Guaranteeing Soundness of Configurable Process Variants in Provop

Usually, for a particular business process a multitude of variants exists. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a reference process model to specific requirements building the process context. While some progress has been achieved regarding the configuration of process variants, there exists only little work on how to accomplish this in a sound and efficient manner, especially when considering the large number of process variants that exist in practice as well as the many syntactical and semantical constraints they have to obey. In this paper we discuss advanced concepts for the context- and constraint-based configuration of process variants, and show how they can be utilized to ensure soundness of the configured process variants. Enhancing process-aware information systems with the capability to easily configure sound process models, belonging to the same process family and fitting to the given application context, will enable a new quality in engineering process-aware information systems

Issues in Modeling Process Variants with Provop

For a particular business process, typically, different variants exist. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a basic process (e.g. a reference process) to specific requirements building the process context. Contemporary business process management (BPM) tools, however, do not adequately support the modeling and management of process variants. Either the variants have to be specified by separate process models or they are expressed in terms of conditional branches within the same process model. Both methods can lead to high model redundancies, which make model adaptations a time consuming and error-prone task. In this paper we discuss advanced modeling concepts of our Provop approach, which provides a flexible and powerful solution for modeling and managing process variants. With Provop, a particular process variant can be configured at a high level of abstraction by applying a set of well-defined change operations to a basic process model

Correct Configuration of Process Variants in Provop

When engineering process-aware information systems (PAISs) one of the fundamental challenges is to cope with the variability of business processes. While some progress has been achieved regarding the configuration of process variants, there exists only little work on how to accomplish this in a correct manner. Configuring process variants constitutes a non-trivial challenge when considering the large number of process variants that exist in practice as well as the many syntactical and semantical constraints a configured process variant has to obey in a given context. In previous work we introduced the Provop approach for configuring and managing process variants. This paper picks up the Provop framework and shows how it ensures correctness of configurable process variants by construction. We discuss advanced concepts for the context- and constraint-based configuration of process variants, and show how they can be utilized to ensure correctness of the configured process variants. In this paper we also consider correctness issues in conjunction with dynamic variant re-configurations. Enhancing PAISs with the capability to correctly configure process models fitting to the given application context, and to correctly manage the resulting process variants afterwards, will enable a new quality in PAIS engineering

Lifecycle Management for Business Process Variants

This chapter deals with advanced concepts for the configuration and management of business process variants. Typically, for a particular business process, different variants exist. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a master process (e.g., a reference process) to specific requirements building the process context. Contemporary Business Process Management tools do not adequately support the modeling and management of such process variants. Either the variants have to be specified in separate process models or they are expressed in terms of conditional branches within the same process model. Both methods can result in high model redundancies, which make model adaptations a time-consuming and error-prone task. In this chapter, we discuss advanced concepts of our Provop approach, which provides a flexible and powerful solution for managing business process variants along their lifecycle. Such variant support will foster more systematic process configuration as well as process maintenance

Configuration and Management of Process Variants

This chapter deals with advanced concepts for the configuration and management of business process variants. Typically, for a particular business process, different variants exist. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a master process (e.g., a reference process) to specific requirements building the process context. Contemporary business process management tools do not adequately support the modeling and management of such process variants. Either the variants have to be specified in separate process models or they are expressed in terms of conditional branches within the same process model. Both methods can result in high model redundancies, which make model adaptations a time-consuming and error-prone task. In this chapter we discuss advanced concepts of our Provop approach, which provides a flexible and powerful solution for managing business process variants along their lifecycle. Such variant support will foster more systematic process configuration as well as process maintenance

Capturing Variability in Business Process Models: The Provop Approach

Usually, for a particular business process different variants exist. Each of them constitutes an adjustment of a reference process model to specific requirements building the process context. Contemporary process management tools do not adequately support the modeling of such process variants. Either the variants have to be specified as separate process models or they are expressed in terms of conditional branches within the same process model. Both methods often lead to redundancies making model adaptations a time consuming and error-prone task. In this paper we discuss selected concepts of the Provop approach for modeling and managing process variants. A particular process variant can be configured at a high level of abstraction by applying a set of well-defined change operations to a reference process model. In particular, this paper discusses advanced concepts for the design and modeling of such a reference process model as well as for the adjustments required to configure the different process variants. Altogether, Provop provides a flexible and powerful solution for process variant management

Context-based Configuration of Process Variants

When designing process-aware information systems, usually, variants of the same process type have to be defined and maintained. Each of these process variants constitutes an adjustment of the same process to specific requirements building the variant context. Current business process management tools do not support the context-based definition and configuration of such variants in an adequate manner. Instead, each process variant has to be defined from scratch and be kept in a separate model. This results in considerable redundancies when modeling and adapting process variants, and is also a time consuming and error-prone procedure. This paper presents a more flexible and context-based approach for configuring and managing process variants. In particular, we allow for the configuration of process variants by applying a context-dependent set of well-defined change operations to a base process

Anforderungen an die Modellierung und Ausführung von Prozessvarianten

Die Modellierung von Geschäftsprozessen sowie deren Ausführung mittels Workflow-Management-Systemen (WfMS) bilden zentrale Aufgaben bei der Realisierung prozessorientierter Informationssysteme. In der Praxis hat sich gezeigt, dass ein Prozesstyp oftmals in zahlreichen Varianten auftritt, die Anpassungen an bestimmte Rahmenbedingungen darstellen. Die adäquate Modellierung und Ausführung solcher Prozessvarianten stellt eine große Herausforderung dar, der heutige Geschäftsprozessmodellierungswerkzeuge und WfMS bei weitem nicht gerecht werden. Diese ermöglichen lediglich das Ausmodellieren aller Prozessvarianten in separaten Prozessmodellen, wodurch ein hoher Wartungsaufwand resultiert: Werden Prozessanpassungen erforderlich, sind meist mehrere Varianten betroffen und deshalb mehrere Prozessmodelle anzupassen. Dies wiederum führt schnell zu Inkonsistenzen. Um dies zu vermeiden, sollten Varianten in einem Prozessmodell modelliert und explizit als Varianten gekennzeichnet werden. Weitergehend sollte während der Ausführung solcher variantenbehafteter Prozesse flexibel auf veränderte Rahmenbedingungen reagiert werden können, z.B. indem dynamisch zwischen Prozessvarianten gewechselt wird. Dieser Beitrag untersucht Anforderungen an die Modellierung und Ausführung von variantenbehafteten Prozessen und skizziert Lösungsideen

Modellierung und Darstellung von Prozessvarianten in Provop

Die Praxis hat gezeigt, dass man es bei der Modellierung von Prozessen oftmals mit zahlreichen Varianten zu tun hat. Jede Prozessvariante stellt dabei eine Anpassung an bestimmte Rahmenbedingungen dar. Heutige Modellierungswerkzeuge ermöglichen lediglich das Ausmodellieren von Prozessvarianten in separaten Prozessmodellen, woraus ein hoher Wartungsaufwand resultiert: Werden z.B. grundlegende Prozessanpassungen erforderlich (z.B. infolge gesetzlicher Änderungen), sind meist mehrere Varianten betroffen und deshalb bei diesem Ansatz auch mehrere Prozessmodelle anzupassen. Dies wiederum führt schnell zu Inkonsistenzen oder Fehlern. Der vorliegende Beitrag greift diese Problemstellungen auf. Er stellt den Provop-Lösungsansatz zur Modellierung mehrerer Prozessvarianten in einem Prozessmodell, mit expliziter Kennzeichnung der verschiedenen Varianten, vor. Damit lassen sich die Aufwände für die Modellierung und Wartung von Prozessvarianten signifikant reduzieren sowie Inkonsistenzen bei der Anpassung von Varianten vermeiden

Ameloblastic Fibrosarcoma: Clinicopathological and Molecular Analysis of 7 Cases Highlighting Frequent BRAF and Occasional NRAS Mutations

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