraints on resources (e.g., users, agents, autonomous systems, etc.) allowed to be committed for the execution of specific tasks. Indeed, in many real-world situations, role assignments are not enough to assign tasks to the suitable resources. It could be the case that further requirements need to be specified and satisfied. As an example, one would like to avoid that employees that are relatives are assigned to a set of critical tasks in the same process in order to prevent fraud. The formal specification of a business process and its related access control constraints is obtained through a decoration of a classic business process with roles, users, and constraints on their commitment. As a result, such a process specifies a set of tasks that need to be executed by authorized users with respect to some partial order in a way that all authorization constraints are satisfied. Controllability refers in this case to the capability of executing the process satisfying all these constraints, even when some process components, e.g., gateway conditions, can only be observed, but not decided, by the process engine responsible of the execution. In this paper, we propose conditional constraint networks with decisions (CCNDs) as a model to encode business processes that involve access control and conditional branches that may be both controllable and uncontrollable. We define weak, strong, and dynamic controllability of CCNDs as two-player games, classify their computational complexity, and discuss strategy synthesis algorithms. We provide an encoding from the business processes we consider here into CCNDs to exploit off-the-shelf their strategy synthesis algorithms. We introduce $$\textsc {Zeta}$$ Z E T A , a tool for checking controllability of CCNDs, synthesizing execution strategies, and executing controllable CCNDs, by also supporting user interactivity. We use $$\textsc {Zeta}$$ Z E T A to compare with the previous research, provide a new experimental evaluation for CCNDs, and discuss limitations.

Benefits and Challenges for Business Process Management in the Cloud

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ute Riemann
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Cloud Services ◽  
Cloud Infrastructure ◽  
Business Application

Business processes are not only variable they are as well dynamic. A key benefit of Business Process Management (BPM) is the ability to adjust business processes accordingly in response to changing market requirements. In parallel to BPM, enterprise cloud computing technology has emerged to provide a more cost effective solution to businesses and services while making use of inexpensive computing solutions, which combines pervasive, internet, and virtualization technologies (). Despite the slow start, the business benefits of cloud computing are as such that the transition of BPM to the cloud is now underway. Cloud services refer to the operation of a virtualized, automated, and service-oriented IT landscape allowing the flexible provision and usage-based invoicing of resources, services, and applications via a network or the internet. The generic term “X-as-a-Service” summarize the business models delivering almost everything as a service. BPM in the cloud is often regarded as a SaaS application. More recently, BPM is being regarded as a PaaS as it facilitates the creation and deployment of applications, in this case business process solutions. The PaaS landscape is the least developed of the four cloud based software delivery models previously discussed. PaaS vendors, such as IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft delivered an application platform with managed cloud infrastructure services however, more recently the PaaS market has begun to evolve to include other middleware capabilities including process management. BPM PaaS is the delivery of BPM technology as a service via a cloud service provider. For the classification as a PaaS a BPM suite requires the following capabilities: the architecture should be multi-tenant, hosting should be off premise and it should offer elasticity and metering by use capabilities. When we refer to BPM in the cloud, what we are really referring to is a combination of BPM PaaS and BPaaS (Business Process as a Service). Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) is a set of pre-defined business processes that allows the execution of customized business processes in the cloud. BPaaS is a complete pre-integrated BPM platform hosted in the cloud and delivered as a service, for the development and execution of general-purpose business process application. Although such a service harbors an economic potential there are remaining questions: Can an individual and company-specific business process supported by a standardized cloud solution, or should we protect process creativity and competitive differentiation by allowing the company to design the processes individually and solely support basic data flows and structures? Does it make sense to take a software solution “out of the box” that handles both data and process in a cloud environment, or would this hinder the creativity of business (process) development leading to a lower quality of processes and consequently to a decrease in the competitive positioning of a company? How to manage the inherent compliance and security topic. Within a completely integrated business application system, all required security aspects can be implemented as a safeguarding with just enough money. Within the cloud, however, advanced standards and identity prove is required to monitor and measure information exchange across the federation. Thereby there seems to be no need for developing new protocols, but a standardized way to collect and evaluate the collected information.

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