The Dichotomy of Modeling and Execution

Author(s):  
Matthias Kloppmann ◽  
Dieter Koenig ◽  
Simon Moser

This chapter introduces a set of languages intended to model and run business processes. The Business Process Modeling Notation 1.1 (BPMN) is a notation used to graphically depict business processes. BPMN is able to express choreographies, i.e. the cooperation of separate, autonomous business processes to jointly achieve a larger scenario. Since BPMN is only a notation, there is no specification for a meta-model that allows rendering BPMN choreographies into an executable form. This chapter describes how the Service Component Architecture (SCA) and the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) help to close that gap. BPMN, SCA and WS-BPEL can jointly be used and combined to model, deploy and execute business process choreographies. We will also integrate the related BPEL4People specification, since BPMN allows human ‘user tasks’, but WS-BPEL focuses only on automated business process. The authors argue that, based on these specifications, the dichotomy between modeling and execution can be addressed efficiently. In this chapter, we will show that a key aspect of the future of Business Process Management is to combine graphical modeling (via BPMN) with a precise specification of an executable business process (via WS-BPEL and related standards).

Author(s):  
Witold Abramowicz ◽  
Agata Filipowska ◽  
Monika Kaczmarek ◽  
Tomasz Kaczmarek

Semantic Business Process Management (SBPM) bridges the gap between business and IT by taking advantage of the Semantic Web technologies. The foundation for SBPM is the detailed ontological description of enterprise models. These models encompass also business processes taking place in enterprises. Within this chapter, we show how the process-oriented knowledge may be captured for the needs of SBPM. For this reason, we describe semantically enhanced Business Process Modeling Notation (sBPMN) being a conceptualization of one of the main process modeling notations with the fast growing popularity among the tool vendors, namely BPMN. The sBPMN ontology is based on the BPMN specification and may be used as a serialization format by the BPMN modeling tools, thus, making creation of annotations invisible to users. In this chapter, we also present an example of a process model description.


Author(s):  
Terje Wahl ◽  
Guttorm Sindre

Evaluation of modelling languages is important both to be able to select the most suitable languages according to the needs and to improve existing languages. In this chapter, business process modeling notation (BPMN) is presented and analytically evaluated according to the semiotic quality framework. BPMN is a functionally oriented language well suited for modeling within the domain of business processes, and probably general processes outside of the business domain. The evaluation indicates that BPMN is easily learned for simple use, and business process diagrams (BPDs) are relatively easy to understand. Tools can fairly easily map BPDs into the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) (formerly known as BPEL4WS) format, but executable systems then require creation of Web services representing the activities in BPDs. An evaluation according to the Bunge-Wand-Weber (BWW) ontology is useful for finding ontological discrepancies, and the semiotic framework is useful for evaluating quality on a relatively general level. Thus, these methods complement each other.


2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Kloppmann ◽  
Dieter König ◽  
Gerhard Pfau

SummaryThe landscape of current specifications for the description of business processes consists of the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) as an adopted standard, and a number of functional extensions allowing for human interactions (BPEL4People), sub-processes with life-cycle coupling (BPEL-SPE), and Java integration (BPELJ). Also relevant for the assembly of portable, executable applications is the Service Component Architecture (SCA) which provides a model for service-based components complementing WS-BPEL. This paper provides an overview of the current business process standards landscape and its further evolution.


Author(s):  
Donald R. Chand ◽  
Alina M. Chircu

This chapter presents a variety of business process modeling notations that range from programming logic flowcharts to the new standard, BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation), as put forth by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) (http://www.bpmi.org). Specifically, it discusses (1) the use of unstructured programming flowcharts in modeling business processes and their adaptation in process flow diagramming notation, (2) the UML activity diagram, and (3) BPMN, a comprehensive notation for documenting and modeling complex business processes. Using simple examples, this chapter brings out the inherent complexity of modeling business processes and the need for modeling tools that synchronize and align the mental models of business users, process analyst and information technology (IT) systems developers in order to correctly represent the intended process.


Author(s):  
VITUS S. W. LAM

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) plays a significant role in the specification of business processes. To ascertain the validity of BPMN models, a disciplined approach to analyze their behavior is of particular interest to the field of business process management. This paper advocates a semantics-preserving method for transforming BPMN models into New Symbolic Model Verifier (NuSMV) language as a means to verify the models. A subset of BPMN is specified rigorously in the form of a mathematical model. With this foundation in place, the translation for the subset of BPMN notational elements is then driven by a set of formally defined rules. The practicality of our approach is exemplified using an on-line flight reservation service.


Author(s):  
Leila Kord Toudeshki ◽  
Mir Ali Seyyedi ◽  
Afshin Salajegheh

Business competency emerges in flexibility and reliability of services that an enterprise provides. To reach that, executing business processes on a context-aware business process management suite which is equipped with monitoring, modeling and adaptation mechanisms and smart enough to react properly using adaptation strategies at runtime, are a major requisite. In this paper, a context-aware architecture is described to bring adaptation to common business process execution software. The architecture comes with the how-to-apply methodology and is established based on process standards like business process modeling notation (BPMN), business process execution language (BPEL), etc. It follows MAPE-K adaptation cycle in which the knowledge, specifically contextual information and their related semantic rules — as the input of adaptation unit — is modeled in our innovative context ontology, which is also extensible for domain-specific purposes. Furthermore, to support separation of concerns, we took apart event-driven adaptation requirements from process instances; these requirements are triggered based on ontology reasoning. Also, the architecture supports fuzzy-based planning and extensible adaptation realization mechanisms to face new or changing situations adequately. We characterized our work in comparison with related studies based on five key adaptation metrics and also evaluated it using an online learning management system case study.


Author(s):  
Paz Perez González ◽  
Jose M. Framinan

A business process can be defined as a set of related tasks that are carried out within a business or organization in order to obtain certain output that should add value for the business client or organization (Gunasekaran & Kobu, 2002). An enterprise can be then analyzed and integrated through its business processes. Thus, business process modeling (BPM) becomes a fundamental part of business process management, as it enables a common understanding and analysis of a company’s business processes. Particularly, BPM using computer-aided design tools and a standard visual form of notation to describe, validate, and simulate business processes has taken on a new importance (Jonah, 2002).


Author(s):  
Partha B. Sampathkumaran ◽  
Martin Wirsing

Designing and optimizing a Business Process based on its financial parameters is a challenging task which requires well defined approaches, actions and recommendations which when implemented lead to tangible and quantifiable results. In this paper the authors consider Business Processes represented through the Business Process Modeling Notation with their Costs evaluated through a pattern based methodology. Using this concept of Cost calculation the authors analyze the effect of different well known best practices on the financial parameters of the process. In this study the authors also evaluate the impact of each task in a process on the overall Cost through Sensitivity Analysis leading to a structured approach to parameter variation to achieve financial optimization. The study briefly introduces the Business Process Modeling Notation, Workflow Patterns, and available Performance Measures Evaluation Techniques and recommends an adaptation of Devils Quadrangle suitable for impact evaluation.


1995 ◽  
Vol 04 (02n03) ◽  
pp. 145-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
VOLKER GRUHN

Most of today’s approaches to business process engineering (also called business process management) start from an activity-centered perspective. They describe activities to be carried out within a business process and their relationships, but they usually pay little attention to the objects manipulated within processes. In this article, we discuss an approach to business process modeling, model analysis, and business process enaction (also called workflow management) which is based on data modeling, activity modeling, and organization modeling. In fact, the ℒeu approach to business process management considers data models (describing types of objects to be manipulated in a business process and their relationships), activity models (describing activities to be carried out in a business process), and organization models (describing organizational entities involved in a business process) as separate, but equally important, facets of business processes.


2011 ◽  
pp. 835-865
Author(s):  
Steen Brahe

Many enterprises use their own domain concepts when they model business processes. They may also use technology in specialized ways when they implement the business processes in a Business Process Management (BPM) system. In contrast, BPM tools often provide a standard business process modeling language, a standard implementation technology and a fixed transformation that may generate the implementation from the model. This makes the tools inflexible and difficult to use. This chapter presents another approach. It applies the basic model driven development principles of direct representation and automation to BPM tools through a tool experiment in Danske Bank. We develop BPM tools that capture Danske Banks specific modeling concepts and use of technology and which automate the generation of code. An empirical evaluation reveals remarkable improvements in development productivity and code quality. We conclude that BPM tools should provide flexibility to allow customization to the specific needs of an enterprise.


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