Flexibility in Process-aware Information Systems (ProFlex) - Workshop Report.

The goal of the ProFlex workshop is to bring together practitioners and researchers from different communities who share an interest in flexibility of process-aware information systems and team support. This workshop report gives an overview of the presented papers that address various flexibility issues of process-aware information systems

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

ADEPT2 - Next Generation Process Management Technology

If current process management systems shall be applied to a broad spectrum of applications, they will have to be significantly improved with respect to their technological capabilities. In particular, in dynamic environments it must be possible to quickly implement and deploy new processes, to enable ad-hoc modifications of single process instances at runtime (e.g., to add, delete or shift process steps), and to support process schema evolution with instance migration, i.e., to propagate process schema changes to already running instances. These requirements must be met without affecting process consistency and by preserving the robustness of the process management system. In this paper we describe how these challenges have been addressed and solved in the ADEPT2 Process Management System. Our overall vision is to provide a next generation process management technology which can be used in a variety of application domains

Towards Truly Flexible and Adaptive Process-Aware Information Systems

If current process management systems shall be applied to a broad spectrum of applications, they will have to be significantly improved with respect to their technological capabilities. Particularly, in dynamic environments it must be possible to quickly implement and deploy new processes, to enable ad-hoc modifications of running process instances on-the-fly (e.g., to dynamically add, delete or move process steps), and to support process schema evolution with instance migration (i.e., to propagate process schema changes to already running instances if desired). These requirements must be met without affecting process consistency and by preserving the robustness of the process management system. In this paper we describe how these challenges have been addressed and solved in the ADEPT2 Process Management System. Our overall vision is to provide a next generation process management technology which can be used in a variety of application domains

Adaptive Time- and Process-Aware Information Systems

For the digitized enterprise the proper handling of the temporal aspects of its business processes is vital. Delivery times, appointments and deadlines must be met, processing times and durations be monitored, and optimization objectives shall be pursued. However, contemporary Process-Aware Information Systems (PAISs)--the go-to solution for the computer-aided support of business processes—still lack a sophisticated support of the time perspective. Hence, there is a high demand for a more profound support of temporal aspects in PAISs. Accordingly, both the specification and the operational support of temporal aspects constitute fundamental challenges for the further development and dissemination of PAISs. The aim of this thesis is to propose a framework for supporting the time perspective of business processes in PAISs. As PAISs enable the design, execution and evolution of business processes, the designated framework must support these three fundamental phases of the process life cycle. The ATAPIS framework proposed by this thesis essentially comprises three major com-ponents. First, a universal and comprehensive set of time patterns is provided. Respective time patterns represent temporal concepts commonly found in business processes and are based on empirical evidence. In particular, they provide a universal and comprehensive set of notions for describing temporal aspects in business processes. Moreover, a precise formal semantics for each of the time patterns is provided based on an in-depth analysis of a large set of real-world use cases. Respective formal semantics enable the proper integration of the time patterns into PAISs. In turn, the latter will allow for the specification of time-aware process schemas. Second, a generic framework for implementing the time patterns based on their formal semantics is developed. The framework and its techniques enable the verification of time-aware process schemas regarding their temporal consistency, i. e., their ability to be successfully executed without violating any of their temporal constraints. Subsequently, the framework is extended to consider advanced aspects like the contingent nature of activity durations and alternative execution paths as well. Moreover, an algorithm as well as techniques for executing and monitoring time-aware process instances in PAISs is provided. Based on the presented concepts, it becomes possible to ensure that a time-aware process instance may be executed without violating any of its temporal constraints. Third, a set of change operations for dynamically modifying time-aware process instances during run time is suggested. Respective change operations ensure that a modified time-aware process instance remains temporally consistent after the respective modification. Moreover, to reduce the complexity involved when applying multiple change operations a sophisticated approximation-based technique is presented. Overall, the developed change operations allow providing the flexibility required by business processes in practice. Altogether, the ATAPIS framework provides fundamental concepts, techniques and algorithms for integrating the time perspective into PAISs. As beauty of this framework the specification, execution and evolution of business processes is supported by an integrated approach

Interim research assessment 2003-2005 - Computer Science

This report primarily serves as a source of information for the 2007 Interim Research Assessment Committee for Computer Science at the three technical universities in the Netherlands. The report also provides information for others interested in our research activities

Effiziente Repräsentation von Vorlagen- und Instanzdaten in Prozess-Management-Systemen

Ein Prozess-Management-System (PMS) muss umfangreiche Funktionen für die Steuerung, Verwaltung und Änderung von Geschäftsprozessen bieten. Um breit einsetzbar zu sein, ist eine performante Ausführung dieser Funktionen unverzichtbar, insbesondere bei großer Anzahl von Prozessinstanzen. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir einen wichtigen Performanzaspekt von PMS, die effiziente Speicherrepräsentation von Vorlagen- und Instanzdaten. Dazu setzen wir ein logisches Prozessmetamodell in programmiersprachenunabhängige technische Datenstrukturen um und zwar sowohl für Primär- als auch Sekundärspeicher. Wichtigstes Ziel ist die Minimierung des Primärspeicherbedarfs. Nur dadurch lässt sich zeitaufwendiges Ein- und Auslagern der zur Laufzeit benötigten Vorlagen- und Instanzdaten minimieren. Wir diskutieren grundlegende Realisierungsalternativen für die Speicherrepräsentation dieser Daten, und gehen darüber hinaus auf fortschrittliche Speicherkonzepte, wie die Clusterung von Prozessinstanzen, ein. Die vorgestellten Konzepte sind aktuell im ADEPT2-PMS umgesetzt