Threats Management Throughout the Software Service Life-Cycle

Software services are inevitably exposed to a fluctuating threat picture. Unfortunately, not all threats can be handled only with preventive measures during design and development, but also require adaptive mitigations at runtime. In this paper we describe an approach where we model composite services and threats together, which allows us to create preventive measures at design-time. At runtime, our specification also allows the service runtime environment (SRE) to receive alerts about active threats that we have not handled, and react to these automatically through adaptation of the composite service. A goal-oriented security requirements modelling tool is used to model business-level threats and analyse how they may impact goals. A process flow modelling tool, utilising Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and standard error boundary events, allows us to define how threats should be responded to during service execution on a technical level. Throughout the software life-cycle, we maintain threats in a centralised threat repository. Re-use of these threats extends further into monitoring alerts being distributed through a cloud-based messaging service. To demonstrate our approach in practice, we have developed a proof-of-concept service for the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain. In addition to the design-time activities, we show how this composite service duly adapts itself when a service component is exposed to a threat at runtime.Comment: In Proceedings GraMSec 2014, arXiv:1404.163

Towards a generalised e-learning business process model

Modelling learning scenarios is central for e-learning domain. This has been manifested in the proliferation of the different Educational Modelling Languages, as well as in developed e-learning models. However, the existing modelled scenarios are deficient as they lack flexibility and the agility to respond to the dynamic nature of an e-learning process that is suitable to answer learners’ needs. This paper proposes a novel approach to develop a generalised business process model from a set of related business processes sharing the same goals and associated objectives. The proposed approach has been applied in the e-learning domain, which demonstrated its ability to develop a generalised e-learning business process model that is derived from the existing pedagogical models and technology-enhanced learning artefacts. Moreover, the proposed approach has been evaluated to test its effectiveness in generalising a set of business processes, which paves the ground to apply it in different contexts. The generalised e-learning business process model has been modelled using the industrial standard Business Process Modelling Notations (BPMN 2.0) so that processes can be dynamically enacted in service-oriented environments and, at the same time, adapting to answering e-learners’ learning requirements

Meet the challenge in service identification: A ratio-based approach

Business processes in todays German universities possess high reorganization potential through Information Technology (IT). In particular service-oriented architectures (SOA) gain importance and respective development projects are started, distributed with respect to personnel, place and can comprise diverse organizations. We assume that a detailed analysis of company’s business process structure is a prerequisite to define useful services. In the SOA domain, the process landscape is most likely modelled in distributed modelling projects. This leads to variations since distributed models e. g. do not necessarly share the same level of detail. Thus, the model integration is a necessary step that has to be done before core functions can be identified within the documented processes for a planned implementation of services for a SOA. As the process models are documented electronically using a modeling tool, the process of identifying the service candidates can be supported by an automatic analysis of the process models. We introduce an approach to support the identification of services by using ratios generated out of the business process models and demonstrate its applicability within the research program

An automation approach based on workflows and software agents for Industrial Product-Service Systems

Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2) fulfil specific customer needs. This often implies the flexible reaction to changing requirements, impacting the adaption effort for the IPS2 provider. Additionally the modelling of individual business processes for the IPS2 delivery imposes a challenge to the provider. A great variety of process types, ranging from production to maintenance process, has to be covered in order to ensure a smooth and economically feasible IPS2 operation. Therefore, an approach for the modelling and automation of IPS2 delivery processes is of specific interest. In this paper an IPS2 automation approach will be presented that allows the modelling and deployment of the specific business processes and enables the integration of service shares into the automation solution of the product share. The presented approach allows for an easy adaption of the product share configuration. To achieve this goal, a workflow management system represents the backbone of all customer provider relationships that distributes the tasks and responsibilities to the IPS2 network partners according to the IPS2 business model. For machine-oriented service shares the workflow management system interacts with an implemented Java-based software agent system by means of web services. Lastly, an application example of a prototypical IPS2 in the micro production domain will be given. The control system architecture and its implementation will be described and the application use case of manufacturing in the area of micro milling machine tools as a service share will be presented. An outlook of further work and future potential will complete the paper

Blind-date conversation joining

In service-oriented applications, service providers and their clients can engage in conversations to exchange the data required to achieve their business goals. In this paper, we focus on a particular kind of conversation joining, which we call blind-date, where a client may join a conversation among multiple parties in an asynchronous and completely transparent way. Indeed, the client can join the conversation without knowing any information about it in advance. More specifically, we show that the correlation mechanism provided by orchestration languages enables the blind-date conversation joining strategy. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, we provide an implementation of this strategy by using the standard orchestration language WS-BPEL. Moreover, to clarify the run-time effects of the blind-date joining, we formally describe its behaviour by resorting to COWS, a process calculus specifically designed for modelling service-oriented applications. We illustrate our approach by means of a simple example and a more realistic case study from the online games domain

An interactive metaheuristic search framework for software serviceidentification from business process models

In recent years, the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) model of computing has become widely used and has provided efficient and agile business solutions in response to inevitable and rapid changes in business requirements. Software service identification is a crucial component in the production of a service-oriented architecture and subsequent successful software development, yet current service identification methods have limitations. For example, service identification methods are either not sufficiently comprehensive to handle the totality of service identification activities, or they lack computational support, or they pay insufficient attention to quality checks of resulting services. To address these limitations, comprehensive computationally intelligent support for software engineers when deriving software services from an organisation’s business process models shows great potential, especially when the impact of human preference on the quality of the resulting solutions can be incorporated. Accordingly, this research attempts to apply interactive metaheuristic search to effectively bridge the gap between business and SOA technology and so increase business agility.A novel, comprehensive framework is introduced that is driven by domain independent role-based business process models, and uses an interactive metaheuristic search-based service identification approach based on a genetic algorithm, while adhering to SOA principles. Termed BPMiSearch, the framework is composed of three main layers. The first layer is concerned with processing inputs from business process models into search space elements by modelling input data and presenting them at an appropriate level of granularity. The second layer focuses on identifying software services from the specified search space. The third layer refines the resulting services to map the business elements in the resulting candidate services to the corresponding service components. The proposed BPMiSearch framework has been evaluated by applying it to a healthcare domain case study, specifically, Cancer Care and Registration (CCR) business processes at the King Hussein Cancer Centre, Amman, Jordan.Experiments show that the impact of software engineer interaction on the quality of the outcomes in terms of search effectiveness, efficiency, and level of user satisfaction, is assessed. Results show that BPMiSearch has rapid search performance to positively support software engineers in the identification of services from role-based business process models while adhering to SOA principles. High-quality services are identified that might not have been arrived at manually by software engineers. Furthermore, it is found that BPMiSearch is sensitive and responsive to software engineer interaction resulting in a positive level of user trust, acceptance, and satisfaction with the candidate services

BPMN4SOA : A service oriented process modelling language

Service oriented architectures have become very popular the last few years. The abstraction of computer systems into a service paradigm bring many new solutions, both for cross business processes to aid interoperability and the reuse of existing legacy systems in a new network centric world. In the wake of this, service modelling has become a part of OMGs Model Driven Architecture and new modelling languages that are based on past experience for the new paradigm are emerging. BPMN 2.0 and SoaML are the newest modelling standards from OMG that focus on service modelling. They provide different approaches to the service domain where BPMN 2.0 emphasise process modelling and SoaML emphasise service architecture modelling. BPMN4SOA is a language that extends the use of BPMN 2.0, and bring more emphasis on the service modelling capability of BPMN 2.0. It does this by means of role modelling to abstract the participants and service choreographies into reusable objects. BPMN4SOA also provide modelling capability for information data for messages through implementation of UML at L0 compliance. Because BPMN4SOA is an extension of BPMN 2.0 through it’s Extension and External Relationship constructions, BPMN4SOA should be implementable in all systems fully compliant with BPMN 2.0 specification

A hybrid e-learning framework: Process-based, semantically-enriched and service-oriented

Despite the recent innovations in e-Learning, much development is needed to ensure better learning experience for everyone and bridge the research gap in the current state of the art e-Learning artefacts. Contemporary e-learning artefacts possess various limitations as follows. First, they offer inadequate variations of adaptivity, since their recommendations are limited to e-learning resources, peers or communities. Second, they are often overwhelmed with technology at the expense of proper pedagogy and learning theories underpinning e-learning practices. Third, they do not comprehensively capture the e-learning experiences as their focus shifts to e-learning activities instead of e-learning processes. In reality, learning is a complex process that includes various activities and interactions between different roles to achieve certain gaols in a continuously evolving environment. Fourth, they tend more towards legacy systems and lack the agility and flexibility in their structure and design. To respond to the above limitations, this research aims at investigating the effectiveness of combining three advanced technologies (i.e., Business Process Modelling and Enactment, Semantics and Service Oriented Computing – SOC–) with learning pedagogy in order to enhance the e-learner experience. The key design artefact of this research is the development of the HeLPS e-Learning Framework – Hybrid e-Learning Framework that is Process-based, Semantically-enriched and Service Oriented-enabled. In this framework, a generic e-learning process has been developed bottom-up based on surveying a wide range of e-learning models (i.e., practical artefacts) and their underpinning pedagogies/concepts (i.e., theories); and then forming a generic e-learning process. Furthermore, an e-Learning Meta-Model has been developed in order to capture the semantics of e-learning domain and its processes. Such processes have been formally modelled and dynamically enacted using a service-oriented enabled architecture. This framework has been evaluated using a concern-based evaluation employing both static and dynamic approaches. The HeLPS e-Learning Framework along with its components have been evaluated by applying a data-driven approach and artificially-constructed case study to check its effectiveness in capturing the semantics, enriching e-learning processes and deriving services that can enhance the e-learner experience. Results revealed the effectiveness of combining the above-mentioned technologies in order to enhance the e-learner experience. Also, further research directions have been suggested.This research contributes to enhancing the e-learner experience by making the e-learning artefacts driven by pedagogy and informed by the latest technologies. One major novel contribution of this research is the introduction of a layered architectural framework (i.e., HeLPS) that combines business process modelling and enactment, semantics and SOC together. Another novel contribution is adopting the process-based approach in e-learning domain through: identifying these processes and developing a generic business process model from a set of related e-learning business process models that have the same goals and associated objectives. A third key contribution is the development of the e-Learning Meta-Model, which captures a high-abstract view of learning domain and encapsulates various domain rules using the Semantic Web Rule Language. Additional contribution is promoting the utilisation of Service-Orientation in e-learning through developing a semantically-enriched approach to identify and discover web services from e-learning business process models. Fifth, e-Learner Experience Model (eLEM) and e-Learning Capability Maturity Model (eLCMM) have been developed, where the former aims at identifying and quantifying the e-learner experience and the latter represents a well-defined evolutionary plateau towards achieving a mature e-learning process from a technological perspective. Both models have been combined with a new developed data-driven Validation and Verification Model to develop a Concern-based Evaluation Approach for e-Learning artefacts, which is considered as another contribution

Ontology-based patterns for the integration of business processes and enterprise application architectures

Increasingly, enterprises are using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). SOA has the potential to bridge the gap between business and technology and to improve the reuse of existing applications and the interoperability with new ones. In addition to service architecture descriptions, architecture abstractions like patterns and styles capture design knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of software. Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between users, business processes, and data. Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. We use an ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for pattern definition, extension and composition are developed and their applicability in business process-driven application integration is demonstrated

A goal-oriented requirements modelling language for enterprise architecture

Methods for enterprise architecture, such as TOGAF, acknowledge the importance of requirements engineering in the development of enterprise architectures. Modelling support is needed to specify, document, communicate and reason about goals and requirements. Current modelling techniques for enterprise architecture focus on the products, services, processes and applications of an enterprise. In addition, techniques may be provided to describe structured requirements lists and use cases. Little support is available however for modelling the underlying motivation of enterprise architectures in terms of stakeholder concerns and the high-level goals that address these concerns. This paper describes a language that supports the modelling of this motivation. The definition of the language is based on existing work on high-level goal and requirements modelling and is aligned with an existing standard for enterprise modelling: the ArchiMate language. Furthermore, the paper illustrates how enterprise architecture can benefit from analysis techniques in the requirements domain