BPM News - Folge 3

Die BPM-Kolumne des EMISA-Forums berichtet über aktuelle Themen, Projekte und Veranstaltungen aus dem BPM-Umfeld. Schwerpunkt der vorliegenden Kolumne bildet das Thema Standardisierung von Prozessbeschreibungssprachen und -notationen im Allgemeinen und BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services) im Speziellen. Hierzu liefert Jan Mendling von der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien in aktuelles Schlagwort. Des weiteren erhalten Leser eine Zusammenfassung zweier im ersten Halbjahr 2006 veranstalteten Workshops zu den Themen „Flexibilität prozessorientierter Informationssysteme“ und „Kollaborative Prozesse“ sowie einen BPM Veranstaltungskalender für die 2. Jahreshälfte 2006

Critical analysis of vendor lock-in and its impact on cloud computing migration: a business perspective

Vendor lock-in is a major barrier to the adoption of cloud computing, due to the lack of standardization. Current solutions and efforts tackling the vendor lock-in problem are predominantly technology-oriented. Limited studies exist to analyse and highlight the complexity of vendor lock-in problem in the cloud environment. Consequently, most customers are unaware of proprietary standards which inhibit interoperability and portability of applications when taking services from vendors. This paper provides a critical analysis of the vendor lock-in problem, from a business perspective. A survey based on qualitative and quantitative approaches conducted in this study has identified the main risk factors that give rise to lock-in situations. The analysis of our survey of 114 participants shows that, as computing resources migrate from on-premise to the cloud, the vendor lock-in problem is exacerbated. Furthermore, the findings exemplify the importance of interoperability, portability and standards in cloud computing. A number of strategies are proposed on how to avoid and mitigate lock-in risks when migrating to cloud computing. The strategies relate to contracts, selection of vendors that support standardised formats and protocols regarding standard data structures and APIs, developing awareness of commonalities and dependencies among cloud-based solutions. We strongly believe that the implementation of these strategies has a great potential to reduce the risks of vendor lock-in

Embedding requirements within the model driven architecture.

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is offered as one way forward in software systems modelling to connect software design with the business domain. The general focus of the MDA is the development of software systems by performing transformations between software design models, and the automatic generation of application code from those models. Software systems are provided by developers, whose experience and models are not always in line with those of other stakeholders, which presents a challenge for the community. From reviewing the available literature, it is found that whilst many models and notations are available, those that are significantly supported by the MDA may not be best for use by non technical stakeholders. In addition, the MDA does not explicitly consider requirements and specification. This research begins by investigating the adequacy of the MDA requirements phase and examining the feasibility of incorporating a requirements definition, specifically focusing upon model transformations. MDA artefacts were found to serve better the software community and requirements were not appropriately integrated within the MDA, with significant extension upstream being required in order to sufficiently accommodate the business user in terms of a requirements definition. Therefore, an extension to the MDA framework is offered that directly addresses Requirements Engineering (RE), including the distinction of analysis from design, highlighting the importance of specification. This extension is suggested to further the utility of the MDA by making it accessible to a wider audience upstream, enabling specification to be a direct output from business user involvement in the requirements phase of the MDA. To demonstrate applicability, this research illustrates the framework extension with the provision of a method and discusses the use of the approach in both academic and commercial settings. The results suggest that such an extension is academically viable in facilitating the move from analysis into the design of software systems, accessible for business use and beneficial in industry by allowing for the involvement of the client in producing models sufficient enough for use in the development of software systems using MDA tools and techniques

Automated software systems generation for process-oriented organizations

Tese de doutoramento do Programa Doutoral em Tecnologias e Sistemas de InformaçãoCada vez mais, as organizações suportam as suas operações em sistemas de software. Torna-se, portanto, muito relevante o correto mapeamento das operações nos sistemas de software. Esta tese foca-se em organizações orientadas a processos de negócio, devido à relevância dada pelas normas de qualidade, pelos modelos de excelência, e pelos requisitos dos clientes, a esse tipo de estruturação interna das organizações. Nas organizações orientadas a processos de negócio existem diversos fatores, como o tempo envolvido nos projetos de implementação de processos de negócio em software, as diferenças existentes entre os modelos de processos de negócio e a sua implementação real, ou a quantidade e o tipo de recursos envolvidos nesses projetos, que fazem com que os projetos de desenvolvimento de software sejam demasiado dispendiosos, demorem demasiado tempo, e não garantam que o produto de software resultante seja o mais adequado à realidade da organização que o vai usar. Esta tese propõe que os sistemas de informação e de software devam ser desenvolvidos, desde o início, incorporando os modelos das organizações onde irão ser usados. Além disso, e como existem disponíveis modelos de referência de processos de negócio, esta tese também propõe o seu uso explícito aquando da recolha de requisitos. Assim, o objetivo principal da tese é propor uma metodologia que se inicie com modelos de processos de negócio e que termine com a geração de sistemas de software, para organizações orientadas a processos de negócio. A metodologia denomina-se BIM e é formalizada através do metamodelo EPF. Dada a abrangência dos temas a tratar, a tese foi conduzida tendo em atenção que o processo de desenvolvimento de software para suportar organizações orientadas a processos pode ser otimizado. Para melhor mostrar os diversos passos e resultados intermédios, usamos a metodologia de investigação Action Research. A tese propõe que as atividades de investigação sejam terminadas quando uma dada condição de paragem seja atingida, e para isso usa uma avaliação baseada num conjunto de indicadores para os resultados do produto e do processo, e uma adaptação do modelo de excelência EFQM para a forma como foi executado o processo de desenvolvimento. O foco das Action são os sistemas de software MES, essenciais na ligação entre sistemas de software embebido e sistemas ERP. Nesta tese, as Action iniciam-se com modelos de processos e com arquiteturas de software standard, e terminam com uma proposta de modelo de processo e com arquiteturas de software e tecnologias adaptadas à execução de processos de negócio. A tese propõe também alguns conceitos como IAvO (extensão de modelos de processos de negócio), OBO (componentes de software intermutáveis e não-proprietários), OA (aspetos organizacionais), e PF (framework de processos) para aumentarem a eficiência e eficácia na implementação em software de processos de negócio.Increasingly, organizations support their operations by using software systems, turning very relevant the proper mapping of operations into software systems. This thesis focuses on organizations oriented to business processes, due to the importance that quality norms, excellence models, and customer requirements put on this type of internal structures of organizations. Process-oriented organizations have characteristics, such as the time needed to implement business processes in software, the differences between the business process models and the real business processes, or the quantity and type of the required resources, that lead to development projects too expensive, taking too long to complete, and that do not assure that the resulting product is the most adequate to the reality of the client organization. This thesis proposes that the development of information and software system embodies, since the early stages, the models of the organization where they operate. In addition, and since business process reference models are available, the thesis also proposes to use explicitly such reference models by requirements collection time. Thus, the main goal of the thesis is to propose a methodology that picks business process reference models and ends with software systems, for process-oriented organizations. The methodology is denominated BIM and is formalized by using the EPF metamodel. Due to the wide scope of the studied areas, the thesis is tailored considering that the development process for processoriented organizations can be optimized. To express better the intermediate steps and results, we use the Action Research methodology. The thesis proposes that the research activities terminate when a stopping condition is met, based on a set of indicators for the product, and a tailoring of the EFQM model for the development process. The Actions are focused on MES, crucial for the linking of embedded software systems with ERP systems. In this thesis, the Actions start by using standard process models and software architectures, and end by using a proposed process model, and software architectures and technologies adapted to the execution of business software. The thesis also proposes new concepts like IAvO (extension to business process reference models), OBO (interchangeable and nonproprietary software components), AO (organizational aspects), and PF (process framework) to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the implementation of business processes in software

Runtime Adaptation of Scientific Service Workflows

Software landscapes are rather subject to change than being complete after having been built. Changes may be caused by a modified customer behavior, the shift to new hardware resources, or otherwise changed requirements. In such situations, several challenges arise. New architectural models have to be designed and implemented, existing software has to be integrated, and, finally, the new software has to be deployed, monitored, and, where appropriate, optimized during runtime under realistic usage scenarios. All of these situations often demand manual intervention, which causes them to be error-prone. This thesis addresses these types of runtime adaptation. Based on service-oriented architectures, an environment is developed that enables the integration of existing software (i.e., the wrapping of legacy software as web services). A workflow modeling tool that aims at an easy-to-use approach by separating the role of the workflow expert and the role of the domain expert. After the development of workflows, tools that observe the executing infrastructure and perform automatic scale-in and scale-out operations are presented. Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers are used to scale the infrastructure in a transparent and cost-efficient way. The deployment of necessary middleware tools is automatically done. The use of a distributed infrastructure can lead to communication problems. In order to keep workflows robust, these exceptional cases need to treated. But, in this way, the process logic of a workflow gets mixed up and bloated with infrastructural details, which yields an increase in its complexity. In this work, a module is presented that can deal automatically with infrastructural faults and that thereby allows to keep the separation of these two layers. When services or their components are hosted in a distributed environment, some requirements need to be addressed at each service separately. Although techniques as object-oriented programming or the usage of design patterns like the interceptor pattern ease the adaptation of service behavior or structures. Still, these methods require to modify the configuration or the implementation of each individual service. On the other side, aspect-oriented programming allows to weave functionality into existing code even without having its source. Since the functionality needs to be woven into the code, it depends on the specific implementation. In a service-oriented architecture, where the implementation of a service is unknown, this approach clearly has its limitations. The request/response aspects presented in this thesis overcome this obstacle and provide a SOA-compliant and new methods to weave functionality into the communication layer of web services. The main contributions of this thesis are the following: Shifting towards a service-oriented architecture: The generic and extensible Legacy Code Description Language and the corresponding framework allow to wrap existing software, e.g., as web services, which afterwards can be composed into a workflow by SimpleBPEL without overburdening the domain expert with technical details that are indeed handled by a workflow expert. Runtime adaption: Based on the standardized Business Process Execution Language an automatic scheduling approach is presented that monitors all used resources and is able to automatically provision new machines in case a scale-out becomes necessary. If the resource's load drops, e.g., because of less workflow executions, a scale-in is also automatically performed. The scheduling algorithm takes the data transfer between the services into account in order to prevent scheduling allocations that eventually increase the workflow's makespan due to unnecessary or disadvantageous data transfers. Furthermore, a multi-objective scheduling algorithm that is based on a genetic algorithm is able to additionally consider cost, in a way that a user can define her own preferences rising from optimized execution times of a workflow and minimized costs. Possible communication errors are automatically detected and, according to certain constraints, corrected. Adaptation of communication: The presented request/response aspects allow to weave functionality into the communication of web services. By defining a pointcut language that only relies on the exchanged documents, the implementation of services must neither be known nor be available. The weaving process itself is modeled using web services. In this way, the concept of request/response aspects is naturally embedded into a service-oriented architecture

Evaluation and development models for business processes

Most organisations are working hard to improve their performance and to achieve competitive advantage over their rivals. They may accomplish these ambitions through carrying out their business processes more effectively. Hence it is important to consider such processes and look for ways in which they can be improved. Any organisational business process encompasses several elements that interact and collaborate with each other to achieve the required objectives. These elements can be classified into hard aspects, which deal with tangible issues related to the software system or the technology in general, and soft aspects, which deal with issues related to the human part of the business process. If the business process needs to be analysed and redesigned to improve its performance, it is important to use a suitable approach or intervention that takes into account all of these elements. This thesis proposes an approach to investigate organisational business processes by considering both soft and hard aspects. The approach, Soft Workflow Modelling (SWfM), is developed as a result of reviewing several workflow products and models using a developed workflow perspectives framework which involves several perspectives covering the soft and hard aspects of the workflow system. The SWfM approach models the organisational business process as a workflow system by handling the various perspectives of the workflow perspectives framework. This approach combines the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) with the Unified Modelling Language (UML), as a standard modelling language of the object-oriented paradigm. The basic framework adopted is that of SSM with the inclusion of UML diagrams and techniques to deal with the aspects that SSM cannot handle. The approach also supports SSM by providing a developed tool to assist in constructing a conceptual model which is considered as the basis to model the workflow system. A case study is developed for illustrative purposes.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Enhancing Variability Modeling in Process-Aware Information Systems through Change Patterns

[EN] The increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAISs) together with the high variability in business processes has resulted in collections of process families. These families correspond to a business process model and its variants, which can comprise hundreds or thousands of different ways of realizing this process. Modeling and managing process variability in this context can be very challenging due to the size of these families. Motivated by this challenge, several approaches enabling process variability have been developed. However, with these approaches PAIS engineers usually are required to model and manage one by one all the elements of a process family and ensure its correctness by their own. This can be tedious and error-prone especially when a process family comprises hundreds or thousands of process variants. For example, variability may not be properly reflected since PAIS engineers need to be aware of each variation of each process variant. Thus, there is a need of methods that allow PAIS engineers to model process variability more explicitly, especially at a level of abstraction higher than the one provided by the existing process variability approaches. However, how process variability is represented in existing approaches becomes critical for these methods (e.g., what language constructs are used to model process variability). In this context, the use of modeling patterns (reusable solutions to a commonly occurring problem) is a promising way to address these issues. For example, patterns have been proved as an efficient solution to model individual business processes. The objective of this thesis is to enhance the modeling of variability in process families through change patterns. First, we conduct a systematic study to analyze existing process variability approaches regarding their expressiveness with respect to process variability modeling as well as their process support. Thus, we can identify how process variability is actually modeled by existing approaches (i.e., a core set of variability-specific language constructs). In addition, based on the obtained empirical evidence, we derive the VIVACE framework, a complete characterization of process variability which comprises also a core set of features fostering process variability. VIVACE enables PAIS engineers to evaluate existing process variability approaches as well as to select that variability approach meeting their requirements best. In addition, it helps process engineers in dealing with PAISs supporting process variability. Second, to facilitate variability modeling in process families, based on the identified language constructs, we present a set of 10 change patterns and show how they can be implemented in a process variability approach. In particular, these patterns support process family modeling and evolution and are able to ensure process family correctness. In order to prove their effectiveness and analyze their suitability, we applied these change patterns in a real scenario. More concretely, we conduct a case study with a safety standard with a high degree of variability. The case study results show that the application of the change patterns can reduce the effort for process family modeling in a 34% and for evolution in a 40%. In addition, we have analyzed how PAIS engineers apply the patterns and their perceptions of this application. Most of them expressed some benefit when applying the change patterns, did not perceived an increase of mental effort for applying the patterns, and agreed upon the usefulness and ease of use of the patterns.[ES] La creciente adopción de sistemas de información dirigidos por procesos de negocio (PAIS) junto con la alta variabilidad en dichos procesos, han dado lugar a la aparición de colecciones de familias de procesos. Estas familias están constituidas por un modelo de proceso de negocio y sus variantes, las cuales pueden comprender entre cientos y miles de diferentes formas de llevar a cabo ese proceso. Gestionar la variabilidad en este contexto puede resultar muy difícil dado el tamaño que estas familias pueden alcanzar. Motivados por este desafío, se han desarrollado varias soluciones que permiten la gestión de la variabilidad en los procesos de negocio. Sin embargo, con estas soluciones los ingenieros deben crear y gestionar uno por uno todos los elementos de las familias de procesos y asegurar ellos mismos su corrección. Esto puede resultar tedioso y propenso a errores especialmente cuando las familias están compuestas de miles de variantes. Por ejemplo, la variabilidad puede no quedar adecuadamente representada ya que los ingenieros deben ser conscientes de todas y cada una de las variaciones de todas las variantes. Así, son necesarios nuevos métodos que permitan modelar la variabilidad de los procesos de una manera más explícita, a un nivel de abstracción más alto del proporcionado por las soluciones actuales. Sin embargo, cómo se representa la variabilidad en estos métodos resulta crítico (ej.: qué primitivas se utilizan). En este contexto, el uso de patrones de modelado (soluciones reutilizables a un problema recurrente) resultan un camino prometedor. Por ejemplo, los patrones han sido probados como una solución eficaz para gestionar procesos de negocio individuales. El objetivo de esta tesis es mejorar el modelado de la variabilidad en las familias de procesos a través del uso de patrones de cambio. En primer lugar, hemos llevado a cabo un estudio sistemático con el fin de analizar las soluciones existentes que permiten gestionar la variabilidad en los procesos, así como el soporte que estas proporcionan. Así, hemos sido capaces de identificar y analizar cuál es el conjunto básico de primitivas específicas para representar la variabilidad. Además, basándonos en la evidencia empírica obtenida, hemos derivado el marco de evaluación VIVACE, el cual recoge las primitivas de variabilidad y un conjunto básico de características que favorecen la variabilidad en los procesos. El principal objetivo de VIVACE es conformar una completa caracterización de la variabilidad en los procesos de negocio. Asimismo, VIVACE permite evaluar las soluciones que gestionan la variabilidad en los procesos, así como seleccionar la solución que se ajuste mejor a sus necesidades. Finalmente, VIVACE puede ayudar a los ingenieros a gestionar PAISs con variabilidad. En segundo lugar, para facilitar el modelado de la variabilidad en las familias de procesos, basándonos en las primitivas identificadas, hemos definido un conjunto de 10 patrones de cambio y hemos mostrado cómo estos patrones pueden ser implementados. En particular, estos patrones ayudan al modelado y la evolución de familias de procesos y son capaces de garantizar la corrección de la propia familia. Para probar su efectividad y analizar su idoneidad, hemos aplicado estos patrones de cambio en un escenario real. En concreto, hemos llevado a cabo un caso de estudio con un estándar de seguridad con un alto nivel de variabilidad. Los resultados de este caso demuestran que la aplicación de nuestros patrones de cambio puede reducir el esfuerzo para el modelado de familias de procesos en un 34% y para la evolución de esos modelos en un 40%. Además, hemos analizado cómo los ingenieros aplican los patrones y cuáles son sus percepciones de esta aplicación. Como resultado, la mayoría de ellos encontró beneficios al aplicar los patrones. Además, no percibieron un aumento en el esfuerzo mental necesario para aplicarlos y estuvieron de acuerdo en la utilid[CA] La creixent adopció de sistemes d'informació dirigits per processos de negoci (PAIS) junt amb l'alta variabilitat en eixos processos, han donat lloc a la aparició de col·leccions de famílies de processos. Estes famílies es formen de un model de procés de negoci i les seues variants, les quals poden comprendre entre cents i milers de diferents formes de dur a terme eixe procés. Modelar la variabilitat dels processos en este context pot resultar molt difícil donat la grandària que aquestes famílies poden aconseguir. Motivats per este desafiament, s'han desenvolupat diverses solucions que permeten la gestió de la variabilitat en els processos de negoci. No obstant, amb aquestes solucions els enginyers que treballen amb PAIS han de crear i gestionar un a un tots els elements de les famílies de processos i assegurar ells mateixos la seua correcció. Això pot resultar tediós i propens a errors especialment quan les famílies es componen de cents o milers de variants. Per exemple, la variabilitat pot no quedar adequadament representada ja que els enginyers han de ser conscients de totes i cadascuna una de les variacions de totes les variants. Per quest motiu, son necessaris nous mètodes que permeten als enginyers de PAIS modelar la variabilitat dels processos de manera més explícita, sobretot a un nivell d'abstracció més alt del proporcionat per les solucions actuals. No obstant, com es representa la variabilitat en aquestos mètodes resulta crític (ex.: quines primitives s'utilitzen per a modelar la variabilitat en els processos). En aquest context, l'ús de patrons de modelatge (solucions reutilitzables a un problema recurrent) resulten un camí prometedor. Per exemple, els patrons han sigut provats com una solució eficaç per modelar i gestionar processos de negoci individuals. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi 'es millorar el modelatge de la variabilitat en les famílies de processos a través de l'ús de patrons de canvi. En primer lloc, hem dut a terme un estudi sistemàtic per a analitzar les solucions existents per a gestionar la variabilitat en els processos, així com el suport que aquestes proporcionen. D'aquesta manera, som capaços d'identificar i analitzar quin 'es el conjunt bàsic de primitives específiques per a representar la variabilitat. A més, basant-nos en l'evidència empírica obtinguda, hem derivat el marc d'evacuació VIVACE, el qual arreplega les primitives de variabilitat i un conjunt bàsic de característiques que afavoreixen la variabilitat en els processos. Així mateix, VIVACE permet als enginyers de PAIS avaluar les solucions per a gestionar la variabilitat en els processos, així com seleccionar la solució que s'ajusta millor a les seues necessitats. Finalment, VIVACE també pot ajudar als enginyers a gestionar PAISs que donen suport a aquesta variabilitat. En segon lloc, per a facilitar el modelatge de la variabilitat en les famílies de processos, basant-nos en les primitives identificades, hem definit un conjunt de 10 patrons de canvi i hem mostrat com aquestos poden ser implementats. En particular, estos patrons ajuden al modelatge i l'evolució de famílies de processos i garanteixen la correcció de la pròpia família. Per a provar la seua efectivitat i analitzar la seua idoneïtat, hem aplicat els patrons de canvi en un escenari real. En particular, hem dut a terme un cas d'estudi amb un estàndard de seguretat amb un alt nivell de variabilitat. Els resultats de aquest cas demostren que l'aplicació dels nostres patrons de canvi poden reduir l'esforç per al modelatge de famílies de processos en un 34% i per a l'evolució de eixos models en un 40%. A més, hem analitzat com els enginyers de PAIS apliquen els patrons i quines son les seues percepcions d'esta aplicació. Com a resultat, la majoria d'ells va trobar beneficis al aplicar els patrons de canvi. A més, no van percebre un augment en l'esforç mental necessari per a aplicar-los i van estar d'acord en la utilitat i fAyora Esteras, C. (2015). Enhancing Variability Modeling in Process-Aware Information Systems through Change Patterns [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/58426TESI