A Connection of Task-centric with Artefact-centric Models through Semantic Task Specification and its Use for Formal Verification

Task- and artefact-centric business process models (BPMs) are mostly used in isolation. This entails, e.g., problems with formal and automated verification of BPMs through model checking. We address this gap through semantic task specification, which is transferred from more widely known semantic service specification. In summary, we present a new and systematic approach for connecting a task-centric BPM (in BPMN) with a model of an artefact-centric object life cycle through semantic task specification. As a consequence, we achieve a seamless approach for formal and automated verification of BPMs using model checking

Introduction to Enterprise Architecture and Business Processes Analysis Minitrack

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Investigating business process elements: a journey from the field of Business Process Management to ontological analysis, and back

Business process modelling languages (BPMLs) typically enable the representation of business processes via the creation of process models, which are constructed using the elements and graphical symbols of the BPML itself. Despite the wide literature on business process modelling languages, on the comparison between graphical components of different languages, on the development and enrichment of new and existing notations, and the numerous definitions of what a business process is, the BPM community still lacks a robust (ontological) characterisation of the elements involved in business process models and, even more importantly, of the very notion of business process. While some efforts have been done towards this direction, the majority of works in this area focuses on the analysis of the behavioural (control flow) aspects of process models only, thus neglecting other central modelling elements, such as those denoting process participants (e.g., data objects, actors), relationships among activities, goals, values, and so on. The overall purpose of this PhD thesis is to provide a systematic study of the elements that constitute a business process, based on ontological analysis, and to apply these results back to the Business Process Management field. The major contributions that were achieved in pursuing our overall purpose are: (i) a first comprehensive and systematic investigation of what constitutes a business process meta-model in literature, and a definition of what we call a literature-based business process meta-model starting from the different business process meta-models proposed in the literature; (ii) the ontological analysis of four business process elements (event, participant, relationship among activities, and goal), which were identified as missing or problematic in the literature and in the literature-based meta-model; (iii) the revision of the literature-based business process meta-model that incorporates the analysis of the four investigated business process elements - event, participant, relationship among activities and goal; and (iv) the definition and evaluation of a notation that enriches the relationships between activities by including the notions of occurrence dependences and rationales

Contract-based test generation for data flow of business processes using constraint programming

The verification of the properties of a business process (BP) has become a significant research topic in recent years. In the early stages of development, the BP model (e.g. BPMN, EPC), the BP contract (task contract, regulations and laws, business rules), and the test objectives (requirements) are the only elements available. In order to support the modellers, automatic tools must be provided in order to check whether their business processes are in line with the BP contract. This paper proposes a new business process called the automatic test-case generator to automate the generation of test cases and verify that a BP has the intended functionality (semantic conformance). This generator is analysed, designed and implemented by taking into account the following tasks: Annotation of the BP model with the business process contract, calculation of the various data flow paths, transformation of these data flow paths into SSA form, and a modelling of a constraint satisfaction problem (constraint programming) of the BP contract for all data flow paths. The execution of this business process generates the test cases automatically.Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-04095Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009-1371

Knowledge Components and Methods for Policy Propagation in Data Flows

Data-oriented systems and applications are at the centre of current developments of the World Wide Web (WWW). On the Web of Data (WoD), information sources can be accessed and processed for many purposes. Users need to be aware of any licences or terms of use, which are associated with the data sources they want to use. Conversely, publishers need support in assigning the appropriate policies alongside the data they distribute. In this work, we tackle the problem of policy propagation in data flows - an expression that refers to the way data is consumed, manipulated and produced within processes. We pose the question of what kind of components are required, and how they can be acquired, managed, and deployed, to support users on deciding what policies propagate to the output of a data-intensive system from the ones associated with its input. We observe three scenarios: applications of the Semantic Web, workflow reuse in Open Science, and the exploitation of urban data in City Data Hubs. Starting from the analysis of Semantic Web applications, we propose a data-centric approach to semantically describe processes as data flows: the Datanode ontology, which comprises a hierarchy of the possible relations between data objects. By means of Policy Propagation Rules, it is possible to link data flow steps and policies derivable from semantic descriptions of data licences. We show how these components can be designed, how they can be effectively managed, and how to reason efficiently with them. In a second phase, the developed components are verified using a Smart City Data Hub as a case study, where we developed an end-to-end solution for policy propagation. Finally, we evaluate our approach and report on a user study aimed at assessing both the quality and the value of the proposed solution