A Model-Driven Solution for the Automatic Generation of Executable Code from Business Process Models

2014 ◽  
pp. 213-253
Author(s):  
Javier Fabra ◽  
Valeria de Castro ◽  
Verónica Andrea Bollati ◽  
Pedro Álvarez ◽  
Esperanza Marcos
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Automatic Generation ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
Executable Code ◽  
The One

The business goals of an enterprise process are traced to business process models with the aim of being carried out during the execution stage. The automatic translation from these models to fully executable code that can be simulated and round-trip engineered is still an open challenge in the Business Process Management field. Model-driven Engineering has proposed a set of methodologies to solve the existing gap between business analysts and software developers, but the expected results have not been reached yet. In order to rise to this challenge, in this chapter the authors propose a solution based on the integration of three previous proposals: SOD-M, DENEB, and MeTAGeM. On the one hand, SOD-M is a model-driven method for the development of service-oriented systems. Business analysts can use SOD-M to transform their business goals into composition service models, a type of model that represents business processes. On the other hand, DENEB is a platform for the development and execution of flexible business processes, represented by means of workflow models. The authors' approach focuses on the automatic transformation of SOD-M models to DENEB workflow models, resulting in a business process that is coded by a class of high-level Petri-nets, and it is directly executable in DENEB. The model transformation process has been automated using the MeTAGeM tool, which automatically generates the set of ATL rules required to transform SOD-M models to DENEB workflows. Finally, the integration of the three proposals has been illustrated by means of a real system related to the management of medical images.

Assigning Ontological Meaning to Workflow Nets

2012 ◽  
pp. 209-244
Author(s):  
Pnina Soffer ◽  
Maya Kaner ◽  
Yair Wand
Keyword(s):  
Petri Nets ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
Workflow Nets ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
General Constraints ◽  
Process Behavior

A common way to represent organizational domains is the use of business process models. A Workflow-net (WF-net) is an application of Petri Nets (with additional rules) that model business process behavior. However, the use of WF-nets to model business processes has some shortcomings. In particular, no rules exist beyond the general constraints of WF-nets to guide the mapping of an actual process into a net. Syntactically correct WF-nets may provide meaningful models of how organizations conduct their business processes. Moreover, the processes represented by these nets may not be feasible to execute or reach their business goals when executed. In this paper, the authors propose a set of rules for mapping the domain in which a process operates into a WF-net, which they derived by attaching ontological semantics to WF-nets. The rules guide the construction of WF-nets, which are meaningful in that their nodes and transitions are directly related to the modeled (business) domains. Furthermore, the proposed semantics imposes on the process models constraints that guide the development of valid process models, namely, models that assure that the process can accomplish its goal when executed.

scholarly journals Extracting business vocabularies from business process models: SBVR and BPNM standards-based approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1515-1535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Skersys ◽  
Kestutis Kapocius ◽  
Rimantas Butleris ◽  
Tomas Danikauskas
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Systems Development ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Information Systems Development ◽  
Business Modeling ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Model Driven

Approaches for the analysis and specification of business vocabularies and rules are relevant topics in both Business Process Management and Information Systems Development disciplines. However, in common practice of Information Systems Development, the Business modeling activities still are of mostly empiric nature. In this paper, aspects of the approach for semi-automatic extraction of business vocabularies (BV) from business process models (BPM) are presented. The approach is based on novel business modeling-level OMG standards ?Business Process Model and Notation? (BPMN) and ?Semantics for Business Vocabularies and Business Rules? (SBVR), thus contributing to OMG?s vision of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) and to model-driven development in general. The discussed extraction approach is evaluated against fully-automatic BPMN BPM ? SBVR BV transformation that has been developed in parallel to the presented work.

Assigning Ontological Meaning to Workflow Nets

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pnina Soffer ◽  
Maya Kaner ◽  
Yair Wand
Keyword(s):  
Petri Nets ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
Workflow Nets ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
General Constraints ◽  
Process Behavior

A common way to represent organizational domains is the use of business process models. A Workflow-net (WF-net) is an application of Petri Nets (with additional rules) that model business process behavior. However, the use of WF-nets to model business processes has some shortcomings. In particular, no rules exist beyond the general constraints of WF-nets to guide the mapping of an actual process into a net. Syntactically correct WF-nets may provide meaningful models of how organizations conduct their business processes. Moreover, the processes represented by these nets may not be feasible to execute or reach their business goals when executed. In this paper, the authors propose a set of rules for mapping the domain in which a process operates into a WF-net, which they derived by attaching ontological semantics to WF-nets. The rules guide the construction of WF-nets, which are meaningful in that their nodes and transitions are directly related to the modeled (business) domains. Furthermore, the proposed semantics imposes on the process models constraints that guide the development of valid process models, namely, models that assure that the process can accomplish its goal when executed.

scholarly journals МОНІТОРИНГ ТА ОЦІНКА ЕФЕКТИВНОСТІ БІЗНЕС-ПРОЦЕСІВ ГРОМАДИ

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (5(17)) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Біленко В. О.
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Business Process Management ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Process Reengineering ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Business Process Monitoring ◽  
Process Classification

The essence of business process management theory is investigated. It is noted that the effective functioning of the organization in modern conditions is largely determined by the formalization of interacting business processes performed in the organization. The analysis of the business process classification, existing business process models, the estimation of economic efficiency and the analysis of existing systems of business process monitoring are presented. The features of economic-mathematical models of business process reengineering are noted, as well as an example of optimization of the business process of supporting the users of the united territorial community.

Applying a Model-Driven Framework for Gap Analysis

2013 ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Valeria de Castro ◽  
Esperanza Marcos ◽  
Juan Manuel Vara ◽  
Willem-Jan van den Heuvel ◽  
Mike Papazoglou
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
New Business ◽  
Business Functions ◽  
Business Requirements

The objective of business service engineering is the re-use of business process functionalities in new composite applications. To achieve this aim it is necessary to start capturing the existing application portfolio and software resources (i.e. legacy systems, existing enterprise applications, etc) and comparing them to “new” business service functions that need to be provided in a new, redesigned environment. This comparison between new business functions or business requirements (to-be) and current capabilities (as-is) is known in business process management sciences as gap analysis. This chapter presents a model-driven framework for gap analysis that identifies and conceptualizes the processes and services in a business domain by discovering potential overlaps and discrepancies between them. The proposal involves the identification and manipulation of mappings between as-is and standard to-be business process models. The authors describe, by means of a basic implementation, how model-driven techniques can be used to detect intersections and disparities between particular as-is and to-be models.

scholarly journals Business processes exceptions in relation to operational performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 908-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Dijkman ◽  
Oktay Turetken ◽  
Geoffrey Robert van IJzendoorn ◽  
Meint de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Normal Flow ◽  
Throughput Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Business process models describe the way of working in an organization. Typically, business process models distinguish between the normal flow of work and exceptions to that normal flow. However, they often present an idealized view. This means that unexpected exceptions – exceptions that are not modeled in the business process model – can also occur in practice. This has an effect on the efficiency of the organization, because information systems are not developed to handle unexpected exceptions. The purpose of this paper is to study the relation between the occurrence of exceptions and operational performance. Design/methodology/approach The paper does this by analyzing the execution logs of business processes from five organizations, classifying execution paths as normal or exceptional. Subsequently, it analyzes the differences between normal and exceptional paths. Findings The results show that exceptions are related to worse operational performance in terms of a longer throughput time and that unexpected exceptions relate to a stronger increase in throughput time than expected exceptions. Practical implications These findings lead to practical implications on policies that can be followed with respect to exceptions. Most importantly, unexpected exceptions should be avoided by incorporating them into the process – and thus transforming them into expected exceptions – as much as possible. Also, as not all exceptions lead to longer throughput times, continuous improvement should be employed to continuously monitor the occurrence of exceptions and make decisions on their desirability in the process. Originality/value While work exists on analyzing the occurrence of exceptions in business processes, especially in the context of process conformance analysis, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first work that analyzes the possible consequences of such exceptions.

scholarly journals Collaborative method to maintain business process models updated

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Castela ◽  
Paulo Dias ◽  
Marielba Zacarias ◽  
José Tribolet
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Business Process ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Organizational Environment ◽  
Business Process Model ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Over Time

Business process models are often forgotten after their creation and its representation is not usually updated. This appears to be negative as processes evolve over time. This paper discusses the issue of business process models maintenance through the definition of a collaborative method that creates interaction contexts enabling business actors to discuss about business processes, sharing business knowledge. The collaboration method extends the discussion about existing process representations to all stakeholders promoting their update. This collaborative method contributes to improve business process models, allowing updates based in change proposals and discussions, using a groupware tool that was developed. Four case studies were developed in real organizational environment. We came to the conclusion that the defined method and the developed tool can help organizations to maintain a business process model updated based on the inputs and consequent discussions taken by the organizational actors who participate in the processes.

Recovering Business Process Models with Process Patterns

2013 ◽  
pp. 223-249
Author(s):  
Vitus S. W. Lam
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Control Flow ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Workflow Patterns ◽  
Business Process Models ◽  
The Core ◽  
Forward Engineering ◽  
The Relationship

Originating from a pragmatic need to document strategies for modelling recurrent business scenarios, collections of workflow patterns have been proposed in the business process management community. The concrete applications of these workflow patterns in forward engineering have been extensively explored. Conversely, the core concern of business process archaeology is on recovering business process models from legacy systems utilizing reverse engineering methods. Little attention is given to the relationship between business process recovery and workflow patterns. This chapter aims to give a compact introduction to workflow control-flow patterns, workflow data patterns, workflow exception patterns, and service interaction patterns. In particular, the feasibility of combining workflow patterns with business process archaeology is examined by drawing on the research results of the MARBLE framework.

Tool Based Integration of Requirements Modeling and Validation into Business Process Modeling

2014 ◽  
pp. 285-309
Author(s):  
Sven Feja ◽  
Sören Witt ◽  
Andreas Speck
Keyword(s):  
Business Process ◽  
Process Modeling ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
Level Of Abstraction ◽  
Textual Representations ◽  
Model Driven Software Development ◽  
The One

Business process models (BPM) are widely used for specification of software systems, as the basis for model driven software development. Hence, it is crucial to ensure that these BPMs fulfill the requirements they have to comply with. These requirements may originate from various domains. Many may be considered non-functional requirements. They are affecting privacy, security, as well as compliance or economic aspects. In order to avoid error-prone manual checking, automated checking techniques should be applied wherever possible. This requires expressing requirements in a formal manner. The common textual representations for such formal requirements are not well accepted in the modeling domain, since they are settled on a lower level of abstraction, compared to BPMs. In this chapter, the authors present the Business Application Modeler (BAM), which integrates formal requirement specification and automated checking with process modeling. On the one hand BAM supports different notations for process modeling. On the other hand a graphical notation, called G-CTL, for the formal specification of requirements is provided. G-CTL is based on temporal logic, and statements are expressed on the level of abstraction of the graphical process models. Furthermore BAM provides the ability to define selective views on process models. This allows complex domain specific annotations of processes as well as the assignment of responsibilities regarding functional domains. Moreover, BAM integrates into common requirements engineering processes.

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