Configurable structure tree as a means to manage configurable business processes

© 2017 IEEE. A configurable Business Process (BP) is an abstract BP that engineers customize with respect to specific requirements. To keep track of the multiple and recurrent customizations that lead to a set of derived BPs, this paper proposes a knowledge-based approach that uses a new Process Structure Tree called configurable PST (cPST). A cPST abstracts a separate variability option of the configurable BP. All cPSTs should be equivalent to the set of all PSTs associated with the derived BPs that could originate from the same configurable BP. This paper also proposes a logic-based configuration model for capturing configuration details on the cBP and describing the cPST computing

An extensible manufacturing resource model for process integration

Driven by industrial needs and enabled by process technology and information technology, enterprise integration is rapidly shifting from information integration to process integration to improve overall performance of enterprises. Traditional resource models are established based on the needs of individual applications. They cannot effectively serve process integration which needs resources to be represented in a unified, comprehensive and flexible way to meet the needs of various applications for different business processes. This paper looks into this issue and presents a configurable and extensible resource model which can be rapidly reconfigured and extended to serve for different applications. To achieve generality, the presented resource model is established from macro level and micro level. A semantic representation method is developed to improve the flexibility and extensibility of the model

Modeling Variability in the Performance Perspective of Business Processes

The modeling and management of business processes often leads to the definition of several variants of the same process. This variability can be reflected in different process perspectives such as control-flow, data, resources or performance. The management of process variants can be a laborious, time-consuming and error-prone task since they require a high coordination in the management of each variant and in most cases this management is done manually. For this reason, many proposals have been developed to deal with the variability of business processes. However, none of them covers in detail the variability in the performance perspective, which is concerned with the definition of performance requirements usually specified as a set of Process Performance Indicators (PPIs). This variability can be reflected in the form of repetitive and redundant PPI definitions, and can lead to errors and inconsistencies in PPI definitions. To address this problem, in this article we propose a detailed PPI variability classification and a formalization of how PPIs can be modeled together with the variability of other process perspectives. To this end, we considered variability management approaches, called by restriction and by extension, and we illustrated our proposal by integrating it with existing variability modeling languages. An evaluation conducted in two scenarios shows the feasibility and usefulness of our proposal.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación HORATIO (RTI2018-101204–B–C21)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación OPHELIA (RTI2018101204-B-C22)Junta de Andalucía APOLO (US-1264651)Junta de Andalucía EKIPMENT-PLUS (P18-FR-2895

Äriprotsessimudelite ühildamine

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Ettevõtted, kellel on aastatepikkune kogemus äriprotsesside haldamises, omavad sageli protsesside repositooriumeid, mis võivad endas sisaldada sadu või isegi tuhandeid äriprotsessimudeleid. Need mudelid pärinevad erinevatest allikatest ja need on loonud ning neid on muutnud erinevad osapooled, kellel on erinevad modelleerimise oskused ning praktikad. üheks sagedaseks praktikaks on uute mudelite loomine, kasutades olemasolevaid mudeleid, kopeerides neist fragmente ning neid seejärel muutes. See omakorda loob olukorra, kus protsessimudelite repositoorium sisaldab mudeleid, milles on identseid mudeli fragmente, mis viitavad samale alamprotsessile. Kui sellised fragmendid jätta konsolideerimata, siis võib see põhjustada repositooriumis ebakõlasid -- üks ja sama alamprotsess võib olla erinevates protsessides erinevalt kirjeldatud. Sageli on ettevõtetel mudelid, millel on sarnased eesmärgid, kuid mis on mõeldud erinevate klientide, toodete, äriüksuste või geograafiliste regioonide jaoks. Näiteks on äriprotsessid kodukindlustuse ja autokindlustuse jaoks sama ärilise eesmärgiga. Loomulikult sisaldavad nende protsesside mudelid mitmeid identseid alamfragmente (nagu näiteks poliisi andmete kontrollimine), samas on need protsessid mitmes punktis erinevad. Nende protsesside eraldi haldamine on ebaefektiivne ning tekitab liiasusi. Doktoritöös otsisime vastust küsimusele: kuidas identifitseerida protsessimudelite repositooriumis korduvaid mudelite fragmente, ning üldisemalt -- kuidas leida ning konsolideerida sarnasusi suurtes äriprotsessimudelite repositooriumites? Doktoritöös on sisse toodud kaks üksteist täiendavat meetodit äriprotsessimudelite konsolideerimiseks, täpsemalt protsessimudelite ühildamine üheks mudeliks ning mudelifragmentide ekstraktimine. Esimene neist võtab sisendiks kaks või enam protsessimudelit ning konstrueerib neist ühe konsolideeritud protsessimudeli, mis sisaldab kõikide sisendmudelite käitumist. Selline lähenemine võimaldab analüütikutel hallata korraga tervet perekonda sarnaseid mudeleid ning neid muuta sünkroniseeritud viisil. Teine lähenemine, alamprotsesside ekstraktimine, sisaldab endas sagedasti esinevate fragmentide identifitseerimist (protsessimudelites kloonide leidmist) ning nende kapseldamist alamprotsessideks

Dealing with Variability in Process-aware Information Systems: Language Requirements, Features, and Existing Proposals

The increasing adoption of Process-aware Information Systems (PAISs), together with the variability of Business Processes (BPs) across different application contexts, has resulted in large process model repositories with collections of related process model variants. To reduce both costs and occurrence of errors, the explicit management of variability throughout the BP lifecycle becomes crucial. In literature, several proposals dealing with BP variability have been proposed. However, the lack of a method for their systematic comparison makes it difficult to select the most appropriate one meeting current needs best. To close this gap, this work presents an evaluation framework that allows analyzing and comparing the variability support provided by existing proposals developed in the context of BP variability. The framework encompasses a set of language requirements as well as a set of variability support features. While language requirements allow assessing the expressiveness required to explicitly represent variability of different process perspectives, variability support features reflect the tool support required to properly cover such expressiveness. Our evaluation framework has been derived based on an in-depth analysis of several large real-world process scenarios, an extensive literature review, and an analysis of existing PAISs. In this vein, the framework helps to understand BP variability along the BP lifecycle. In addition, it supports PAISs engineers in deciding, which of the existing BP variability proposals meets best their needs

Workflow repository for providing configurable workflow in ERP

Workflow pada ERP dengan domain fungsi yang besar rentan dengan adanya duplikasi. Membuat workflow repository yang menyimpan berbagai macam workflow dari proses bisnis ERP yang dapat digunakan untuk menyusun workflow baru sesuai kebutuhan tenant baru Metode yang diusulkan: Metode yang diusulkan terdiri dari 2 tahapan, preprocessing dan processing. Tahap preprocessing bertujuan untuk mencari common dan sub variant dari existing workflow variant. Workflow variant yang disimpan oleh pengguna adalah Procure to Pay workflow. Variasi tersebut diseleksi berdasarkan kemiripannya dengan similarity filtering, kemudian dimerge untuk mencari common dan sub variantnya. Common dan sub variant disimpan menggunakan metadata yang dipetakan pada basis data relasional. Deteksi common dan sub variant workflow mencapai tingkat akurasi sebesar 92%. Ccommon workflow terdiri dari 3-common dari 8-variant workflow. Common workflow tersebut memiliki tingkat kompleksitas lebih rendah 10% dari model sebelumnya. Tahapan processing adalah tahapan penyediaan configurable workflow. Pengguna memasukan query model untuk mencari workflow yang diinginkan. Dengan menggunakan metode similarity filtering, didapatkan common dan/atau sub variant yang memungkinkan. Pengguna dapat menggunakan common workflow melalui workflow designer untuk melakukan rekomposisi ulang. Penyediaan configurable workflow oleh ERP mencapai tingkat 100% dimana apapun yang diinginkan pengguna dapat disediakaan workflownya oleh ERP, ataupun sebagai dasar membentuk workflow yang lain. Berdasarkan hasil percobaan, tempat penyimpanan workflow dapat dibangun dengan arsitektur yang diajukan dan mampu menyimpan dan menyediakan workflow. Tempat penyimpanan ERP mampu mendeteksi workflow yang bersifat common dan sub variant. Tempat penyimpanan ERP mampu menyediakan configurable workflow, dimana pengguna dapat memanfaatkan common dan sub variant workflow untuk menjadi dasar mengkomposisi workflow yang lain. =================================================================================================== Workflow in ERP which covered big domain faced duplication issues. Scope of this research was developing workflow from business process ERP which could be used for required workflow as user needs. Proposed approach consisted of 2 stages preprocessing and processing. Preprocessing stages aimed for finding common and variant of sub workflow based on existing workflow variant. The workflow variants that were stored by user were procured to pay workflow. The workflows was filtered by similarity filtering method then merged for identifying the common and variant of sub workflow. The common and sub variant workflow were stored using metadata that mapped into relational database. The common and variant of sub workflow detection achieved 92% accuracy. The common workflow consisted of 3- the common workflow from 8-variant workflow. The common workflow has 10% lesser complexity than its predecessor. Processing was providing configurable workflow. User inputted query model to find required workflow. Utilizing similarity filtering, possible the common and variant of sub workflow was collected. User used the common workflow through workflow designer to recompose. Providing configurable workflow ERP achieved 100%, where any user need would be provided by ERP, as workflow or as based template for creating other. Based on evaluation, repository was built based on proposed architecture and was able to store or provide workflow. Repository detected workflow whether common or variant of sub workflow. Repository ERP was able to provide configurable ERP, where user utilized common and variant of sub workflow as based for creating one of their need

Modeling Business Process Variability

This master thesis presents research findings on business process variability modeling. Its main goal is to analyze inherent problems of business process variability and solve them simply, innovatively and effectively. To achieve this goal, process variability is defined by analyzing scientific literature, its main problems identified and is illustrated using a healthcare running example: process variability is classified into process variability within the domain space and over time. These two forms of process variability respectively lead to process variability modeling and process model evolution problems. After defining the main problems inherent to process variability, the focus of this research project is defined: solving process variability modeling problems. First current business process modeling languages are evaluated to assess the effectiveness of their respective modeling concepts when modeling process variability, using a newly created set of evaluation criteria and the healthcare running example. The following business process modeling languages are evaluated: Event driven process chains (EPC), the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and Configurable EPC (C-EPC). Business process variability modeling and Software product line engineering have similar problems. Therefore the variability modeling concepts developed by software product line engineering are analyzed. Feature diagrams and software configuration management are the main variability management concepts provided by software product line engineering. To apply these variability management concepts to model process variability meant combining them with existing business modeling languages. Riebisch feature diagrams are combined with C-EPC to form Feature-EPC. Applying software configuration management, meant merging Change Oriented Versioning with basic EPC to create COV-EPC, and merging the Proteus Configuration Language with basic EPC to design PCL-EPC. Finally these newly created business process modeling languages are also evaluated using the newly designed evaluation criteria and the healthcare running example. EPC or BPMN are not suited to model business process variability within the domain space. C-EPC provide explicit means to model business process variability, however the process models tend to get big very fast. Furthermore the syntax, the contextual constraints and the semantics of the configuration requirements and guidelines used to configure the C-EPC process models are unclear. Feature-EPC improve C-EPC with domain modeling capability and clearly defined configuration rules: their syntax, contextual constraints and semantics have been clearly defined using a context free grammar in Backus-Naur form. Furthermore, consistent combinations of features and configuration rules are ensured using respectively constraints and a conflict resolution algorithm. However, Feature-EPC and C-EPC suffer from the same weakness: large configurable process models. In COV-EPC and PCL-EPC the problem of large configurable process models is solved. COV-EPC ensures consistent combinations of options and configuration rules using respectively validities and a conflict resolution algorithm. PCL-EPC guarantees consistent combinations of process fragments by means of a PCL specification