Managing context in business process management systems

Businesses need to continuously focus on change and innovation in order to survive in dynamic environments. The ability of an organization to deploy appropriate business processes requires that the fit between business processes and systems that support the management of these processes is continuously maintained and evolved. Acquisition and use of the knowledge about the context in which business processes are defined, modified, and implemented can help maintain this fit. We identify requirements for a business process management system (BPMS) capable of managing contextual knowledge. Based on these requirements, we have enhanced KOPeR, a knowledge-based system for business process improvement, with an explanation facility that can acquire and maintain knowledge about the context behind process definitions and design choices. A case study that illustrates the functionalities of this system which is designed to improve the fit between business processes and BPMS is presented.

Measures and mechanisms for process monitoring in evolving business networks

The literature on monitoring of cross-organizational processes, executed within business networks, considers monitoring only in the network formation phase, since network establishment determines what can be monitored during process execution. In particular, the impact of evolution in such networks on monitoring is not considered. When a business network evolves, e.g. contracts are introduced, updated, or dropped, or actors join or leave the network, the monitoring requirements of the network actors change as well. As a result, the monitorability of processes in the network may be disrupted. This paper proposes a framework to solve the problem of preserving the monitorability of processes in an evolving business network. We first propose a formal model of business networks, contracts, and monitoring requirements. Then, we model network evolution and the mechanisms to preserve the monitorability of the processes in the network for different types of evolution. In particular, the preservation of monitorability requires the actors in the network to take appropriate actions in case of dependencies between already established contracts, and update their monitoring infrastructure to satisfy the new monitoring requirements introduced by evolution. We also define a set of metrics that can be used for supporting decisions regarding the potential evolution of a business network. A case study in healthcare and the discussion of a prototype implementation show the applicability of our framework in real-world scenarios.     

A conceptual framework for understanding business processes and business process modelling

It is increasingly common to describe organizations as sets of business processes that can be analysed and improved by approaches such as business process modelling. Successful business process modelling relies on an adequate view of the nature of business processes, but there is a surprising divergence of opinion about the nature of these processes. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to organize different views of business processes under four headings. It also aims at providing an integrated discussion of the different streams of thought, their strengths and limitations, within business process modelling. It argues that the multifaceted nature of business processes calls for pluralistic and multidisciplinary modelling approaches.     

Using a business process management system to model dynamic teaching methods

Enterprise Information Systems are enjoying an extensive trajectory in the optimization of organizations worldwide, of which predominantly the Business Process Management (BPM) systems stand out for their great flexibility. BPM models describe business workflows and are highly useful in detecting errors and bottlenecks and in identifying possible improvements. On the other hand, educational management software tools offer a large number of functionalities, but have yet to take advantage of these techniques. Our main objective is to perform an empirical analysis in this unexplored area to evaluate the advantages of applying BPM in the implementation of innovative and dynamic teaching activities.Using this methodology, we have designed RubricaSoft, a BPM system focused on providing dynamic educational processes. It automates multiple tasks, including peer evaluation, information integration and the management of deadlines. The results have been very promising from the point of view of the three axes upon which the evaluation has been carried out: satisfaction of students, improvement in academic results and increase in the productivity of teachers. In one of the processes, the time spent by the teacher has been reduced by 80% and student participation increased by 41%.     

Modelling families of business process variants: A decomposition driven method

Business processes usually do not exist as singular entities that can be managed in isolation, but rather as families of business process variants. When modelling such families of variants, analysts are confronted with the choice between modelling each variant separately, or modelling multiple or all variants in a single model. Modelling each variant separately leads to a proliferation of models that share common parts, resulting in redundancies and inconsistencies. Meanwhile, modelling all variants together leads to less but more complex models, thus hindering on comprehensibility. This paper introduces a method for modelling families of process variants that addresses this trade-off. The key tenet of the method is to alternate between steps of decomposition (breaking down processes into sub-processes) and deciding which parts should be modelled together and which ones should be modelled separately. We have applied the method to two case studies: one concerning the consolidation of existing process models, and another dealing with green-field process discovery. In both cases, the method produced fewer models with respect to the baseline and reduced duplicity by up to 50% without significant impact on complexity.     

A visual language and environment for enterprise system modelling and automation

ObjectiveWe want to support enterprise service modelling and generation using a more end user-friendly metaphor than current approaches, which fail to scale to large organisations with key issues of “cobweb” and “labyrinth” problems and large numbers of hidden dependencies.MethodWe present and evaluate an integrated visual approach for business process modelling using a novel tree-based overlay structure that effectively mitigate complexity problems. A tree-overlay based visual notation (EML) and its integrated support environment (MaramaEML) supplement and integrate with existing solutions. Complex business architectures are represented as service trees and business processes are modelled as process overlay sequences on the service trees.ResultsMaramaEML integrates EML and BPMN to provide complementary, high-level business service modelling and supports automatic BPEL code generation from the graphical representations to realise web services implementing the specified processes. It facilitates generated service validation using an integrated LTSA checker and provides a distortion-based fisheye and zooming function to enhance complex diagram navigation. Evaluations of EML show its effectiveness.ConclusionsWe have successfully developed and evaluated a novel tree-based metaphor for business process modelling and enterprise service generation. Practice implications: a more user-friendly modelling approach and support tool for business end users.     

Version management for business process schema evolution

The current business environment changes rapidly, dictated by user requirements and market opportunities. Organisations are therefore driven to continuously adapt their business processes to new conditions. Thus, management of business process schema evolution, particularly process version control, is in great demand to capture the dynamics of business process schema changes. This paper aims to facilitate version control for business process schema evolution, with an emphasis on version compatibility, co-existence of multiple versions and dynamic version shifts. A multi-level versioning approach is established to specify dependency between business process schema evolutions, and a novel version preserving graph model is proposed to record business process schema evolutions. A set of business process schema updating operations is devised to support the entire set of process change patterns. By maintaining sufficient and necessary schema and version information, our approach provides comprehensive support for navigating process instance executions of different and changing versions, and deriving the process schema of a certain version. A prototype is also implemented for the proof-of-concept purpose.     

Business process management—the third wave: business process modelling language (bpml) and its pi-calculus foundations

This paper introduces the ideas behind BPML, the business process modelling language published by BPMI. BPML provides a process-centric (as opposed to a datacentric) metalanguage and execution model for business systems. It is underpinned by a strong mathematical foundation, the pi-calculus. The current paper is derived from supplementary appendices to a book which describes a ‘third wave’ approach to business process management [Business Process Management: The Third Wave, 2003]. The aim is to model business processes directly in an executable form, so that the mobility and mutability inherent in business behaviour is reflected and supported in the corresponding IT systems, erasing the present IT-business divide.     

Communicative action-based business process and information systems modelling with DEMO

Abstract. Abstract. The field of communicative action-based modelling of business processes and information systems has attracted more and more attention in recent years. Inspired by the seminal work of Winograd and Flores, researchers have proposed several modelling approaches. In this article we discuss communicative action-based modelling approaches in general and the DEMO (dynamic essential modelling of organizations) approach in particular. Besides establishing the theoretical foundations of this modelling approach, we also apply DEMO to a case study, and we discuss how the resulting models can be used for information systems design and business process optimization.