Constraint Expressions and Workflow Satisfiability

A workflow specification defines a set of steps and the order in which those steps must be executed. Security requirements and business rules may impose constraints on which users are permitted to perform those steps. A workflow specification is said to be satisfiable if there exists an assignment of authorized users to workflow steps that satisfies all the constraints. An algorithm for determining whether such an assignment exists is important, both as a static analysis tool for workflow specifications, and for the construction of run-time reference monitors for workflow management systems. We develop new methods for determining workflow satisfiability based on the concept of constraint expressions, which were introduced recently by Khan and Fong. These methods are surprising versatile, enabling us to develop algorithms for, and determine the complexity of, a number of different problems related to workflow satisfiability.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1205.0852; to appear in Proceedings of SACMAT 201

Linking design and manufacturing domains via web-based and enterprise integration technologies

The manufacturing industry faces many challenges such as reducing time-to-market and cutting costs. In order to meet these increasing demands, effective methods are need to support the early product development stages by bridging the gap of communicating early design ideas and the evaluation of manufacturing performance. This paper introduces methods of linking design and manufacturing domains using disparate technologies. The combined technologies include knowledge management supporting for product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, aggregate process planning systems, workflow management and data exchange formats. A case study has been used to demonstrate the use of these technologies, illustrated by adding manufacturing knowledge to generate alternative early process plan which are in turn used by an ERP system to obtain and optimise a rough-cut capacity plan

Discovering duplicate tasks in transition systems for the simplification of process models

This work presents a set of methods to improve the understandability of process models. Traditionally, simplification methods trade off quality metrics, such as fitness or precision. Conversely, the methods proposed in this paper produce simplified models while preserving or even increasing fidelity metrics. The first problem addressed in the paper is the discovery of duplicate tasks. A new method is proposed that avoids overfitting by working on the transition system generated by the log. The method is able to discover duplicate tasks even in the presence of concurrency and choice. The second problem is the structural simplification of the model by identifying optional and repetitive tasks. The tasks are substituted by annotated events that allow the removal of silent tasks and reduce the complexity of the model. An important feature of the methods proposed in this paper is that they are independent from the actual miner used for process discovery.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATIONAL SYSTEMS - APPLICABILITY IN INVESTMENTS AND BANKING

Supported by information systems, the regional or world economy transformed itself in a global economy. Taking fast and optimal decisions is needed for each step an individual or an organization makes in order to support competitiveness in the context of radical evolution of the world economy. When dealing with fundamental decisions, spatial information plays an important role because it allows integration of data from various domains, having multiple connections, as well as their visualization and analysis in a useful, suggestive and efficient manner. Decision support systems (DSS) are spatially based computer applications and data which assists managers in making decisions. Since Geographical Informational Systems technology has a great deal to offer to the mortgage finance industry the goal of this paper is to analyze the main theoretical and practical approaches regarding the role of the geographic location and spatial relationships over the outcomes of the banking, housing and mortgage market.Investment, Banking, GIS Modeling, Decision Making System, Spatial Analysis

Integrating Taxonomies into Theory-Based Digital Health Interventions for Behavior Change: A Holistic Framework

Digital health interventions have been emerging in the last decade. Due to their interdisciplinary nature, digital health interventions are guided and influenced by theories (e.g., behavioral theories, behavior change technologies, persuasive technology) from different research communities. However, digital health interventions are always coded using various taxonomies and reported in insufficient perspectives. The inconsistency and incomprehensiveness will bring difficulty for conducting systematic reviews and sharing contributions among communities. Based on existing related work, therefore, we propose a holistic framework that embeds behavioral theories, behavior change technique (BCT) taxonomy, and persuasive system design (PSD) principles. Including four development steps, two toolboxes, and one workflow, our framework aims to guide digital health intervention developers to design, evaluate, and report their work in a formative and comprehensive way

Integrating declarative and imperative approach to model logistics service processes

Purpose: There is a widespread recognition of the importance of correctly modeling service processes as an effective way to provide a comprehensive understanding of the process and to enhance the service quality to clients. Taking this into account, this paper aims to construct the logistics service process model using the integration of the declarative approach and imperative approach. Design/methodology/approach: A methodology integrating the declarative and imperative process modeling approach is proposed for modeling the logistics service processes. Through investigation of the service departments and services involved, the process is decomposed into loosely-structured parts modeled by a declarative approach and highly structured parts modeled by an imperative approach. The loosely-structured and highly-structured parts are then integrated to form the model for the logistics service process. Findings: Through a case study for a Chinese bulk port, the integrative method proves to be effective in modeling the loosely-structured logistics service processes. The result model is able to express the logistics regulations and corresponding rules across different organizations as well as the strict execution order of the process activities inside a particular organization. Originality/value: The model could be the starting point for further logistics service process investigation. Future work could be conducted for conformance checking of the logistics service process using the model as a reference model.Peer Reviewe

Specification of vertical semantic consistency rules of UML class diagram refinement using logical approach

Unified Modelling Language (UML) is the most popular modelling language use for software design in software development industries with a class diagram being the most frequently use diagram. Despite the popularity of UML, it is being affected by inconsistency problems of its diagrams at the same or different abstraction levels. Inconsistency in UML is mostly caused by existence of various views on the same system and sometimes leads to potentially conflicting system specifications. In general, syntactic consistency can be automatically checked and therefore is supported by current UML Computer-aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. Semantic consistency problems, unlike syntactic consistency problems, there exists no specific method for specifying semantic consistency rules and constraints. Therefore, this research has specified twenty-four abstraction rules of class‟s relation semantic among any three related classes of a refined class diagram to semantically equivalent relations of two of the classes using a logical approach. This research has also formalized three vertical semantic consistency rules of a class diagram refinement identified by previous researchers using a logical approach and a set of formalized abstraction rules. The results were successfully evaluated using hotel management system and passenger list system case studies and were found to be reliable and efficient