Konzepte, Architektur und Implementierung adaptiver Prozessmanagementsysteme

Prozessmanagementsysteme (PrMS) besitzen erhebliches Potential: Betriebliche Abläufe werden in Form von Prozessmodellen explizit repräsentiert und durch eine mächtige Laufzeitumgebung ausgeführt. Die aktive Steuerung und Überwachung macht die Abläufe transparent und jederzeit nachvollziehbar. Wissenschaftlich fundierte Konzepte, wie Korrektheitskriterien für Prozesse und deren Anwendung zur Modellier- und Ausführungszeit, vereinfachen die Umsetzung der Abläufe, erhöhen die Robustheit und verringern den Testaufwand im Vergleich zu herkömmlicher Softwareentwicklung. Trotz dieses Potentials werden PrMS im Vergleich zu Datenbankmanagementsystemen (DMBS) bisher jedoch kaum genutzt. Dies liegt nicht zuletzt daran, dass wenig fundierte Systemarchitekturen die Praxistauglichkeit von PrMS stark einschränken. Dennoch ist die Architektur von PrMS im Gegensatz zu DBMS bisher kaum Forschungsgegenstand. Obwohl es für PrMS zu DBMS vergleichbare wissenschaftliche Konzepte gibt, etwa Prozessmetamodelle mit klar definierter Ausführungssemantik, fehlen Untersuchungen der technischen Umsetzung, realitätsnahe Implementierungen der Konzepte sowie Diskussionen zu deren Integration in reale Systemarchitekturen. Die vorliegende Arbeit leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag, diese Lücke zwischen wissenschaftlichen Konzepten und umfassender Implementierung zu schließen. Aufbauend auf funktionalen und nicht-funktionalen Anforderungen werden innovative technische Konzepte für die Implementierung eines PrMS entwickelt, im Detail untersucht und evaluiert. Dabei werden insbesondere auch Abhängigkeiten zwischen verschiedenen Anforderungen und technischen Konzepten berücksichtigt. Eine im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelte Systemarchitektur eines adaptiven PrMS integriert die technischen Konzepte. Eine umfassende Machbarkeitsimplementierung validiert die Architektur und die entwickelten Konzepte im praktischen Einsatz

Second-Order Approximation of Limit Order Books in a Single-Scale Regime

We establish a first and second-order approximation for an infinite dimensional limit order book model (LOB) in a single (''critical'') scaling regime where market and limit orders arrive at a common time scale. With our choice of scaling we obtain non-degenerate first-order and second-order approximations for the price and volume dynamics. While the first-order approximation is given by a standard coupled ODE-PDE system, the second-order approximation is non-standard and described in terms of an infinite-dimensional stochastic evolution equation driven by a cylindrical Brownian motion. The driving noise processes exhibit a non-trivial correlation in terms of the model parameters. We prove that the evolution equation has a unique solution and that the sequence of standardized LOB models converges weakly to the solution of the evolution equation. The proof uses a non-standard martingale problem. We calibrate a simplified version of our model to market data and show that the model accurately captures correlations between price and volume fluctuations

On Representing, Purging, and Utilizing Change Logs in Process Management Systems

In recent years adaptive process management technolgy has emerged in order to increase the flexibility of business process implementations and to support process changes at different levels. Usually, respective systems log comprehensive information about changes, which can then be used for different purposes including process traceability, change reuse and process recovery. Therefore the adequate and efficient representation of change logs is a crucial task for adaptive process management systems. In this paper we show which information has to be (minimally) captured in process change logs and how it should be represented in a generic and efficient way. We discuss different design alternatives and show how to deal with noise in process change logs. Finally, we present an elegant and efficient implementation approach, which we applied in the ADEPT2 process management system. Altogether the presented concepts provide an important pillar for adaptive process management technology and emerging fields (e.g., process change mining)

Enabling Process Support for Advanced Applications with the AristaFlow BPM Suite

A process-aware information system (PAIS) will be not accepted by end users if its software clients do not support their native workflows or are too complex for them. When implementing business processes based on process management technology important issues are, therefore, how end-users can participate in the execution of the processes and how this can be accomplished as intuitively as possible. This becomes extremely important if high flexibility demands need to be fullled during process execution, while PAIS robustness and error safety need to be assured. In this software demonstration we show how the AristaFlow BPM Suite - an adaptive process management system developed by us - was applied to challenging applications in domains like healthcare, logistics, disaster management, and software development. The implementation of adaptive software clients in these different applications particularly proves the benefits provided by an open application programming interface (API) as offered by AristaFlow

Towards Flexible Process Support on Mobile Devices

Ubiquitous computing is considered as enabler for linking everyday life with information and communication technology. However, developing pervasive and mobile applications that provide personalized user assistance still constitutes a challenge. Mobile application scenarios are diverse and encompass domains like healthcare, logistics, and sales. For their support two fundamental technologies with increasing maturity are emerging: development frameworks for mobile devices and light-weight process engines. Their integrated use, however, is in a rather premature state. Generally, the use of a process engine for supporting mobile collaboration raises many challenging issues. This paper picks up some of these challenges and shows how we have coped with them in the MARPLE project. MARPLE targets at a tight integration of process management technology with mobile computing frameworks in order to enable mobile process support in advanced application scenarios. We give insights into the MARPLE architecture and its components.In particular, we introduce the MARPLE process engine, which enables light-weight as well as flexible process support on mobile devices. This will be key for mobile user assistance in advanced application scenarios

Speichereffiziente Repräsentation instanzspezifischer Änderungen in Prozess-Management-Systemen

Neben Funktionen für die Steuerung und Verwaltung von Prozessen muss ein Prozess-Management-System (PMS) auch eine gewisse Flexibilität für Endbenutzer bieten. So sollte es beispielsweise möglich sein, zur Laufzeit fallspezifisch und flexibel vom vordefinierten Prozess abzuweichen, d. h. die betreffende Prozessinstanz strukturell zu modifizieren. Entsprechende Ad-hoc-Änderungen dürfen jedoch weder zu Lasten der Robustheit des PMS noch auf Kosten der Systemperformanz gehen, insbesondere wenn eine große Zahl von Instanzen verwaltet werden muss. Robustheitsaspekte im Zusammenhang mit der Unterstützung von Flexibilität des PMS sind bereits in mehreren Arbeiten theoretisch untersucht worden. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir, wie Flexibilität in Prozess-Management-Systemen systemintern realisiert werden kann und wie dies möglichst performant bewerkstelligbar ist. Dazu diskutieren wir verschiedene Realisierungskonzepte sowie einige Implementierungsvarianten für Änderungen auf Prozessen und bewerten diese sowohl qualitativ als auch quantitativ. Eine der vorgestellten Implementierungsvarianten ist aktuell im ADEPT2-PMS umgesetzt

Next-generation Process Management with ADEPT2

Short time-to-market, easy adaptation to changes in business environment, and robustness of processes are key requirements in today’s business world. In the IT area of Business Process Management (BPM), solutions claim to satisfy these new demands, but are still not sufficient.\ud In this paper we present a short overview on how these challenges are tackled by the ADEPT and AristaFlow projects and demonstrate a prototypical implementation

On Representing Instance Changes in Adaptive Process Management Systems

By separating the process logic from the application code process management systems (PMS) offer promising perspectives for automation and management of business processes. However, the added value of PMS strongly depends on their ability to support business process changes which can affect the process type as well as the process instance level. This does not only impose challenging conceptual issues (e.g., correctness of process schemata after changes) but also requires sophisticated implementation concepts with respect to efficient algorithms, flexible architectures, and reasonable treatment of resources. In this paper we sketch the general implementation concepts for representing process type and process instance data as well as for realizating process schema evolution. All these concepts have been developed and are currently implemented in the ADEPT2 prototype within the AristaFlow project