Business process verification: a Petri Net approach.

In this report, we discuss the use of Petri Net language theory for business process modeling. Essentially, the focus is on the opportunities of the modeling technique for analysis and verification. Semantic compatibility, as opposed to syntactic compatibility, is concerned with the meaningfulness of the distributedbusiness process. We start with a description and motivation of different notions of semantically compatible business processes. Further, these different types ofcompatibility are formalized by means of Petri Net language theory. Finally, we describe the foundations of an algorithm that enables us to verify the semantic compatibility in an automated way.Keywords: Petri Net theory; Business Process Modeling; Verification; Semantic Com-patibilityBusiness process modeling; Petri Net theory; Semantic compatibility; Verification; Theory; Business; Processes; Process modeling; Opportunities;

Deterministic Petri net languages as business process specification language.

Today, a wide variety of techniques have been proposed to model the process aspects of business processes. The problem, however, is that many of these are focused on providing a clear graphical representation of the models and give almost no support for complex verification procedures. Alternatively, the use of Petri Nets as a business process modeling language has been repeatedly proposed. In complex business processes the use of Petri Nets has been criticized and the technique is believed to be unable to capture such processes in all aspects. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the application of Petri Net language theory for business process specification. Petri Net languages are an extension to the Petri Net theory, and they provide a set of techniques to describe complex business processes more efficiently. More specifically, we advocate the application of deterministic Petri Net languages to model the control flow aspects of business processes. The balance between modeling power and analysis possibilities makes deterministic Petri Nets a highly efficient technique, used in a wide range of domains. The proof of their usability, as business process specification language, is given by providing suitable solutions to model the basic and more complex business process patterns [4]. Additionally, some points of particular interest are concisely discussed.Business; Business process modeling; Control; Model; Models; Patterns; Petri Net theory; Power; Process modeling; Processes; Representation; Theory; Verification;

Web services composition, execution and visualization.

Visualization; International;

The use of the concept of event in enterprise ontologies and requirements engineering literature.

The concept of event is used in a lot of meanings. It can be the possible outcome of doing something (probability theory), it can be a business transaction (accounting), or just a plain happening. In software engineering, the concept of event is also used a lot. It is used to accomplish loose coupling between software components or to realise interaction between different services. There is however not a consensus on the meaning of `an event'. In enterprise ontologies, an event is defined as a happening at one point in time, or as an activity which takes time to complete. In requirement engineering, the same different uses can be found, together with an event as a request for something that needs to be done. These differences can also be found in implementation. All these distinct purposes of the word event make it difficult to integrate and use different requirement engineering techniques. Comparison or transformations between models drawn in different grammars is impossible because of the ambiguity of the concept of event. We define three meanings for an event that are used by enterprise ontologies and requirement engineering techniques: an achievement (happening at one point in time), an activity (happening over time) and a request (a demand for something that needs to be done). We also identify a missing link between real economic events, the events defined in the requirements model and the events used in implementation.Requirements modelling; Enterprise ontology; Process modelling; Dynamic; Event;

Business process management: What's in a name?.

Management; Processes;

New generation E-learning technology by Web Services.

This paper discusses a new approach to build infrastructures for E-Learning systems for Learning Software Organizations on the basis of Web Services. A requirements context is developed to determine which type of E-Learning applications that can be Web Service Enabled. This is illustrated with a case study on an Encapsulated Software Teaching Environment. Additional facilities, such as didactical agents and deep personalization to facilitate Learning Software Organizations are discussed at the end.

A petri net formalization of a publish-subscribe process system.

Publish/subscribe systems are getting more and more integrated into the execution of business processes in process aware information systems. This integration enables the distribution of the process logic and increases the scalability and adaptability of the process enactment infrastructure. A consequence is however that the original specified process model doesn't accurately represent the actual running process anymore, as the publish/subscribe specific operations are not incorporated into the original model. In this paper we propose a formal model of a publish/subscribe system that can be integrated into a business process model, creating in this way an accurate representation of the actual runtime process. The resulting model can be used for model checking the executable process: inspect system properties, discover problems and validate changes.