Business Process Modeling Abstraction Based on Semi-Supervised Clustering Analysis

The most prominent Business Process Model Abstraction (BPMA) use case is the construction of the process “quick view” for rapidly comprehending a complex process. Some researchers propose process abstraction methods to aggregate the activities on the basis of their semantic similarity. One important clustering technique used in these methods is traditional k-means cluster analysis which so far is an unsupervised process without any priori information, and most of the techniques aggregate the activities only according to business semantics without considering the requirement of an order-preserving model transformation. The paper proposes a BPMA method based on semi-supervised clustering which chooses the initial clusters based on the refined process structure tree and designs constraints by combining the control flow consistency of the process and the semantic similarity of the activities to guide the clustering process. To be more precise, the constraint function is discovered by mining from a process model collection enriched with subprocess relations. The proposed method is validated by applying it to a process model repository in use. In an experimental validation, the proposed method is compared to the traditional k-means clustering (parameterized with randomly chosen initial clusters and an only semantics-based distance measure), showing that the approach closely approximates the decisions of the involved modelers to cluster activities. As such, the paper contributes to the development of modeling support for effective process model abstraction, facilitating the use of business process models in practice

25 Desafíos de la Modelación de Procesos Semánticos

Process modeling has become an essential part of many organizations for documenting, analyzing and redesigning their business operations and to support them with suitable information systems. In order to serve this purpose, it is important for process models to be well grounded in for- mal and precise semantics. While behavioural semantics of process models are well understood, there is a considerable gap of research into the semantic aspects of their text labels and natural lan- guage descriptions. The aim of this paper is to make this research gap more transparent. To this end, we clarify the role of textual content in process models and the challenges that are associated with the interpretation, analysis, and improvement of their natural language parts. More specifically, we discuss particular use cases of semantic process modeling to identify 25 challenges. For each cha- llenge, we identify prior research and discuss directions for addressing themEl modelado de procesos se ha convertido en una parte esencial de muchas organizaciones para documentar, analizar, y rediseñar sus operaciones de negocios y apoyarlos con información apropiada. Para cumplir este fin, es importante para estos que estén completos dentro de una semántica formal y precisa. Mientras la semántica del comportamiento del modelado de procesos se entiende bien, hay una considerable laguna en la investigación entre los aspectos semánticos de sus rótulos textuales, y las descripciones en lenguaje natural. El objetivo de este artículo es hacer esta laguna en la investigación más transparente. Con este fin, clarificamos el papel del contenido textual en los modelos de proceso, y los retos relacionados con la interpretación, el análisis, y desarrollo de sus partes en lenguaje natural. De forma más específica, debatimos los casos particulares del uso del modelado de procesos semánticos para identificar 25 retos. Para cada reto, identificamos antes de la investigación y debatimos las direcciones para dirigirnos a ellos

Criteria and Heuristics for Business Process Model Decomposition - Review and Comparative Evaluation

It is generally agreed that large process models should be decomposed into sub-processes in order to enhance understandability and maintainability. Accordingly, a number of process decomposition criteria and heuristics have been proposed in the literature. This paper presents a review of the field revealing distinct classes of criteria and heuristics. The study raises the question of how different decomposition heuristics affect process model understandability and maintainability. To address this question, an experiment is conducted where two different heuristics, one based on breakpoints and the other on data objects, were used to decompose a flat process model. The results of the experiment show that, although there are minor differences, the heuristics cause very similar results in regard to understandability and maintainability as measured by various process model metrics

Investigating expressiveness and understandability of hierarchy in declarative business process models

Hierarchy has widely been recognized as a viable approach to deal with the complexity of conceptual models. For instance, in declarative business process models, hierarchy is realized by sub-processes. While technical implementations of declarative sub-processes exist, their application, semantics, and the resulting impact on understandability are less understood yet—this research gap is addressed in this work. More specifically, we discuss the semantics and the application of hierarchy and show how subprocesses enhance the expressiveness of declarative modeling languages. Then, we turn to the influence of hierarchy on the understandability of declarative process models. In particular, we present a cognitive-psychology-based framework that allows to assess the impact of hierarchy on the understandability of a declarative process model. To empirically test the proposed framework, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods is followed. While statistical tests provide numerical evidence, think-aloud protocols give insights into the reasoning processes taking place when reading declarative process models

Conceptual modelling for integrated decision-making in process systems

This Thesis addresses the systematic construction of Decision Making Models (DMMs) from the conceptualization stage to its application in specific situations, with special emphasis on !he treatment of scenarios where there is a hierarchy of decision levels, common in the Process Systems (PS). Although the methodologies developed are generic, the scope of this Thesis is limited to the perspective of Process Engineering. The central component required to construct a DMM is the conceptual description of the reality, which supports the system alisation of management procedures . During this description, two different dom ains can be identified: the PS Domain, useful to describe the structure of the process as such (physical reality and the way in which its elements are related), and the Management Domain, identified in this Thesis as associated with the Conceptual Constraints (CC) that describe the restrictions associated with the management of the process . In this way, the PS Domain includes concepts and relationships that appear in the control standards of the process followed by the company: the description of the process to be developed, the description of the physical equipment in which it is developed , and that of its interactions, giving rise to the control of the execution of the procedures; this domain should allow managing the construction, design, operation and control of any manufacturing system. On the other hand, the CC Domain contains the information associated with the concepts and relationships that m ust be fulfilled to ensure a coherent set of decisions, with the purpose of identifying and representing the systematics to follow during the decision-making process, giving rise to the conceptual representation of this system and, finally, the construction of the corresponding DMM. The first challenge addressed in this thesis is associated with the systematisation of conceptual modelling from semantic information, for the construction ofontologies from textual sources and a procedure to verify the interna! coherence of lhese sources. The application of this methodology has been used for the identification of the essential concepts and relationships in the PS Domain, allowing creating a generic, common and shared model, unlike the existing models. In the next step, this PS Domain has been used to solve management problems in systems that comprise multi-level hierarchies. The resulting decision-making process allows integrating the decisions made al each level, ensuring their consistency from an approach that simultaneously considers the management of all available information (data and knowledge). On the other hand, the introduction of the necessary concepts and relationships to ensure the feasibility of the process management decisions, through the CC Domain, allows the development of systematic DMM creation procedures: this domain classifies the constrains (balances, sequence, etc.), adds abstrae! elements to them (e.g.: produced and consumed amounts) and allows to generalize the relation of its compone nis with the information associated to the PS Domain. The last part of this Thesis deals with the integration of the PS and CC Domains, and their application for the generation of new decision-making systems . For this, algorithms have been designed that, starting from the previously identified and classified restrictions, and patterns of DMMs also previously identified from existing cases, exploit the information available through the instances in the PS Domain, to generate new DMMs according to the user's specifications. lts use is illustrated through cases from different environments, demonstrating the generalisation capacity of the created systematics.Esta Tesis aborda la construcción sistemática de Modelos para la toma de Decisiones (DMMs) desde la etapa de conceptualización hasta su aplicación en situaciones concretas, con especial énfasis en el tratamiento de escenarios en los que existe una jerarquía de niveles de decisión, habitual en la Industria de Proceso (PS). Aunque las metodologías desarrolladas son genéricas, el alcance de esta Tesis se limita a la perspectiva de la Ingeniería de Procesos. El componente central requerido para construir un DMMs es la descripción conceptual de la realidad a la que se orienta, que a su vez respalda la sistematización de los procedimientos de gestión. Durante esta descripción, se pueden identificar planteamientos asociados a dos dominios diferentes: el Dominio del Proceso (PS), útil para describir la estructura del proceso como tal (realidad física y forma en la que se relacionan sus elementos), y el Dominio de Gestión, asociado a las Restricciones Conceptuales (CC) que describen las restricciones asociadas a la gestión del proceso. El Dominio PS incluye conceptos y relaciones que aparecen en los estándares de control del proceso que sigue la empresa: la descripción del proceso a desarrollar, la descripción de los equipos físicos en los que se desarrolla, y la de sus interacciones, que dan lugar al control de ejecución de los procedimientos; este dominio debe permitir la construcción, el diseño, la operación y el control de cualquier sistema de fabricación. Por su parte, el Dominio CC contiene la información asociada a los conceptos y las relaciones que deben cumplirse para asegurar un conjunto coherente de decisiones, con el propósito de identificar y representar la sistemática a seguir durante el proceso de toma de decisiones, dando lugar a la representación conceptual de esta sistemática y, finalmente, a la construcción del correspondiente DMM. El primer reto abordado en esta Tesis está asociado a la sistematización del modelado conceptual a partir de información semántica, para construcción de ontologías a partir de fuentes textuales y de un procedimiento para verificar la coherencia interna de dichas fuentes. La aplicación de esta metodología se ha utilizado para la identificación de los conceptos y las relaciones esenciales en el Dominio PS, permitiendo crear un modelo genérico, común y compartido, a diferencia de los modelos existentes. En el siguiente paso, este Dominio PS se ha utilizado para la resolución de problemas de gestión en sistemas que comprenden múltiples niveles de jerarquías funcionales. El proceso de toma de decisiones resultante permite integrar las decisiones tomadas en cada nivel, asegurando su coherencia a partir de un enfoque que contempla simultáneamente la gestión de toda la información disponible (datos y conocimiento). Por su parte, la introducción de los conceptos y relaciones necesarios para asegurar la factibilidad de las decisiones de gestión del proceso, a través del Dominio CC, permite el desarrollo de procedimientos sistemáticos de creación de DMMs: este Dominio clasifica las restricciones (balances, secuencia, etc.), agrega elementos abstractos a dichas restricciones (p.e.: cantidad producida y consumida) y permite generalizar la relación de sus componentes con la información asociada al Dominio PS. En la última parte de esta Tesis se aborda la integración de los Dominios PS y CC, y su aplicación para la generación de nuevos sistemas de toma de decisiones. Para ello, se han diseñado algoritmos que, partiendo de las restricciones anteriormente identificadas y clasificadas, y patrones de DMMs también previamente identificados a partir de casos ya existentes, explotan la información disponible a través de las instancias del Dominio PS, para generar de nuevos modelos de toma de decisión de acuerdo con las especificaciones del usuario. Su utilización se ilustra a través de casos procedentes de diferentes entornos, demostrando la capacidad de generalización de la sistemática creada.Postprint (published version

Digital Innovation and Transformation: a Quasi-Systematic Literature Review

Nowadays there are several examples of successful companies that run innovative digital business models. Studies indicate that companies that do not follow the technological tendencies will possibly cease to exist in the next years. Besides, Digital Transformation has a direct impact on relations and forms of consumption. However, although much have been said about this topic, the literature has not established yet a common ground about the meaning of Digital Innovation and Digital Transformation. The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyze and synthesize the various aspects of the main concepts related to Digital Innovation and Transformation (DI&T). We have done a quasi-systematic review of the literature, generating as a primary outcome a list of the main constructs related to DI&T, as well as their definitions. Our main contribution is a map that conceptualizes and relates DI and DT that could be used as a base for future researchers

Sharing Semantic Resources

The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information, so far created for human consumption, becomes machine readable, “enabling computers and people to work in cooperation”. To turn into reality this vision several challenges are still open among which the most important is to share meaning formally represented with ontologies or more generally with semantic resources. This Semantic Web long-term goal has many convergences with the activities in the field of Human Language Technology and in particular in the development of Natural Language Processing applications where there is a great need of multilingual lexical resources. For instance, one of the most important lexical resources, WordNet, is also commonly regarded and used as an ontology. Nowadays, another important phenomenon is represented by the explosion of social collaboration, and Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia in the world, is object of research as an up to date omni comprehensive semantic resource. The main topic of this thesis is the management and exploitation of semantic resources in a collaborative way, trying to use the already available resources as Wikipedia and Wordnet. This work presents a general environment able to turn into reality the vision of shared and distributed semantic resources and describes a distributed three-layer architecture to enable a rapid prototyping of cooperative applications for developing semantic resources