Modeling and enacting complex data dependencies in business processes

Enacting business processes in process engines requires the coverage of control flow, resource assignments, and process data. While the first two aspects are well supported in current process engines, data dependencies need to be added and maintained manually by a process engineer. Thus, this task is error-prone and time-consuming. In this report, we address the problem of modeling processes with complex data dependencies, e.g., m:n relationships, and their automatic enactment from process models. First, we extend BPMN data objects with few annotations to allow data dependency handling as well as data instance differentiation. Second, we introduce a pattern-based approach to derive SQL queries from process models utilizing the above mentioned extensions. Therewith, we allow automatic enactment of data-aware BPMN process models. We implemented our approach for the Activiti process engine to show applicability. Keywords: Process Modeling, Data Modeling, Process Enactment, BPMN, SQ

business process modeling based on entity life cycles

Abstract This paper presents an approach to business process modeling that aims to benefit from research on the artifact-oriented perspective and on case management. It draws the notion of entity life cycle from the former and the notion of hierarchical stage from the latter. The main purpose of the approach, which is called ELBA (Entity-Lifecyle Based Approach), is to leverage the notion of dataflow to coordinate the life cycles of the entities involved in a business process. For this reason, the approach takes advantage of a number of patterns, structural and functional, which are illustrated with the help of two examples, one related to the handling of papers submitted to conferences and the other concerning the many-to-many mapping between requisition orders and procurement ones in build-to-order processes

Data flow and human tasks in business process models

In contrast with the traditional view that represents business processes as flow charts of tasks, the artifact-centric one stresses the importance of the data flow, as the main responsible for the activation of the tasks. This viewpoint leads to reconsider the interactions between the process and its tasks as well as the execution mode of the tasks. The greatest benefits concern human tasks; they should no longer be considered only as services implemented by people but they may enable their performers to make choices. Two kinds of human choices are considered in this paper: the choice of the inputs to be acted on, and the choice of the course of action to be taken. The execution mode of human tasks is also examined and three categories are illustrated: performer-driven tasks, process-driven tasks and macro tasks. These categories come with a number of patterns, which are exemplified in this paper

A data-flow language for business process models

On the basis of the artifact-centric approach to business process modeling, this paper proposes a notation named ACTA that provides two equivalent forms of representation: in one, all the life cycles of the artifacts involved in the business under consideration are shown in a single model, while in the other they are defined in separate models. The latter may be easier to understand when the model is large but requires synchronization points between life cycles: two kinds of mechanisms, i.e., driven transitions and driven tasks are analyzed in this paper. The major feature of ACTA is its nature of data flow language: the activation of tasks depends on the presence of suitable input entities rather than on the precedence relationships between tasks as it takes place in the conventional activity-centric approach. The advantage is the ease with which a number of situations that are difficult to handle with the activity-centric approach can be managed. Such situations encompass the selection of homogeneous entities to be processed in batches and the many-to-many mapping between entities of different types, such as requisition orders and procurement orders

Using the guard-stage-milestone notation for monitoring BPMN-based processes

Business processes are usually designed by means of imperative languages to model the acceptable execution of the activities performed within a system or an organization. At the same time, declarative languages are better suited to check the conformance of the states and transitions of the modeled process with respect to its actual execution. To avoid defining models twice from scratch to cope with both the process enactment and its monitoring, this paper proposes an approach for translating BPMN process models to E-GSM ones: an extension of the Guard-Stage-Milestone artifact-centric notation. The paper also shows how a monitoring engine based on E-GSM specifications can detect anomalies during the execution of the process and classify them according to different levels of severity, that is, with respect to the impact on the outcome of the process

Business process models and entity life cycles

Tasks and business entities are the major constituents of business processes but they are not always considered equally important. The activity-centric approach and the artifact-oriented one have radically different visions. The former focuses on the control flow, i.e., on the representation of the precedence constraints between tasks, and considers the dataflow an add-on. The latter emphasizes the states of the business entities and defines the transitions between states in a declarative way that makes it difficult to figure out what the control flow is. This paper presents the ELBA notation whose purpose is to integrate those different visions by leveraging the dataflow. The dataflow defines the input and output entities of the tasks in process models. Entities flowing through tasks change their states and then a process model results from the combination of the life cycles of the entities managed by the process. Process models are complemented by information models that show the attributes and relationships of the entity types handled by the processes. Life cycles are intertwined in process models but they can be separated by means of an extraction technique that is illustrated in this paper with the help of two examples

Business process models and entity life cycles

Tasks and business entities are the major constituents of business processes but they are not always considered equally important. The activity-centric approach and the artifact-oriented one have radically different visions. The former focuses on the control flow, i.e., on the representation of the precedence constraints between tasks, and considers the dataflow an add-on. The latter emphasizes the states of the business entities and defines the transitions between states in a declarative way that makes it difficult to figure out what the control flow is. This paper presents the ELBA notation whose purpose is to integrate those different visions by leveraging the dataflow. The dataflow defines the input and output entities of the tasks in process models. Entities flowing through tasks change their states and then a process model results from the combination of the life cycles of the entities managed by the process. Process models are complemented by information models that show the attributes and relationships of the entity types handled by the processes. Life cycles are intertwined in process models but they can be separated by means of an extraction technique that is illustrated in this paper with the help of two examples

Projektovanje informacionog sistema studentske službe

U ovom radu se prikazuje deo projekta informacionog sistema studentske službe fakulteta i primena štedljivog modela korišćenja resursa. Racionalizacijom poslovnih procesa informacionog sistema ostvaren je napredak u štedljivom korišćenju resursa. Smanjenje rasipanja resursa kao što su: vreme, ljudi, energija i novac, a bez smanjivanja funkcionalnosti informacionog sistema ostvaruje se postupnim i konstantnim razvojem sistema uz povećanje produktivnosti korisnika. Primer ovakvog pristupa koji je prikazan u ovom radu je unapređenje procesa "Upis godine" koji je deo složenih procesa u Studentskoj službi fakulteta