Parameterizable Views for Process Visualization

In large organizations different users or user groups usually have distinguished perspectives over business processes and related data. Personalized views on the managed processes are therefore needed. Existing BPM tools, however, do not provide adequate mechanisms for building and visualizing such views. Very often processes are displayed to users in the same way as drawn by the process designer. To tackle this inflexibility this paper presents an advanced approach for creating personalized process views based on well-defined, parameterizable view operations. Respective operations can be flexibly composed in order to reduce or aggregate process information in the desired way. Depending on the chosen parameterization of the applied view operations, in addition, different "quality levels" with more or less relaxed properties can be obtained for the resulting process views (e.g., regarding the correctness of the created process view scheme). This allows us to consider the specific needs of the different applications utilizing process views (e.g., process monitoring tools or process editors). Altogether, the realized view concept contributes to better deal with complex, long-running business processes with hundreds up to thousands of activities

Towards Configurable Process Visualizations with Proviado

Visualizing complex business processes is an important task of process-aware information systems (PAIS). Current PAIS, however, fail in providing adequate mechanisms for visualizing and monitoring business processes. In particular, PAIS do not support personalized or adaptable process drawings, which is particularly important for large processes. In the Proviado project we are developing a comprehensive framework for this purpose. It allows for flexible process visualization along three dimensions: process views, process notations, and process representation forms. In this paper we summarize selected concepts and features of the Proviado demonstrator

Visualizing Large Business Process Models: Challenges, Techniques, Applications

Large process models may comprise hundreds or thousands of process elements, like activities, gateways, and data objects. Presenting such process models to users and enabling them to interact with these models constitute crucial tasks of any process-aware information systems (PAISs). Existing PAISs, however, neither provide adequate techniques for visualizing and abstracting process models nor for interacting with them. In particular, PAISs do not provide tailored process visualizations as needed in complex application environments. This paper presents examples of large process models and discusses some of the challenges to be tackled when visualizing and abstracting respective models. Further, it presents a comprehensive framework that allows for personalized process model visualizations, which can be tailored to the specific needs of the different user groups. First, process model complexity can be reduced by abstracting the models, i.e., by eliminating or aggregating process elements not relevant in the given visualization context. Second, the appearance of process elements can be customized independent of the process modeling language used. Third, different visualization formats (e.g., process diagrams, process forms, and process trees) are supported. Finally, it will be discussed how tailored visualizations of process models may serve as basis for changing and evolving process models at a high level of abstraction

The Proviado Access Control Model for Business Process Monitoring Components

Integrated process support is highly desirable in environments where data related to a particular business process are scattered over distributed, heterogeneous information systems. A business process monitoring component is a much-needed module in order to provide an integrated view on all these process data. Regarding process visualization and process data integration, access control (AC) issues are very important but also quite complex to be addressed. A major problem arises from the fact that the involved information systems are usually based on heterogeneous AC components. For several reasons, the only feasible way to tackle the problem of AC at the process monitoring level is to define access rights for the process monitoring component, hence getting rid of the burden to map access rights from the information system level. This paper presents the Proviado process visualization framework and discusses requirements for AC in process monitoring, which we derived from our case studies in the automotive domain. It then presents alternative approaches for AC: the view-based and the object-based approach. The latter is retained, and a core AC model is proposed for the definition of access rights that meet the derived requirements. AC mechanisms provided within the core model are key ingredients for the definition of model extensions

Enabling Personalized Visualization of Large Business Processes through Parameterizable Views

Process-aware information systems (PAISs) need to support personalized views on business processes since different user groups have distinguished perspectives on these processes and related data. Existing PAISs, however, do not provide mechanisms for creating and visualizing such process views. Typically, processes are displayed to users in exactly the same way as originally modeled. This paper presents a flexible approach for creating personalized process views based on parameterizable operations. Respective view-building operations can be flexibly composed in order to hide process information or abstract from it in the desired way. Depending on the chosen parameterization of the operations applied, we obtain process views with more or less relaxed properties (e.g., regarding the degree of information loss or soundness). Altogether, the realized view concept enables a more flexible visualization of large business processes satisfying the needs of different user groups

On the Context-aware, Personalized Delivery of Process Information: Viewpoints, Problems, and Requirements

Enterprises are confronted with an increasing amount of data. This data overload makes it difficult to provide knowledge-workers and decision-makers with the needed information. Particularly challenging in this context is the integrated provision of both structured and unstructured information depending on the current process context and user, i.e., the context-aware, personalized delivery of process information. Examples of unstructured process information include all kinds of office documents or e-mails. Examples of structured process information are business process models or data from enterprise information systems. Picking up the need for a context-aware, personalized delivery of process information, this paper presents results from three empirical studies: two exploratory case studies from the automotive domain and the healthcare sector, and an online survey among 219 participants. In a first step, we identify and describe problems with respect to process-oriented information management in general and the personalized provision of process information in particular. In a second step, we derive requirements on the user-adequate handling of process information

DyVProMo - A Lightweight Web-Based Tool for the Dynamic Visualization of Additional Information in Business Process Models

Business process models represent detailed informa�tion regarding the documentation, optimization, and automation of organizational processes. With an increasing level of detail,such models become rapidly complex, thus hindering their correct comprehension (i.e., both, the efficiency and accuracy of understanding decrease). Furthermore, once a process model is created, the view on it and the respective level of detail remains rigid for all stakeholders. However, a process model may contain information, which is less relevant for certain stakeholders (e.g.,domain experts). Consequently, the comprehension of process models becomes more difficult, as all information in a model needs to be read. Existing modeling systems do not offer the functionality to dynamically change the level of detail of a process model according to the stakeholders’ preferences. To address this issue, the work at hand presents the Dynamic Visualization of Process Models (DyVProMo), a lightweight web-based tool that enables the dynamic visualization of information in process models expressed in terms of the Business Process Model and Notation 2.0

Navigating in Complex Business Processes

In order to provide information needed in knowledge-intense business processes, large companies often establish intranet portals, which enable access to their process handbook. Especially, for large business processes comprising hundreds or thousands of process steps, these portals can help to avoid time-consuming access to paper-based process documentation. However, business processes are usually presented in a rather static manner within these portals, e.g., as simple drawings or textual descriptions. Companies therefore require new ways of making large processes and process-related information better explorable for end-users. This paper picks up this issue and presents a formal navigation framework based on linear algebra for navigating in large business processes

A Flexible Approach for Abstracting and Personalizing Large Business Process Models

In process-aware information systems (PAISs), usually, different user groups have distinguished perspectives on the business processes supported and on related business data. Hence, personalized views and proper abstractions on these business processes are needed. However, existing PAISs do not provide adequate mechanisms for creating and visualizing process views and process model abstractions. Usually, process models are displayed to users in exactly the same way as originally modeled. This paper presents a flexible approach for creating personalized views based on parameterizable operations. Respective view creation operations can be flexibly composed to either hide non-relevant process information or to abstract it. Depending on the parameterization of the selected view creation operations, one obtains process views with more or less relaxed properties, e.g., regarding the degree of information loss or the soundness of the resulting model abstractions. Altogether, the realized view concept allows for a more flexible abstraction and visualization of large business process models satisfying the needs of different user groups

Using Concurrent Task Trees for Stakeholder-centered Modeling and Visualization of Business Processes

The different stakeholders in Business Process Management have to deal with various process models in order to understand the business processes being relevant for them. Especially inexperienced stakeholders often have difficulties in comprehending large and complex process models. In this paper a stakeholder-centered approach for modeling, changing and visualizing business processes is introduced. It is based on the Concurrent Task Tree (CTT), which constitutes a task modeling language widely applied in the field of end-user development. In particular, CTT considers stakeholder needs in modeling the behaviour of user interfaces. In the context of our work we apply CTT for modeling, changing and visualizing business processes. To evaluate whether CTT is appropriate for stakeholder-centered process modeling we compare it with imperative process modeling, and introduce a mapping between CTT process models and imperative process models expressed in terms of the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). Finally, we provide an advanced stakeholder-centered visualization concept based on CTT