业务流程的时延预测队列挖掘方法

过程挖掘是针对流程信息系统所记录下的日志进行分析,将业务流程真实过程还原的技术。目前已有的方法多是基于控制流与数据流的观点,针对任务运行状态的,无时延的业务过程进行挖掘。但在挖掘存在多任务的有时延的业务进程方面,目前的方法存在一定局限性。提出基于队列挖掘优化过程模型的方法,首先利用现有的基于过程挖掘的方法,挖掘业务流程的初始模型。再运用队列挖掘的观点对特定的顾客进行时延预测,挖掘出顾客的行为信息,以此对初始流程模型进行优化。最后通过实例验证了所提出的优化挖掘方法的有效性,优化后的流程模型不仅对事件日志有很好的重放效果,并且能够反应出多类别的,且存在时延的业务流程中任务的行为信息。     

Industrial application integration using the unification approach to agent-enabled semantic SOA

Within the enterprise, information infrastructure as the mean to bring together different software applications is the key component to enable cooperation and information and knowledge exchange in an open-distributed environment. The paper addresses the issues of industrial application integration in business processes using agent-enabled service-oriented architectures (SOA). In this paper, we show that agent-enabled SOA can play an important role for service integration. Our framework combines Web services (WS) and intelligent agent technologies orchestrated by a business process management system. This framework looks for unification of agent and WS service models, is grounded in a semantic SOA of an agent platform and is supported by the Component Agent Platform Over .NET Framework agent platform tools. We describe the architecture and illustrate the approach by an industrial application scenario from petroleum wells’ drilling.     

A complete approach for CIM modelling and model formalising

ContextComputation Independent Model (CIM) as a business model describes the requirements and environment of a business system and instructs the designing and development; it is a key to influencing software success. Although many studies currently focus on model driven development (MDD); those researches, to a large extent, study the PIM-level and PSM-level model, and few have dealt with CIM-level modelling for case in which the requirements are unclear or incomplete.ObjectiveThis paper proposes a CIM-level modelling approach, which applies a stepwise refinement approach to modelling the CIM-level model starting from a high-level goal model to a lower-level business process model. A key advantage of our approach is the combination of the requirement model with the business model, which helps software engineers to define business models exactly for cases in which the requirements are unclear or incomplete.MethodThis paper, based on the model driven approach, proposes a set of models at the CIM-level and model transformations to connect these models. Accordingly, the formalisation approach of this paper involves formalising the goal model using the category theory and the scenario model and business process model using Petri nets.ResultsWe have defined a set of metamodels and transformation rules making it possible to obtain automatically a scenario model from the goal model and a business process model from the scenario model. At the same time, we have defined a mapping rule to formalise these models. Our proposed CIM modelling approach and formalisation approach are implemented with an MDA tool, and it has been empirically validated by a travel agency case study.ConclusionThis study shows how a CIM modelling approach helps to build a complete and consistent model at the CIM level for cases in which the requirements are unclear or incomplete in advance.     

Integrated model-driven dashboard development

Business performance modeling and model-driven business transformation are two research directions that are attracting much attention lately. In this study, we propose an approach for dashboard development that is model-driven and can be integrated with the business performance models. We adopt the business performance modeling framework, and we extend it in order to capture the reporting aspect of the business operation. We describe models that can effectively represent all the elements necessary for the business performance reporting process, and the interactions among them. We demonstrate how all these models can be combined and automatically generate the final solution. We further extend the proposed framework with mechanisms that can detect changes in the models and incrementally update the deployed solutions. Finally, we discuss our experience from the application of our technique in a real-world scenario. This case study shows that our technique can be efficiently applied to and handle changes in the underlying business models, delivering significant benefits in terms of both development time and flexibility.     

SOA中业务服务粒度与流程柔性的关系研究

SOA是以提高流程柔性为基本目标的IT架构方法,业务服务粒度在SOA项目中起着关键的作用,该文研究目的在于解释业务服务粒度与流程柔性间的基本关系。首先分析了SOA环境下业务流程的范围柔性和响应柔性两个关键维度并给出定义;基于服务元素和流程协调的研究给出了这两个维度的量化计算方法;构建了业务服务粒度的分析模型并进行量化分析。结果表明SOA环境下随着业务服务平均粒度的增大,流程的范围柔性将逐渐减小,流程的响应柔性将逐渐增大,而流程的整体柔性度将先逐渐增长,达到一定的程度后再逐渐下降。     

Design principles for process modelling in enterprise application integration

There is a growing need for Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies, which align the applications of an organisation to its business processes. Such technologies require an adequate methodological support so that well-structured and easily understandable models can be constructed. In this paper, such a methodological support is proposed by introducing principles for the design, validation and presentation of process models and associated data models. By applying these principles, we obtain different views of the models, and thereby facilitate the use of common models for different stakeholders, e.g. business managers, designers and operators.     

Non-functional properties in the model-driven development of service-oriented systems

Systems based on the service-oriented architecture (SOA) principles have become an important cornerstone of the development of enterprise-scale software applications. They are characterized by separating functions into distinct software units, called services, which can be published, requested and dynamically combined in the production of business applications. Service-oriented systems (SOSs) promise high flexibility, improved maintainability, and simple re-use of functionality. Achieving these properties requires an understanding not only of the individual artifacts of the system but also their integration. In this context, non-functional aspects play an important role and should be analyzed and modeled as early as possible in the development cycle. In this paper, we discuss modeling of non-functional aspects of service-oriented systems, and the use of these models for analysis and deployment. Our contribution in this paper is threefold. First, we show how services and service compositions may be modeled in UML by using a profile for SOA (UML4SOA) and how non-functional properties of service-oriented systems can be represented using the non-functional extension of UML4SOA (UML4SOA-NFP) and the MARTE profile. This enables modeling of performance, security and reliable messaging. Second, we discuss formal analysis of models which respect this design, in particular we consider performance estimates and reliability analysis using the stochastically timed process algebra PEPA as the underlying analytical engine. Last but not least, our models are the source for the application of deployment mechanisms which comprise model-to-model and model-to-text transformations implemented in the framework VIATRA. All techniques presented in this work are illustrated by a running example from an eUniversity case study.     

WSDL and BPEL extensions for Event Driven Architecture

ContextService Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Event Driven Architecture (EDA) are two acknowledged architectures for the development of business applications and information systems, which have evolved separately over the years.ObjectiveThis paper proposes a solution for extending the SOA/Web Services Platform Architecture (WSPA) with support for business events and EDA concepts. Our solution enables services to act as event producers and event consumers. It also enables event-driven service orchestrations in business processes.MethodBased on a comparison of SOA and EDA, we have identified and designed the required extensions to enable support for events and event-driven process orchestration in WSPA.ResultsWe propose specific extensions to WSDL and BPEL, and a flexible XML representation of the event payload data. We introduce event sinks, sources, and triggers to WSDL. We extend BPEL with new activities to trigger and catch events, and extend fault and event handlers, variables, and correlation properties to accommodate events.ConclusionAs a proof-of-concept, we have developed a prototype implementation and assessed the extensions on three pilot projects. We have shown that our proposed extensions work on real projects and that combining event-driven and service-oriented semantics makes sense in many business applications and can considerably reduce the development effort.     

模型驱动的业务流程建模工具

业务流程管理与面向服务架构为企业的高效整合提供了解决方案。基于模型驱动开发理论,提出一个精炼的业务流程元模型,解决模型间的转换问题,探讨模型实例控制流结构和语义的校验方法,根据模型驱动架构设计并实现基于该元模型的流程建模工具。     

流程树切挖掘业务流程隐变迁的方法

隐变迁是指存在于事件日志中的不频繁行为,从流程模型中挖掘出隐变迁,提高流程运行效率和服务质量显得尤为重要。已有的方法大部分基于业务流程序列进行分析,但很少考虑跨序列间的关系,因此对挖掘业务流程隐变迁有一定的影响。提出流程树切挖掘业务流程隐变迁的方法,首先根据发生频数较高的日志序列得到初始模型,再根据流程树切预处理事件日志,把日志活动关系与初始模型关系进行对比,找到存在变化的区域,挖掘可能存在的隐变迁,通过评价指标判定带隐变迁的模型是最优模型,最后实例分析验证该方法的有效性。     

基于数据中心集成开发技术的动静脉矿业信息系统研究

在动脉矿业基础上发展静脉矿业,形成配套完整的良性循环体系,需要利用先进的地理信息系统(GIS)技术对动静脉矿业进行一体化管理。针对传统软件开发模式设计矿业管理信息系统普遍存在的一些问题,本文提出采用面向服务架构(SOA)的数据中心集成开发技术设计动静脉矿业信息系统的新构想,在分析了数据中心集成开发技术和搭建式、配置式、插件式三种开发模式的基础上,形成了以原型法设计系统,以数据中心集成开发技术进行动静脉矿业信息系统开发的思想,并在此思想指导下,设计了动静脉矿业信息系统的悬浮倒挂式体系架构和数据管理、三维显示、空间分析、决策支持等松散耦合的功能模块。     

从EDOC的业务过程建模到J2EE应用程序框架的MDA转换

OMG（Object Management Group，对象管理组织）提出的模型驱动架构（MDA，Model Driven Architecture）是解决不同中间件平台之间的集成以及技术升级所引起的问题的软件开发方法。MDA的基本思想是将系统的模型作为软件开发过程的核心制品，并且将模型区分为描述系统业务功能的平台独立模型（PIM，Platform Independent Model）和描述系统在特定技术平台上实现细节的平台相关模型（PSM，Platform Specific Model）。模型转换是MDA开发的核心内客。MDA的开发效率依赖于良好的支撑工具，特别是支持模型转换的工具的涌现。本文介绍一种对业务过程建模并将模型转换成程序代码的设计恩想和实现方法。开发者可以用该工具对企业的业务过程建模。这个工具能将建立的模型自动转换成J2EE平台上的程序代码。     

Redesigning business processes: a methodology based on simulation and process mining techniques

Nowadays, organizations have to adjust their business processes along with the changing environment in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Changing a part of the system to support the business process implies changing the entire system, which leads to complex redesign activities. In this paper, a bottom-up process mining and simulation-based methodology is proposed to be employed in redesign activities. The methodology starts with identifying relevant performance issues, which are used as basis for redesign. A process model is “mined” and simulated as a representation of the existing situation, followed by the simulation of the redesigned process model as prediction of the future scenario. Finally, the performance criteria of the current business process model and the redesigned business process model are compared such that the potential performance gains of the redesign can be predicted. We illustrate the methodology with three case studies from three different domains: gas industry, government institution and agriculture.     

带数据流的面向服务的业务流程模型变化传播Petri网方法

为了灵活适应不断变化的业务需求,需要对流程模型进行调整。在业务逻辑整合过程中,业务逻辑可能发生变化,因此对业务变化及其传播进行分析是十分关键的。已有的研究方法主要基于控制流结构来分析和研究业务的变化域和变化传播问题,忽略了模型所含数据和服务结构的信息。文中对带数据信息的面向服务业务流程模型的变化传播方法和变化域定位进行分析和研究,主要关注服务层和流程层之间的变化传播问题。首先, 分析 流程层(服务层)的变化操作给模型的服务层(流程层)带来的变化影响范围,并分别提出了服务层变化传播算法(Service Layer Change Propagation Algorithm,SLCPA)和流程层变化传播算法(Process Layer Change Propagation Algorithm,PLCPA)。最后,通过一个具体的实例证明了所提方法的可行性和有效性。     

Intelligent security and access control framework for service-oriented architecture

One of the most significant difficulties with developing Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) involves meeting its security challenges, since the responsibilities of SOA security are based on both the service providers and the consumers. In recent years, many solutions to these challenges have been implemented, such as the Web Services Security Standards, including WS-Security and WS-Policy. However, those standards are insufficient for the new generation of Web technologies, including Web 2.0 applications. In this research, we propose an intelligent SOA security framework by introducing its two most promising services: the Authentication and Security Service (NSS), and the Authorization Service (AS). The suggested autonomic and reusable services are constructed as an extension of WS-¹ security standards, with the addition of intelligent mining techniques, in order to improve performance and effectiveness. In this research, we apply three different mining techniques: the Association Rules, which helps to predict attacks, the Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Cube, for authorization, and clustering mining algorithms, which facilitate access control rights representation and automation. Furthermore, a case study is explored to depict the behavior of the proposed services inside an SOA business environment. We believe that this work is a significant step towards achieving dynamic SOA security that automatically controls the access to new versions of Web applications, including analyzing and dropping suspicious SOAP messages and automatically managing authorization roles.     

Literature review of reuse in business process modeling

Business process models play an important role in the analysis and improvement of the performance of an enterprise. Evidently, the quality of a business process model has a direct effect on the business performance. This evidence has motivated both the academic and industrial communities to look for suitable methods for creating good quality business process models. In particular, there is a wide agreement that reuse can accelerate the design process and produce high quality solutions by adopting best practices and agreed-up-on solutions. However, faced with various types of reusable artifacts, business process designers need a set of criteria to determine which type would suit best their needs and design context. To assist designers in their choice, we first present a set of criteria influencing the design phase in terms of effort required and the quality of the resulting model. Secondly, we use this set of criteria to present a state of the art on the most significant reusable design artifacts.     

一种基于SOA和JBPM的工作流引擎模型

工作流技术是实现业务流程自动化的关键技术,但现有的工作流技术已不能满足目前分布式异构和松散耦合的企业信息资源需求。利用SOA技术,结合JBPM,提出了一种基于SOA和JBPM的工作流引擎模型,并对其流程控制与任务管理进行了分析,最后,基于SOAP、WSDL协议和JPDL实现了此工作流引擎,证明了其有效性。