Keeping the Cost of Process Change Low through Refactoring

With the increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAIS) large process model repositories have emerged. Over time respective models have to be re-aligned to the real world business processes through customization or adaptation. This bears the risk that model redundancies are introduced and complexity is increased. If no continuous investment is made in keeping models simple, changes are becoming increasingly costly and error-prone. Although refactoring techniques are widely used in software engineering to address related problems, this does not yet constitute state-of-the art in business process management. Consequently, process designers either have to refactor process models by hand or can not apply respective techniques at all. In this paper we propose a set of techniques for refactoring large process repositories, which are behaviour-preserving. The proposed refactorings enable process designers to effectively deal with model complexity by making process models easier to change, less error-prone and better understandable

A methodology for workflow modeling : From business process modeling towards sound workflow specification

Der Einsatz von Workflow Management Systemen (WFMS) in Unternehmen oder Verwaltungen mit einfach strukturierten und automatisierbaren Prozessen bietet ein hohes Potenzial für die Optimierung der Geschäftsprozesse. Für die Koordinierung von Geschäftsprozessen zur Laufzeit benötigen WFMS Workflow-Spezifikationen, die den automatisierbaren Anteil der Geschäftsprozesse in einer maschinenlesbaren Form beschreiben. In der Praxis werden Workflow-Spezifikationen bislang oft unabhängig von bereits existierenden Geschäftsprozessmodellen erstellt. Es existiert kein methodisch fundiertes Vorgehensmodell, dass die Modellierung von Gechäftsprozessen und die Weiterverwendung der erstellten Modelle für die Workflow-Spezifikation unterstützt [GHS95,AaHe02]. Diese Arbeit schlägt ein durchgehendes Vorgehensmodell für die Spezifikation von Workflows in Form von Petrinetzen vor. In dem fünfstufigen Vorgehensmodell wird der Schwerpunkt auf die Modellierung der Kontrollflussaspekte gelegt. Im Rahmen der Modellierung werden die folgenden Schritte unterstützt: 1. Modellierung der Geschäftsprozesse 2. Formalisierung durch Petrinetze 3. Korrektheitstest und Fehlerkorrektur 4. Festlegung und Integration einer Ausführungsstrategie 5. Kontrollverfeinerung. Das Ergebnis ist ein Prozessmodell mit formal fundierter und operationaler Semantik, das zudem sound [Aal98] ist. Ein solches Modell entspricht den Anforderungen an eine Workflow-Spezifikation, deren Verwendung für ein WFMS eine zuverlässige Ausführung der Geschäftsprozesse zur Laufzeit garantiert. In dem ersten Schritt "Modellierung der Geschäftsprozesse" wird die Verwendung semiformaler Modellierungstechniken unterstützt. Diese räumen dem Modellierer Spielraum in der Beschreibung der Prozesse ein. Im nächsten Schritt wird das erstellte Modell intern formalisiert. Die Formalisierung basiert auf einer Abbildung in Petrinetze. Dabei werden Mehrdeutigkeiten nicht eliminiert sondern explizit gemacht. Im dritten Schritt wird das Modell auf Korrektheit überprüft. Dafür werden neue, pragmatische Kriterien eingeführt. Es werden präzise Fehlermeldungen zurückgegeben, die ein iteratives Verbessern der Geschäftsprozessmodelle ermöglichen. In Schritt vier und fünf wird das erstellte Modell auf eine Workflow-Spezifikation abgebildet. Dazu wird auf die bereits erstellte Petrinetz-Formalisierung zurückgegriffen. Die Petrinetze werden zunächst so erweitert, dass eine Ausführungsstrategie festgelegt wird. Durch die Integration der Strategie werden alle vorher noch enthaltenen Mehrdeutigkeiten beseitigt. Abschließend werden Aktivitäten verfeinert. Das vorgeschlagene Vorgehensmodell bindet in der Praxis bewährte Techniken ein und stellt angemessene Kriterien für die Fehlerkorrektur zur Verfügung. Das gesamte Vorgehensmodells ist methodisch unterlegt und greift auf Ergebnisse der Petrinetztheorie, der Spieltheorie und der Controller Synthesis zurück.Supporting business processes with the help of workflow management systems is a necessary prerequisite for many companies to stay competitive. An important task is the specification of workflow, i.e. these parts of a business process that can be supported by a computer system. A workflow specification mainly refines a business process description, incorporating details of the implementation. Despite the close relation between the two process descriptions there is still no satisfactory link between their modeling. This fact mainly relies on the assignment to different peolpe (IT- vs. domain experts) having a different modeling culture. The thesis provides a methodically well-founded approach for the specification of functional workflow requirements. It supports domain experts in their modeling of business processes in a semiformal manner and guides them stepwise towards a formal workflow specification, i.e. helping to bridge the gap between business process modeling and workflow specification. The proposed approach acknowledges the need to describe business processes at different levels of abstraction and combines the advantages of different modeling languages that proved to fit the respective requirements. A semiformal modeling language is proposed to be used by the domain expert. As a prominent example, widely accepted in practice, are Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs). For the definition of the workflow specification we use a particular type of Petri nets. The strength of Petri-nets is their formally founded, operational semantics which enables their use as input format for workflow management systems. The key concept for the proposed process model is the use of pragmatic correctness criteria, namely relaxed soundness and robustness. They fit the correctness requirements within this first abstraction level and make it possible to provide a feedback to the modeler. To support the execution of the business process at run time, the resulting process description must be refined to fit the requirements of a workflow specification. The proposed process model supports this refinement step, applying methods from controller synthesis. A sound WF-system is automatically generated on the basis of a relaxed sound and robust process description. Only within this step do performance issues become relevant. Information that is incorporated relates to a certain scheduling strategy. The late determination of performance issues is especially desirable as corresponding information (the occurrence probability of a certain failure, costs of failure compensation, or priorities) will often only become available at run-time. Their incorporation towards the end of the proposed process model extends the possibility to reuse modeling results under changing priorities. The resulting process description is sound. Using it as a basis for the execution support during run-time reliable processing can be guaranteed

Process mining using BPMN : relating event logs and process models

Process-aware information systems (PAIS) are systems relying on processes, which involve human and software resources to achieve concrete goals. There is a need to develop approaches for modeling, analysis, improvement and monitoring processes within PAIS. These approaches include process mining techniques used to discover process models from event logs, find log and model deviations, and analyze performance characteristics of processes. The representational bias (a way to model processes) plays an important role in process mining. The BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) standard is widely used and allows to build conventional and understandable process models. In addition to the flat control flow perspective, subprocesses, data flows, resources can be integrated within one BPMN diagram. This makes BPMN very attractive for both process miners and business users. In this paper, we describe and justify robust control flow conversion algorithms, which provide the basis for more advanced BPMN-based discovery and conformance checking algorithms. We believe that the results presented in this paper can be used for a wide variety of BPMN mining and conformance checking algorithms. We also provide metrics for the processes discovered before and after the conversion to BPMN structures. Cases for which conversion algorithms produce more compact or more involved BPMN models in comparison with the initial models are identified. Keywords: Process mining; Process discovery; Conformance checking; BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation); Petri nets; Bisimulatio

A multi-domain process design and improvement framework

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 379-385).Processes in manufacturing, services, and healthcare are complex socio-technical systems composed of intricately sequenced activities supported by elements drawn from multiple domains. While many of these processes offer high performance, their complexity can make their design, improvement, troubleshooting, and change difficult due to the many possible and unforeseen interactions between elements. This thesis develops a design methodology and multi-domain network model for complex process design, change management, process improvement, and troubleshooting. As part of the methodology a feasibility analysis method based on solving the minimum cost flow problem for a network of process alternatives is presented to identify feasible processes subject to stakeholder requirements and constraints including performance, flexibility, modularity, and other system properties. A model based on Multi-Domain Matrix (MDM) concepts is developed specifically for process analysis called the Multi-Domain Process Matrix model (MDPM) to enumerate and analyze the interactions between process elements such that process performance under change and troubleshooting scenarios can be improved. The graph theory basis of the MDPM model enables its analysis using a proposed set of metrics derived from communications, social, and process network literature. As a demonstration of the use of the methodology, a complex DNA sequencing based surveillance process for Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the US healthcare system is designed and a prototype implemented. Rapid advances in DNA-based technologies have greatly expanded the range of processes available to the clinical microbiology laboratory, however, integrating these new processes into a comprehensive surveillance system presents significant challenges. Many of these new technologies are still in early stages of development, require multidisciplinary teams to support them, and must undergo significant optimization presenting significant barriers to their rapid adoption despite the pressing need to understand and control antibiotic resistance. Data from the prototype MRSA surveillance process show significant variation at the DNA level between patient cases, providing evidence for the urgent need for a DNA sequencing based microbial surveillance process as part of clinical microbiology efforts in the US healthcare system. However, results of applying the process design methodology and MDPM model analysis indicate significant work remains to reduce complexity, further improve key technology elements, gain acceptance, develop key organizational infrastructure, and Page 3 of 385 redesign the process to efficiently absorb the rapid technology change expected in DNA sequencing. The MDPM model is used to develop a roadmap of specific multi-domain projects addressing these issues to accelerate the deployment of a national DNA sequencing based surveillance system.by Robert Nicol.Ph.D

Vérification efficace de systèmes à compteurs à l'aide de relaxations

Abstract : Counter systems are popular models used to reason about systems in various fields such as the analysis of concurrent or distributed programs and the discovery and verification of business processes. We study well-established problems on various classes of counter systems. This thesis focusses on three particular systems, namely Petri nets, which are a type of model for discrete systems with concurrent and sequential events, workflow nets, which form a subclass of Petri nets that is suited for modelling and reasoning about business processes, and continuous one-counter automata, a novel model that combines continuous semantics with one-counter automata. For Petri nets, we focus on reachability and coverability properties. We utilize directed search algorithms, using relaxations of Petri nets as heuristics, to obtain novel semi-decision algorithms for reachability and coverability, and positively evaluate a prototype implementation. For workflow nets, we focus on the problem of soundness, a well-established correctness notion for such nets. We precisely characterize the previously widely-open complexity of three variants of soundness. Based on our insights, we develop techniques to verify soundness in practice, based on reachability relaxation of Petri nets. Lastly, we introduce the novel model of continuous one-counter automata. This model is a natural variant of one-counter automata, which allows reasoning in a hybrid manner combining continuous and discrete elements. We characterize the exact complexity of the reachability problem in several variants of the model.Les systèmes à compteurs sont des modèles utilisés afin de raisonner sur les systèmes de divers domaines tels l’analyse de programmes concurrents ou distribués, et la découverte et la vérification de systèmes d’affaires. Nous étudions des problèmes bien établis de différentes classes de systèmes à compteurs. Cette thèse se penche sur trois systèmes particuliers : les réseaux de Petri, qui sont un type de modèle pour les systèmes discrets à événements concurrents et séquentiels ; les « réseaux de processus », qui forment une sous-classe des réseaux de Petri adaptée à la modélisation et au raisonnement des processus d’affaires ; les automates continus à un compteur, un nouveau modèle qui combine une sémantique continue à celles des automates à un compteur. Pour les réseaux de Petri, nous nous concentrons sur les propriétés d’accessibilité et de couverture. Nous utilisons des algorithmes de parcours de graphes, avec des relaxations de réseaux de Petri comme heuristiques, afin d’obtenir de nouveaux algorithmes de semi-décision pour l’accessibilité et la couverture, et nous évaluons positivement un prototype. Pour les «réseaux de processus», nous nous concentrons sur le problème de validité, une notion de correction bien établie pour ces réseaux. Nous caractérisions précisément la complexité calculatoire jusqu’ici largement ouverte de trois variantes du problème de validité. En nous basant sur nos résultats, nous développons des techniques pour vérifier la validité en pratique, à l’aide de relaxations d’accessibilité dans les réseaux de Petri. Enfin, nous introduisons le nouveau modèle d’automates continus à un compteur. Ce modèle est une variante naturelle des automates à un compteur, qui permet de raisonner de manière hybride en combinant des éléments continus et discrets. Nous caractérisons la complexité exacte du problème d’accessibilité dans plusieurs variantes du modèle

Designing business continuity response

Die rasch ändernden Risikobedingungen, mit denen sich Unternehmen heutzutage konfrontiert sehen, stellen Business Continuity und Resilience Verantwortliche vor neue Herausforderungen. Durch die zunehmende Abhängigkeit von Lieferanten und Geschäftspartnern sowie steigende Verfügbarkeitsanforderungen von Services wird es immer bedeutsamer, eine effektive und effiziente Reaktion auf Störungen und Ausfälle zur Verfügung zu stellen, um Ruf und Marke zu schützen sowie finanzielle Ziele zu erreichen. Da die Vorbereitung und Planung einer Reaktion auf unvorhergesehene Ereignisse äußerst kostenintensiv sein kann, ist es notwendig, die Vorteile eines effizienten Notfallmanagements (Business Continuity Managements) nachvollziehbar zu begründen. Der in dieser Arbeit vorgestellte Ansatz erweitert das Konzept des Risk-Aware Business Process Managements, um Auswirkungen von Workarounds und dynamischen Ressourcenzuweisungen zu analysieren. Die Ergebnisse dieser Analyse dienen als signifikanter Input für die Notfallplanung. Für die Evaluierung des Ansatzes wurde ein Simulink Prototyp entwickelt. Zusätzlich wird ein Metamodell zur Abbildung und Erfassung von Business Continuity Anforderungen, welches auf Basis der OpenModels Plattform umgesetzt worden ist, vorgestellt.Companies are increasingly confronted with fast-changing risk-situations, leading to substantial challenges for business continuity and resilience professionals. Furthermore, the growing availability needs and the dependence on providers and suppliers demand an effective and eficient response to disruptions and interruptions in order to protect the brand, reputation and financial objectives of an organization. As the preparation for ’expecting the unexpected’ can be very costly, it is essential to highlight the benefits and advantages brought by proper business continuity planning. This thesis contributes to current research ambitions by presenting a formal approach extending the capabilities of risk-aware business process management. Risk aware business process management in general bridges the gap between the business process management, risk management and business continuity management domain. The presented extension within the thesis enables the consideration of resource allocation aspects within the risk-aware business process modeling and simulation. Through this extension it is possible to evaluate the effects of workarounds and resource re-allocations which is one crucial part in business continuity plans. In order to test the feasibility we implemented a prototype of our formal model using Simulink. Additionally, in this work, we introduce a business continuity meta-model which is capable to capture essential business continuity requirements. The meta-model was implemented as a project within the OpenModels Initative

Process Based Unification for Multi-Model Software Process Improvement

A number of differences among quality approaches exist and there can be various situations in which the usage of multiple approaches is required, e.g. to strengthen a particular process with multiple quality approaches or to reach certification of the compliance to a number of standards. First of all it has to be decided which approaches have potential for the organization. In many cases one approach does not contain enough information for process implementation. Consequently, the organization may need to use several approaches and the decision has to be made how the chosen approaches can be used simultaneously. This area is called Multi-model Software Process Improvement (MSPI). The simultaneous usage of multiple quality approaches is called the multi-model problem. In this dissertation we propose a solution for the multi-model problem which we call the Process Based Unification (PBU) framework. The PBU framework consists of the PBU concept, a PBU process and the PBU result. We call PBU concept the mapping of quality approaches to a unified process. The PBU concept is operationalized by a PBU process. The PBU result includes the resulting unified process and the mapping of quality approaches to the unified process.Comment: PhD Thesi

Rethinking Sustainability Towards a Regenerative Economy

This open access book is based on work from the COST Action “RESTORE - REthinking Sustainability TOwards a Regenerative Economy'', and highlights how sustainability in buildings, facilities and urban governance is crucial for a future that is socially just, ecologically restorative, and economically viable, for Europe and the whole planet. In light of the search for fair solutions to the climate crisis, the authors outline the urgency for the built environment sector to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies, as well as a just transition. As shown in the chapters, this can be done by applying a broader framework that enriches places, people, ecology, culture, and climate, at the core of the design task - with a particular emphasis on the benefits towards health and resilient business practices. This book is one step on the way to a paradigm shift towards restorative sustainability for new and existing buildings. The authors want to promote forward thinking and multidisciplinary knowledge, leading to solutions that celebrate the richness of design creativity. In this vision, cities of the future will enhance users’ experience, health and wellbeing inside and outside of buildings, while reconciling anthropic ecosystems and nature. A valuable resource for scientists and students in environmental sciences and architecture, as well as policy makers, practitioners and investors in urban and regional development