Web Engineering for Workflow-based Applications: Models, Systems and Methodologies

This dissertation presents novel solutions for the construction of Workflow-based Web applications: The Web Engineering DSL Framework, a stakeholder-oriented Web Engineering methodology based on Domain-Specific Languages; the Workflow DSL for the efficient engineering of Web-based Workflows with strong stakeholder involvement; the Dialog DSL for the usability-oriented development of advanced Web-based dialogs; the Web Engineering Reuse Sphere enabling holistic, stakeholder-oriented reuse

MINERVA : Model drIveN and sErvice oRiented framework for the continuous improVement of business process & relAted tools

Organizations are facing several challenges nowadays, one of the most important ones being their ability to react quickly to changes either to their business process (BP) models or to the software implementing them. These changes can come from different sources: external requirements from partners or the market, or new internal requirements for the way that things are carried out by the defined BPs; they may also arise from improvement opportunities detected for the BPs defined, based on BPs execution monitoring and execution evaluation that is done by the organization, and/or its partners and customers. The increasing complexity of both BPs models and the software implementing them, requires the changes needed or the improvements to be carefully weighed against the impact their introduction will have; they ought also to be carried out in a systematic way to assure a successful development. Two key elements are to provide these requirements: the separation of BPs definition from their implementation to minimize the impact of changes in one to the other, and a process to introduce the changes or improvements in the existing BPs and/or software implementing them. Business Process Management (BPM) provides the means for guiding and supporting the modeling, implementation, deployment, execution and evaluation of BPs in an organization, based on the BP lifecycle. The realization of BPs by means of services provides the basis for separating their definition from the technologies implementing them and helps provide a better response to changes in either of the layers defined -definition and implementation of business processes- with minimum impact on the other. Modeling of both BP and services is a key aspect to support this vision, helping provide traceability between elements from one area to the other, so easing the analysis of the impact of changes, among other things. Models have proven to play an important role in the software development process, one of its key uses in the context of BP realization by means of services is that of designing services at a more abstract level than with specific technologies, also promoting reuse by separating services logic from its implementation. MINERVA: Model drIveN & sErvice oRiented framework for the continuous business process improVement & relAted tools is the framework that has been defined in this thesis work; it takes into account all the aspects mentioned, in which the SOC and MDD paradigms are applied to BPs focusing on their continuous improvement, extending an existing BP lifecycle with explicit execution measurement and improvement activities and elements. It is made up of three dimensions: i) conceptual, which defines the concepts that are managed throughout the framework. ii) methodological, which defines a methodology for service oriented development from BPs with automatic generation of SoaML service models from BPMN2 models, along with a continuous improvement process based on execution measurement of the occurrences of BPs in the organization to carry out the improvement effort. iii) tools support for the whole proposal based on several existing tools we have integrated, along with new ones we have developed. The proposals in MINERVA have been validated by means of an experiment and two case studies carried out in the context of real projects in two organizations, from which, as the main result of the applications performed, it can be concluded that MINERVA can be a useful and key guide for the continuous improvement of BPs realized by services and for the development of service oriented systems from BPs, with automatic generation of service models from BP models.Las organizaciones se enfrentan en la actualidad a varios retos, siendo uno de los más importantes su capacidad para reaccionar rápidamente a los cambios ya sea en sus modelos de procesos de negocio (PN) o en el software que los implementa. Estos cambios pueden provenir de distintas fuentes: requisitos externos de socios o del mercado, o nuevos requisitos internos para la forma en que las cosas se llevan a cabo por los PNs definidos; también pueden surgir de las oportunidades de mejora detectadas para los PNs definidos, en base al monitoreo y evaluación de la ejecución de los PNs llevada a cabo por la organización, y/o sus socios y clientes. La creciente complejidad de los modelos de PNs y del software que los implementa, requiere que los cambios o las mejoras sean sopesados cuidadosamente contra el impacto que su introducción tendrá; también deben llevarse a cabo de manera sistemática para asegurar un desarrollo exitoso. Dos elementos son clave para proveer estos requisitos: la separación de la definición de los PNs de su implementación, para minimizar el impacto de los cambios de uno en otro, y un proceso para introducir los cambios o mejoras en los PNs y/o en el software que los implementa. La Gestión de Procesos de Negocio (Business Process Management, BPM) proporciona los medios para guiar y apoyar el modelado, implementación, despliegue, ejecución y evaluación de PNs en una organización, basado en el ciclo de vida de PNs. La realización de PNs con servicios proporciona la base para la separación de su definición de las tecnologías para implementarlos, y ayuda a proporcionar una mejor respuesta a los cambios en cualquiera de las capas definidas -definición e implementación de procesos de negocio- con un impacto mínimo sobre la otra. El modelado de PNs y servicios es un aspecto clave para apoyar esta visión, ayudando a proveer trazabilidad entre los elementos de un área a la otra, por lo tanto facilitando el análisis del impacto de los cambios, entre otras cosas. Los modelos han demostrado jugar un papel importante en el proceso de desarrollo de software, uno de sus usos principales en el contexto de la realización de PNs con servicios es el de diseñar servicios a un nivel más abstracto que con tecnologías específicas, promoviendo la reutilización separando la lógica de los servicios de su implementacion. MINERVA: Model drIveN & sErvice oRiented framework for the continuous business process improVement & relAted tools es el marco que se ha definido en este trabajo de tesis, que toma en cuenta todos los aspectos mencionados, en el cual los paradigmas de Computación Orientada a Servicios (Service Oriented Computing, SOC) y Desarrollo Dirigido por Modelos (Model Driven Development, MDD) se aplican a los PNs con foco en su mejora continua, extendiendo un ciclo de vida PN existente con actividades y elementos explícitos para la medición de la ejecución y mejora de PNs. El marco se compone de tres dimensiones: i) conceptual, que define los conceptos que se manejan en todo el marco. ii) metodológica, que define una metodología para el desarrollo orientado a servicios desde PNs, con generación automática de modelos de servicio en SoaML desde modelos en BPMN2, junto con un proceso de mejora continua basado en la medición de la ejecución de las ocurrencias de los PNs en la organización para llevar a cabo el esfuerzo de mejora. iii) soporte de herramientas para la propuesta completa basado en la integracion de varias herramientas existentes, junto con otras nuevas que hemos desarrollado. Las propuestas de MINERVA han sido validadas por medio de un experimento y dos casos de estudio realizados en el marco de proyectos reales en dos organizaciones, de los cuales, como resultado principal de las aplicaciones realizadas, se puede concluir que MINERVA puede ser una guía útil y clave para la mejora continua de PNs realizados por servicios y para el desarrollo de sistemas orientados a servicios desde PNs, con generación automática de modelos de servicio a partir de modelos de PN

A Semantic Framework for Declarative and Procedural Knowledge

In any scientic domain, the full set of data and programs has reached an-ome status, i.e. it has grown massively. The original article on the Semantic Web describes the evolution of a Web of actionable information, i.e.\ud information derived from data through a semantic theory for interpreting the symbols. In a Semantic Web, methodologies are studied for describing, managing and analyzing both resources (domain knowledge) and applications (operational knowledge) - without any restriction on what and where they\ud are respectively suitable and available in the Web - as well as for realizing automatic and semantic-driven work\ud ows of Web applications elaborating Web resources.\ud This thesis attempts to provide a synthesis among Semantic Web technologies, Ontology Research, Knowledge and Work\ud ow Management. Such a synthesis is represented by Resourceome, a Web-based framework consisting of two components which strictly interact with each other: an ontology-based and domain-independent knowledge manager system (Resourceome KMS) - relying on a knowledge model where resource and operational knowledge are contextualized in any domain - and a semantic-driven work ow editor, manager and agent-based execution system (Resourceome WMS).\ud The Resourceome KMS and the Resourceome WMS are exploited in order to realize semantic-driven formulations of work\ud ows, where activities are semantically linked to any involved resource. In the whole, combining the use of domain ontologies and work ow techniques, Resourceome provides a exible domain and operational knowledge organization, a powerful engine for semantic-driven work\ud ow composition, and a distributed, automatic and\ud transparent environment for work ow execution

Preservation process modelling (including a review of semantic process modelling and workflow languages)

This report describes in a formalised way a comprehensive set of processes for digital preservation. These processes are drawn from a series of relevant projects and standards from the preservation community, including OAIS, TRAC, PLANETS and others. The result is intended to be used as a generic baseline that those interested in audiovisual preservation can refer to, extract and customise processes in order to fit with their specific AV preservation needs

General Module for a Configuration of Cloud Services

Práca bola vypracovaná v rámci programu Erasmus na Hochschule Furtwangen University v Nemecku. Bakalářská práce se zabývá konfigurováním Cloud Computing služeb. Popisuje model vývoje a použítí těchto technologií. V práci je navrhnutý a implementovaný všeobecný modul na konfiguraci Cloud Computing služeb. Aplikace poskytuje univerzální nástroj na generování uživatelského rozhraní podle dokumentu ve formátu XML. Vytvořený systém zjednodušuje a sjednocuje grafické uživatelské rozhraní.Bachelor's thesis was performed during the semester abroad in Hochschule Furtwangen University, Germany. Bachelor's thesis deals with configuration of cloud services. It describes model of develepment and usage of this technology. Application provides universal tool for generating user interface, according to document in XML based language. Created application simplify and unify graphical user interface.

Web engineering for workflow-based applications: models, systems and methodologies

Workflow-based Web applications present a central pillar of companies\u27 endeavors towards increased business process efficiency and flexibility. Considering their particular characteristics, this book presents innovative approaches for their efficient, completely model-driven construction with particular emphasis on effective stakeholder involvement, usability-oriented dialog design and cross-methodological reuse

SPEM 2.0 extension for pervasive information systems

Pervasive computing is a research field of computing technology that aims to achieve a new computing paradigm. In this paradigm, the physical environment has a high degree of pervasiveness and availability of computers and other information technology (IT) devices, usually with communication capabilities. Pervasive Information Systems (PIS), composed by these kinds of devices, bring issues that challenge software development for them. Model-Driven Development (MDD), strongly focusing and relying on models, has the potential to allow: the use of concepts closer to the domain and the reduction of semantic gaps; higher automation and lower dependency to technological changes; higher capture of expert knowledge and reuse; an overall increased productivity. Along with the focus and use of models, software development processes are fundamental to efficient development efforts of successful software systems. For the description of processes, Software & Systems Process Engineering Meta-Model Specification (SPEM) is the current standard specification published by the Object Management Group (OMG). This paper presents an extension to SPEM (version 2.0) Base Plug-In Profile that includes stereotypes needed to support a suitable structural process organization for MDD approaches aiming to develop software for PIS. A case study is provided to evaluate the applicability of the extension