The uses of process modeling : a framework for understanding modeling formalisms

There is wide-spread recognition of the urgent need to improve software processes in order to improve the performance of software organizations. Process models are essential in achieving understanding and visibility of processes and are important for other uses including the analysis of processes for improvement. It has been increasingly difficult to compare and evaluate the variety of process modeling formalisms that have appeared in recent years without a clear understanding of precisely for what they will be used. The contribution of this paper is to provide an understanding and a fairly comprehensive catalog of the applications of process modeling for which formalisms may be used. The primary mechanism for doing this is a guided tour of the literature on process modeling supplemented by recent industrial experience. In the paper, basic definitions concerning processes, process descriptions and process modeling are reviewed and then uses of process modeling are surveyed under the following headings: communication among process participants, construction of new processes, control of processes, process· analysis, and process support by automation. Comments are offered on paradigms for process modeling formalisms and directions for future work to permit evolution of a discipline of process engineering are given

Change Support in Process-Aware Information Systems - A Pattern-Based Analysis

In today's dynamic business world the economic success of an enterprise increasingly depends on its ability to react to changes in its environment in a quick and flexible way. Process-aware information systems (PAIS) offer promising perspectives in this respect and are increasingly employed for operationally supporting business processes. To provide effective business process support, flexible PAIS are needed which do not freeze existing business processes, but allow for loosely specified processes, which can be detailed during run-time. In addition, PAIS should enable authorized users to flexibly deviate from the predefined processes if required (e.g., by allowing them to dynamically add, delete, or move process activities) and to evolve business processes over time. At the same time PAIS must ensure consistency and robustness. The emergence of different process support paradigms and the lack of methods for comparing existing change approaches have made it difficult for PAIS engineers to choose the adequate technology. In this paper we suggest a set of changes patterns and change support features to foster the systematic comparison of existing process management technology with respect to process change support. Based on these change patterns and features, we provide a detailed analysis and evaluation of selected systems from both academia and industry. The identified change patterns and change support features facilitate the comparison of change support frameworks, and consequently will support PAIS engineers in selecting the right technology for realizing flexible PAIS. In addition, this work can be used as a reference for implementing more flexible PAIS

Una extensión a los esquemas preconceptuales para el refinamiento en la representación de eventos y la notación matemática

An event is an occurrence within a particular software system or domain. Software and scientific models are representations of computing and natural systems. Such models have software and scientific components—domain knowledge elements. Scientists and business analysts use such models and their components for recognizing a domain, e.g., pre-conceptual schemas (PCS) used in software engineering. Scientific software domains (SSD) comprise fields in engineering and science, which are focused on developing and simulating scientific software systems for event or phenomenon research. Event-based software development has increased in scientific domains. Approaches to event-driven modeling are used from software/scientific modeling. Some advances have emerged in such approaches for integrating software and scientific components in science and engineering projects. However, scientists and business analysts lack a computational model for SSD in order to integrate both components in the same model. PCS notation includes software components based on structural and dynamic features, which allow for representing events and mathematical operations. Nonetheless, PCS lack scientific components for representing events in SSD. In this Ph.D. Thesis, we propose an extension to pre-conceptual schemas for refining event representation and mathematical notation. Such an extension comprises scientific components as graphical, linguistic, and mathematical structures for the sake of such refinement. We validate our proposal by using both an experimental process and a software application. Extension to PCS is included as a new work product for representing events in SSD. Therefore, the extended PCS are intended to be computing models for scientists and business analysts in scientific software development and simulation processes.Un evento es una ocurrencia en un sistema de software o dominio particular. Los modelos científicos y de software son representaciones de sistemas informáticos o naturales. Esos modelos tienen componentes científicos y de software (elementos del conocimiento del dominio). Científicos y analistas de negocio usan estos modelos y sus componentes para reconocer un dominio. Un ejemplo de esos modelos son los esquemas preconceptuales (EP), que se usan en ingeniería de software. Los dominios de software científico comprenden áreas en ingeniería y ciencia que se enfocan en el desarrollo y simulación de sistemas de software científico para la investigación de eventos o fenómenos. El desarrollo de software dirigido por eventos se viene incrementando en dominios científicos. Enfoques de modelado basado en eventos se usan desde el modelado científico y el modelado de software. En estos enfoques surgen algunos avances para integrar componentes científicos y componentes de software en proyectos de ingeniería y ciencia. Sin embargo, científicos y analistas de negocio carecen de un modelo computacional para dominios de software científico que integre ambos componentes en el mismo modelo. La notación de los EP incluye componentes de software que se basan en características estructurales y dinámicas, los cuales permiten representar eventos y operaciones matemáticas. No obstante, los EP carecen de componentes científicos para representar eventos en dominios de software científico. En esta Tesis Doctoral se propone una extensión a los esquemas preconceptuales para el refinamiento en la representación de eventos y la notación matemática. Esta extensión integra componentes científicos (estructuras gráficas, lingüísticas y matemáticas) para lograr este refinamiento. También, se valida la propuesta mediante un proceso experimental y una aplicación de software. La extensión a los EP se incluye como un nuevo producto de trabajo para representar eventos en dominios de software científico. Por lo tanto, se pretende que los EP extendidos sean modelos de computación, para científicos y analistas de negocio en procesos de desarrollo y simulación de software científico.MincienciasDoctorad

Business process modeling and simulation

The textbook provides the essentials of the Business Process (BP) Modeling and Simulation (M&S) from the verbal BP description to the formulation of the mathematical scheme of the model and the simulation program. Both the analytical modeling and the simulation approaches to BP M&S are considered. Special attention is given to the theoretical and practical aspects of the BP M&S. The text covers the following topics: fundamentals of the BP M&S, conceptual modeling using IDEF3 standard, cost metrics and the activity based costing, analytical modeling (queuing networks, linear and dynamic programming), simulation with GPSS, timed Petri Nets, and Crystal Ball toolkits. Case studies include BP simulations with BPwin and GPSS. The intended readers are senior graduate students and junior postgraduate students of computer science and industrial management

Executable system architecting using systems modeling language in conjunction with Colored Petri Nets - a demonstration using the GEOSS network centric system

Models and simulation furnish abstractions to manage complexities allowing engineers to visualize the proposed system and to analyze and validate system behavior before constructing it. Unified Modeling Language (UML) and its systems engineering extension, Systems Modeling Language (SysML), provide a rich set of diagrams for systems specification. However, the lack of executable semantics of such notations limits the capability of analyzing and verifying defined specifications. This research has developed an executable system architecting framework based on SysML-CPN transformation, which introduces dynamic model analysis into SysML modeling by mapping SysML notations to Colored Petri Net (CPN), a graphical language for system design, specification, simulation, and verification. A graphic user interface was also integrated into the CPN model to enhance the model-based simulation. A set of methodologies has been developed to achieve this framework. The aim is to investigate system wide properties of the proposed system, which in turn provides a basis for system reconfiguration --Abstract, page iii

SmartPM: automatic adaptation of dynamic processes at run-time

The research activity outlined in this thesis is devoted to define a general approach, a concrete architecture and a prototype Process Management System (PMS) for the automated adaptation of dynamic processes at run-time, on the basis of a declarative specification of process tasks and relying on well-established reasoning about actions and planning techniques. The purpose is to demonstrate that the combination of procedural and imperative models with declarative elements, along with the exploitation of techniques from the field of artificial intelligence (AI), such as Situation Calculus, IndiGolog and automated planning, can increase the ability of existing PMSs of supporting dynamic processes. To this end, a prototype PMS named SmartPM, which is specifically tailored for supporting collaborative work of process participants during pervasive scenarios, has been developed. The adaptation mechanism deployed on SmartPM is based on execution monitoring for detecting failures at run-time, which does not require the definition of the adaptation strategy in the process itself (as most of the current approaches do), and on automatic planning techniques for the synthesis of the recovery procedure