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

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

Collaborative Business Process Modeling Using 3D Virtual Environments

Process modeling is a complex organizational task that requires many iterations and communication between the business analysts and the domain specialists involved in the process modeling. The challenge of process modeling is exacerbated, when the process of modeling has to be performed in a cross-organizational, distributed environment. Some systems have been developed to support collaborative process modeling, all of which use traditional 2D interfaces. We present an environment for collaborative process modeling, using 3D virtual environment technology. We make use of avatar instantiations of user ego centres, to allow for the spatial embodiment of the user with reference to the process model. We describe an innovative prototype collaborative process modeling approach, implemented as a modeling environment in Second Life. This approach leverages the use of virtual environments to provide user context for editing and collaborative exercises. We present a positive preliminary report on a case study, in which a test group modelled a business process using the system in Second Life

Data Flow Abstractions and Adaptations through Updatable Process Views

The increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAISs) has resulted in large process model collections. To support users having different perspectives on these processes and related data, a PAIS should enable personalized views on process models. Existing PAISs, however, do not provide mechanisms for creating such process views or even changing them. Especially, changing process models is a frequent use case in PAISs due to evolving needs or unplanned situations. While process views have been used as abstractions for visualizing process models, no work exists on how to change process models based on related views. This paper extends our approach for abstracting and changing process models based on updatable process views with a focus on the data perspective. In the context, of a view change we ensure up-to-dateness and consistency of all process views related to the same process model. To define process abstractions well-defined view creation operations can be applied. Further, updates on process views (including the data perspective) are correctly propagated to the underlying process model. Then, all other views related to this process model are migrated to the new version of the process model. Overall, our view framework enables domain experts to not only evolve the behavior of large processes based on appropriate model abstractions, but also the data perspective

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

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

Abstraction, Visualization, and Evolution of Process Models

The increasing adoption of process orientation in companies and organizations has resulted in large process model collections. Each process model of such a collection may comprise dozens or hundreds of elements and captures various perspectives of a business process, i.e., organizational, functional, control, resource, or data perspective. Domain experts having only limited process modeling knowledge, however, hardly comprehend such large and complex process models. Therefore, they demand for a customized (i.e., personalized) view on business processes enabling them to optimize and evolve process models effectively. This thesis contributes the proView framework to systematically create and update process views (i.e., abstractions) on process models and business processes respectively. More precisely, process views abstract large process models by hiding or combining process information. As a result, they provide an abstracted, but personalized representation of process information to domain experts. In particular, updates of a process view are supported, which are then propagated to the related process model as well as associated process views. Thereby, up-to-dateness and consistency of all process views defined on any process model can be always ensured. Finally, proView preserves the behaviour and correctness of a process model. Process abstractions realized by views are still not sufficient to assist domain experts in comprehending and evolving process models. Thus, additional process visualizations are introduced that provide text-based, form-based, and hierarchical representations of process models. Particularly, these process visualizations allow for view-based process abstractions and updates as well. Finally, process interaction concepts are introduced enabling domain experts to create and evolve process models on touch-enabled devices. This facilitates the documentation of process models in workshops or while interviewing process participants at their workplace. Altogether, proView enables domain experts to interact with large and complex process models as well as to evolve them over time, based on process model abstractions, additional process visualizations, and process interaction concepts. The framework is implemented in a proof-ofconcept prototype and validated through experiments and case studies

A filtering engine for large conceptual schemas

Postprint (published version

Business Process Quality Management

During the past 25 years, research in the field of business process management as well as the practical adoption of corresponding methods and tools have made substantial progress. In particular, this development was driven by the insight that well-managed business processes enable organizations to better serve their stakeholders, save costs and, ultimately, realize competitive advantage. It is therefore not surprising that improving business processes ranks high on the list of priorities of organizations. In practice, this challenge is currently being addressed through approaches such as benchmarking, industry-specific best practice reference models or process reengineering heuristics. However, no systematic and generic proposition towards managing business process quality has achieved broad acceptance yet. To address this gap, this thesis contributes to the field of business process quality management with the results lined out in the following. First, it defines a concise notion of business process quality based on organizational targets, and applies it to a sample real-world case. This definition is not specific to any particular application field, and thus constitutes a vital first step towards systematic and generic business process quality management. On that basis, an approach is developed to model business objectives in the sense of the requirements that shall be fulfilled by the results of a business process. In turn, this approach enables appraising if a business process achieves its business objective as one of the core criteria relevant to business process quality. Further, this thesis proposes extensions to common business process meta-models which enable quality-aware business process modeling, and demonstrates how fundamental quality characteristics can be derived from corresponding models. At this stage, the results achieved have enabled an advanced understanding of business process quality. By means of these insights, a model of business process quality attributes with corresponding quality criteria is developed. This model complements and exceeds preceding approaches since, for the first time, it systematically derives relevant quality attributes from a business process management perspective instead of adopting these from related fields. It enables appraising business process quality independently of a particular field of application, and deriving recommendations to improve the processes assessed. To enable practical adoption of the concepts developed, the integration of procedures and functionality relevant to quality in business process management lifecycles and system landscapes is discussed next. To establish the contribution of this thesis beyond the previous state of the art, the proposed quality model is then compared to existing business process reengineering practices as well as propositions in the area of business process quality. Further, quality attributes are employed to improve a substantial real-world business process. This experience report demonstrates how quality management practices can be applied even if quality-aware system landscapes are not in place yet. It thus contributes to bridging the gap between the research results proposed in this thesis and the conditions present in practice today. Finally, remaining limitations with regard to the research objectives pursued are discussed, and challenges for future research are lined out. Addressing the latter will enable further leveraging the potentials of business process quality management